Richard Wagner

Book Review: Alex Ross’s Dizzying, Engrossing, and Sometimes Overwhelming Exploration of Wagnerism

For Alex Ross, Wagnerism is as profound and far-reaching an aesthetic ideology – for good, ill, and all degrees in between – as any.

A 1962 concert performance from Radio Italiana, now on CD, shows how delightful Wagner can sound without barking and slow wobbles.

The biggest takeaway from the evening was the superb quality of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra’s playing.

For their debut on Sunday, Odyssey Opera and conductor Gil Rose could hardly have picked a more spectacular, unfamiliar epic than they did.

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