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Music

As a writer, Richard Wagner was both sublime – and unreadable

22 September 2018

9:00 AM

22 September 2018

9:00 AM

No one any longer denies the immense significance of Wagner’s musical-dramatic achievement, even if they find it repellent. But his reputation as a writer — of operatic texts, autobiographical and biographical memoirs, practical essays on how to conduct particular pieces, vast and less vast theoretical works, ranging from speculations on opera and climate to theologico-political musings — is not high.

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