It is hard to overstate the importance of German opera composer Richard Wagner, one of music’s first rock stars, to the cultural life of the mid- to late-nineteenth century (and even beyond). So writes Alex Ross in his 2020 book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music.
Ross presents a long list of familiar artists, poets, and novelists who engaged with Wagner’s dramas—whether by appropriating his themes, adopting his compositional methods, or using specific operas as inspiration, plot driver, or metaphor.
Ross says Wagner was particularly influential to the development of modernism. He quotes the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who was friends with the composer (until they fell out over Nietzsche’s repudiation of Wagner): “Wagner sums up modernity. It can’t be helped, one must first become a Wagnerian.”
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German opera composer Richard Wagner, wagnermuseum.de
David Weintraub 