I am a novice in this territory. I have listened to a bit of Wagner and read a few pages of Nietzsche, but that's it. This book did a wonderful job of sketching out this world for me and inviting me to explore further.

There are no bits of musical score here. I don't recall any mention of major and minor tonalities or time signatures. Magee does wax eloquent on the expressiveness of Wagner's music, how it evokes natural scenes or human emotions. But Magee takes as roughly axiomatic that Wagner's music is at the pinnacle of the European tradiion. He does bring out quotes from eminent modern composers in support of this notion. But the point of the book is not to argue this point.

The main thrust of the book is something like: Wagner was a quite competent student of philosophy and classics, particularly Schopenhauer and Greek drama. But Wagner's musical vision was far deeper. Much of Wagner's writing was his attempt to understand, justify, and structure his composition work. But his compositions went beyond his own philosophical understanding. In particular, his initial vision for the Ring was a kind of progressive notion, the idea that we can remake society in a much happier form. But the Ring he created didn't fulfill that vision. Then Wagner was introduced to Schopenhauer's writing and Wagner realized that Schopenhauer captured the actual vision expressed by the Ring better than e.g. the Feuerbach that he was previously enamoured by.

A remarkable tid-bit: Wagner kept a statue of the Buddha in his living room and envisioned writing a Buddhist opera, but decided that Parsifal was Buddhist enough. Wow!

Yeah I went out and bought some Wagner CDs... I have yet to pull the Schopenhauer volumes off my shelf, but I am motivated!

Magee goes into some length about the relationship of Nietzsche and Wagner. He's got a reasonable theory about a personal affront that split them deeply.

There is also a good appendix on Wagner's anti-semitism and the Nazis. Magee attempts to thread the needle, understanding Wagner's virulent anti-semitism without condoning it. Hitler was fond of much of Wagner's music but most of the Nazi leadership had no use for it. A remarkable tidbit is Magee relating a conversation he had with Winifred Wagner, Richard Wagner's daughter-in-law. After her husband, Richard's son Siegfried, died, Winifred asked Hitler to marry her. Winifred was evidently a totally unrepentant Nazi. Anyway, Magee's views on the Nazis and Wagner seem well grounded in direct evidence. ( )