The Music of Richard Wagner

Professor Robert Greenberg of San Francisco Performances—an ebullient instructor who's become The Teaching Company's preeminent go-to musicologist—follows up his previous courses on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi with this set of 24 lectures on Wagner. While offering detailed analyses (including musical examples) of the composer's mature operas—from The Flying Dutchman (1843) through Parsifal (1882), with briefer reference to the earlier, less characteristic pieces—Greenberg's treatment of Wagner's artistic development is situated within a broader survey of the composer's life, putting the musical ideas that animated his work in historical context by emphasizing the philosophical currents of the time and the rise of German nationalism. Greenberg largely succeeds in this ambitious agenda, clearly distinguishing between his subject's greatness as a composer and his supreme arrogance and unattractiveness as a human being. Granted, some of his attempts at humor are strained, and the audio excerpts from recordings of the operas aren't of the highest quality (and could have been more extensive), but The Music of Richard Wagner is an otherwise solid addition, filmed with fluid camerawork and featuring archival material and graphics to add visual variety. Greenberg's treatment is unlikely to satisfy fanatical Wagnerites, who—he notes—tend to so idolize the composer that any criticism is considered near sacrilege, but neither is it a hatchet job, and its juxtaposition of Wagner's musical genius with his significant personal flaws seems balanced and judicious. Featuring separately available course books (with lecture outlines, transcripts, maps, a timeline, glossary, and bibliography), this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)