Picture this: a single composer's towering operas don't just fill concert halls—they ignite debates that ripple through painting, literature, film, and even politics for over a century. That's Richard Wagner for you, and in Wagnerism, Alex Ross cracks open this Pandora's box with the insight only a top New Yorker critic can muster.
Around 1900, Wagnerism swept Europe and America like a cultural tsunami. His massive works—The Ring of the Nibelung's mythic sprawl, Tristan und Isolde's raw passion, Parsifal's mystic depths—pushed boundaries in form, myth, eros, and speculation. Visionaries lined up: Virginia Woolf drew emotional depth from his scores, Thomas Mann wrestled with his ideas in novels, Paul Cézanne echoed his intensity on canvas, Isadora Duncan danced to his rhythms, Luis Buñuel twisted his tales into surreal film. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and early LGBTQ+ advocates found kindred fire in his defiance.
Then came the tragedy: Hitler hijacked Wagner's thunder for Nazi propaganda, staining his name with antisemitism and 'artistic evil' for generations. Ross doesn't shy away—he restores the full, messy picture. A whirlwind of geniuses, nutcases, frauds, and seers battle over Wagner's legacy, from Louis Sullivan's skyscrapers to Philip K. Dick's sci-fi, Theodor Herzl's Zionism to W.E.B. Du Bois's civil rights fire, even Willa Cather's prairies and Coppola's Vietnam apocalypse.
Listen as Ross reads it himself, with Wagner's music snippets bringing the drama alive—those swelling leitmotifs that make your pulse race. It's not defense or attack; it's discovery, showing how art fuels beauty, violence, and everything between. His shadow? Still huge in Marvel flicks and fantasy epics today.
Whether you're commuting, cooking, or chilling, this unabridged audiobook turns mundane moments into mind-expanding journeys. Music buffs get the scores unpacked; history fans trace ideologies; art lovers connect dots across disciplines. Ross's voice—clear, passionate, wry—pulls you in like a great conversation. Around 25 hours of pure intellectual adrenaline, questioning: What does it mean to be 'Wagnerian' now? If you've ever felt a score stir your soul or wondered about art's political punch, this is your listen. A Macmillan Audio gem from Farrar, Straus and Giroux—timeless, urgent, alive.
