The great composers: Richard Wagner

One of the most hateful and unpleasant people that ever walked the earth, Richard Wagner despised Jews and blamed all the problems of the world on them. But you can’t hold any of that against him when you hear his music. It transcends all the idiocy of the man himself. He only wrote operas, which he termed “music dramas”. But of them, his finest masterpieces are Tannhauser, Lohengrin, in which you’ll find the world famous “Here Comes the Bride” theme, Tristan und Isolde, which some consider his finest achievement, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Parsifal and his gargantuan four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.These last four operas are the single most famous masterpiece in opera history. Of the top ten longest operas, 7 are by Wagner. The average opera length is 3 hours. Gotterdamerung, the last of the Ring cycle, is 6 hours long. More importantly, Wagner invented the leitmotif, a very short melody that represents a character, emotion, event or object. He revolutionized the art of opera and operas are not written in any other style today except his, or the Classical style that preceded him. There has been no progress beyond him in operatic art. It has also been said that the art of filmmaking would be set back 500 years, had Wagner not existed. Film soundtracks owe their ability to enhance the story to Wagner alone, who owes his ability to the next composer and almost all film composers, including John Williams, agree that Wagner is the greatest film composer in history. Films can be set to his music. His finest work is probably Tristan und Isolde, but the Ring cycle could well be equal to it. All his mature works are unparalleled in orchestration and he is one of the very few opera composers that wrote his own libretti.

source listverse.com/

Jessye Norman sings "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhauser.