Richard Wagner

Few of the great composers can claim a body of work as influential and contentious as Richard Wagner; his life and compositions remain intertwined with the great upheavals of his time, and this often obscures a dispassionate critical assessment of his output.§In Richard Wagner Raymond Furness provides a clear and balanced view of Wagners great achievements, without neglecting the controversies in his life and art. Using the composers wide-ranging engagement with mythology as his starting point, Furness explores Wagners music and extensive literary output. As well as giving the reader a clear insight into The Ring and Wagners other essential works, the book also deals with often-neglected fragments such as Wieland the Smith, The Mines at Falun and The Visitors, providing a more rounded critical picture of a composer whose great operatic works often overshadow the rest of his canon.§Containing up-to-date dissections of recent Bayreuth productions and a refreshingly uncluttered approach to a much-misunderstood life, Furnesss Richard Wagner will engage both those new to the life of the composer, as well as his many life-long devotees.