WAGNERISM in the 21st Century, A Book Review by Dilip Roy

Wagner’s colossal creations such as The Ring Cycle, Tristan and Isolde, Lohengrin and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom and mysticism…writes Dilip Roy

Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and now Wagnerism a 19th-century icon has gone on to achieve a phenomenal cult status in the 21st century.

WAGNERISM: “Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music” is written by an American music scholar Alex Ross and was published in 2021. Ross sudied music at Harvard and writes regularly for The New Yorker magazine, is also a Pulitzer Prize Nominee. This 769 page book reads like an encyclopedia although an encyclopedia on Wagner was published in the bicentenary year 2013 with contributions by various Wagnerian pundits but this book written on an epic scale, superceeds all the previous books written on Wagner.

Ross cleverly disects everry aspects of Wagner’s work his involvment in Art, Politics, Music and Philosophy and clarifies some of the myths associated with Wagner that he was the most antisemite person but according to Ross he was  most liberal of all the artists of the time as a matter of fact Bayreuth’s first conductor was Jewish. Today Wagner is recognized as the most widely influential figure in the history of music today he is the most popular icon the world over including Southeast Asia except India where Western classical music did not make a great deal of impact except the works of Beethoven and Mozart but that too in a Parsee comunity who took European classical music seriously and the product was Mehli Mehta and his now world famous son Zubin Mehta is also a Wagerian. However, Satyajit Ray in his adult life became serious admirer of Western classical music thanks to his Parsee doctor friend who had a wide collection of Western classical music and Ray would be invited regularly at his residence.

Wagner’s colossal creations such as The Ring Cycle, Tristan and Isolde, Lohengrin and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom and mysticism. In Wagnerism Ross restores the the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian and his amirers included artists, intellectuals, philosophers and Nobel Laureates. Wagner’s many sided legacy will remain for a long time to come in my parsonal opinion forever. Wagner will be remembered as the Shakespear of music.

(A Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society Dilip Roy is a Wagner Aficionado)

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