Richard Wagner was, and still is today, arguably the most controversial figure in classical music. A self-appointed deity and hyperdriven genius, Wagner is often considered the ultimate megalomaniac.

“It can’t be helped: one must first become a Wagnerian.” In this pithy, knowing phrase, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche summed up the immense influence that the composer Richard Wagner exerted not ...

In Germany, every crop-haired infant Siegfried, every pig-tailed little Brünnhilde counts Richard Wagner one of Nazidom’s special heroes. Composer Wagner not only glorified pagan German gods and ...

You cannot escape Richard Wagner. If this review has reached you, anywhere in the world and by whatever means, you have already had your life affected in some way by a 19th-century megalomaniacal ...

Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music. By Alex Ross.Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 784 pages; $40. Fourth Estate; £30. HITLER CASTS as long a shadow over Richard Wagner as Wagner casts over ...

They Did Not Die in Vain: Venezuela and the Dream of Cuban Exiles Will Assisted Suicide Coupled with Organ Harvesting Come to the U.S.? When America Starts to Get a Little Motion Ten Quick Thoughts on ...

A survey at Oper Leipzig provides an opportunity to reassess the youthful efforts that have been excluded from the composer’s canon. By Joshua Barone LEIPZIG, Germany — How quickly Richard Wagner ...

Adolf Hitler loved music—especially Wagner. In Mein Kampf, he had written: “My youthful enthusiasm for the Bayreuth master knew no bounds.” The Third Reich, Hitler said, had its foundations in the ...

No callers are identified. No conversations are recorded. No phone records are kept. Now speak clearly and when you are finished say: 'Go ahead'.

Marking the 200th anniversary of the controversial composer's birth, conductor Marin Alsop and friends rethink Wagner in a series of multimedia... Extreme Drama: The Life And Music Of Richard Wagner ...