Wagner: where to start with his music | The Guardian

The German composer was the most influential musician of his era after Beethoven, reinventing opera and leading the way to musical modernism – yet his music’s association with the Third Reich leaves him with a complex legacy Of all composers, Wagner remains the most controversial. No other classical musician arouses such fanaticism, for and against. Almost all of his important works are operas, a form that he reinvented, and the main ones are written in an unbroken span of music. They are also very long. Continue reading…

The German composer was the most influential musician of his era after Beethoven, reinventing opera and leading the way to musical modernism – yet his music’s association with the Third Reich leaves him with a complex legacy

Of all composers, Wagner remains the most controversial. No other classical musician arouses such fanaticism, for and against. Almost all of his important works are operas, a form that he reinvented, and the main ones are written in an unbroken span of music. They are also very long.

Continue reading…