Richard Wagner
 

Beyond his absolutely contemptible anti-semitism and associations with Nazism, what are your thoughts on his music, particularly his operas? I've watched Rheingold in full, read the libretti for Walkure, Siegfried, and Flying Dutchman, and I just picked up a vinyl box set of Gotterdammerung yesterday that I'm very excited to dig into. I became interested in his operas because I encountered a literature syllabus by WH Auden online that listed the libretti for several of his operas as required reading. And of course, the story of the Ring is so epic in scale, and the music has had a huge influence on everything else.

So, what are your thoughts on Mr. Richard Wagner?

One of the great composers obviously though personally I don't get opera. I like Tristan best but Götterdämmerung is another one of those I went into the trouble of listening to because Nietzsche pokes fun at it in the title of one of his best books.

There's the scene of immolation of Brünnhilde, which got me thinking, what if it's Trünnhilde and she's self-immolating due to regret over a certain life-changing decision?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj3Zyhk58Bw