Being Wagner: The Story of the Most Provocative Composer Who Ever Lived
Categories: Kindle Store, Kindle eBooks, History

Simon Callow, the celebrated author of Orson Welles , delivers a dazzling, swift, and accessible biography of the musical titan Richard Wagner and his profoundly problematic legacy--a fresh take for seasoned acolytes and the perfect introduction for new fans. Richard Wagner&apos;s music dramas have never been more popular or more divisive. His ten masterpieces, created against the backdrop of a continent in severe political and cultural upheaval, constitute an unmatched body of work. A man who spent most of his life in abject poverty, inspiring both critical derision and hysterical hero-worship, Wagner was a walking contradiction: belligerent, flirtatious, disciplined, capricious, demanding, visionary, and poisonously anti-Semitic. Acclaimed biographer Simon Callow evokes the intellectual and artistic climate in which Wagner lived and takes us through his most iconic works, from his pivotal successes in The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin , to the musical paradigm shift contained in Tristan and Isolde , to the apogee of his achievements in The Ring of the Nibelung and Parsifal , which debuted at Bayreuth shortly before his death. Being Wagner brings to life this towering figure, creator of the most sublime and most controversial body of work ever known.


Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (February 6, 2018)
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Language: English
File size: 21731 KB
Text to Speech: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced typesetting: Enabled
X Ray: Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Sticky notes: On Kindle Scribe
Print length: 246 pages
Page numbers source ISBN: 0008105693