Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music

Richard Wagner is undoubtedly the most influential and controversial figure in the history of music. A composer and theatrical ideologue, an innovative director and playwright, an essayist and thinker: not only his grand musical dramas but also the concepts he developed—"total artwork," "leitmotif," "artwork of the future"—have defined the aesthetic discourse of several generations. By the end of the 19th century, European and American culture was under the influence of Wagnerism. The composer’s impact was felt by writers and artists, politicians and philosophers: from Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Baudelaire, and Isadora Duncan to Virginia Woolf, Wassily Kandinsky, and Sergei Eisenstein.