I received a digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This
is a really fascinating, often in-depth look at what Wagner's music has
meant throughout its history. Parts of the book read as a biography of
Richard Wagner, but it's far more a biography of, to put a little
flippantly, the Wagnerian "fandom" both during the composer's life and
long after his death.
The book does a very good job of
presenting the breadth of Wagner's impact in various places, times, and
in different intellectual and political circles--positive and negative.
It doesn't shy away from Wagner's more unpleasant views, or from the
ways his work has been used for ill--but it also presents a complicated,
sometimes apparently contradictory Richard Wagner who cannot so easily
be dismissed as any one thing and whose work has influenced countless
others.
I did not know very much about Wagnerian opera going
into this book. I knew the general themes and basic outline of parts of
the Ring cycle, Tannhäuser, etc.; like anyone, I can recognize the Ride
of the Valkyries and, though I didn't know what it came from, the Bridal
Chorus from Lohengrin. I've had a recording of Tannhäuser on my iPod
for years but I'm not sure I've ever listened to it in full. I've come
out of reading this book with a much greater appreciation for the
wide-ranging impact of Wagner's work--I had never realized just how much
of an impact he had on so many other artists, or how many different
things his work has meant to different groups of people.
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