<\/p>
Wa<\/span><\/strong>gner! The very name conjures up musical images: something vast, shadowy, Germanic, powerful. And up to a point that\u2019s true, but it\u2019s not the whole story.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s light, laughter, the power of nature and, above all, love. In fact, you could say that Wagner<\/a><\/strong>, the ultimate Romantic composer<\/a><\/strong>, is all about nature and love. If his name also evokes fat ladies in horned helmets, or jackbooting squareheads, that\u2019s what others have made of his vision.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> All the same, he remains deeply controversial \u2013 no mean feat for an artist a century and a half after his death. He never called his music-dramas \u2018the music of the future\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s just another Wagner myth \u2013 but they undoubtedly helped create it. It\u2019s been said, rightly, that we owe modern music to Tristan and Isolde<\/i><\/a><\/strong>\u2004(which we named one of the best operas of all time<\/a>)<\/strong> and hardly a composer after him escaped his adventurous musical influence: Strauss<\/a><\/strong>, Sibelius<\/a><\/strong>, Dvo\u03c0\u00e1k<\/a><\/strong>, Rimsky-Korsakov<\/a><\/strong>, Holst<\/a><\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n Debussy<\/a><\/strong>, writing Pell\u00e9as et M\u00e9lisande<\/i>, said that one had to guard against \u2018old Klingsor\u2019, the evil enchanter in Parsifal<\/i>, on every page; but he still ended up quoting that same opera. Most, though, responded like Vaughan Williams<\/a><\/strong>: \u2018a feeling of recognition, as of meeting an old friend\u2026\u2019; or Puccini: \u2018next to Wagner, of course, we\u2019re all mandolin-twangers\u2026\u2019 Even his rival Verdi collected his scores admiringly, and in Falstaff<\/i> affectionately quotes Parsifal<\/i>. Sviatoslav Richter, pianist supreme, remarked \u2018I had three teachers: my professor, my papa, and Wagner.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n BUT Wagner\u2019s music appeals just as directly to non-musicians. Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse<\/a><\/strong>, <\/i>insisted that if his detective\u2019s house was on fire, the first thing he\u2019d save was his Wagner collection. A similarly smitten Cotswolds businessman, Martin Graham, founded his own Wagner festival \u2013 in a converted chicken shed. People often think Wagner sounds like film music, but that\u2019s because he\u2019s influenced it so constantly, from the earliest days to the present; for example, Werner Herzog\u2019s Nosferatu<\/i> and Terrence Malick\u2019s New World<\/i>\u2004borrow the Rhinegold<\/i> prelude\u2019s primeval swirls, and it deeply influenced Hans Zimmer<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Gladiator<\/i>\u2004score.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Nevertheless, for some this extraordinary little German\u2019s enormous creation is anathema, and even unbiased music-lovers can be daunted. Why? Chiefly it\u2019s the fog of myths and misconceptions that surrounds him: that his scale is mere bombast, that he\u2019s unbearably long. Actually, he\u2019s no more grandiose than Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>, Mahler<\/a><\/strong> or Schoenberg<\/a><\/strong>. Operas by Monteverdi<\/a><\/strong>, Handel<\/a><\/strong>, even Mozart<\/a> <\/strong>\u2013 Don Giovanni<\/i><\/a><\/strong> \u2013 aren\u2019t much shorter. Nor the Greek dramatists, Goethe or Shakespeare, Wagner\u2019s dramatic models; and his emotional and intellectual humanity puts him on their level.<\/span><\/p>\n If his operas are long, it\u2019s because there\u2019s so much there \u2013 and the more you get to know them, the shorter they seem. Admittedly more active, human subjects like The Flying Dutchman<\/i><\/a><\/strong> and Die Meistersinger<\/i><\/a><\/strong> are easier going than the more philosophical and psychological Tristan<\/i> and Parsifal<\/i><\/a><\/strong>. But you don\u2019t need to plunge headlong into the latter, as we\u2019ll see.<\/span><\/p>\nHow would you describe Wagner\u2019s music?<\/h2>\n
Why are Wagner operas so long?<\/h2>\n