Wagner: His Life and Music [Book plus 2 CDs]

This book contains 2 CDs of carefully chosen pieces spanning Wagner's life.

Well over a century after Wagner s death, the man and his music are as controversial as ever. Praised for his profound insights into the workings of the human heart, he has also been condemned as a dangerous libertine, a proto-fascist and an arrogant bore. His vast four-part operatic Ring cycle has been elevated as one of the greatest achievements of western culture and dismissed as an unparalleled example of creative megalomania. This book makes no attempt to gloss over the darker sides of Wagner's character, personally or artistically, but argues that the finer aspects of his vision transcend its flaws. It tells the story of an extraordinary life, and charts Wagner's development, from unpromising beginnings, into the creator of some of the most brilliantly innovatory and seductively beautiful music ever composed. And with the words comes the music: 2 CDs of carefully chosen pieces spanning Wagner's compositional life.