In her book, Orchestra!, Jan Younghusband makes the following observation of Richard Wagner “He broke down the usual conventions of opera, turning it into a continuous flow of sound without set numbers like arias and choruses. To him, opera wasn’t just a showpiece for singers - it was something dramatically integrated, perfectly balanced, continuous - a life-changing experience.” * True; and I might add that Wagner’s ability to compose and direct opera in this unified manner has never been equaled (though Puccini approached it in his finest and final work, Turandot).
Beyond the sensuous brilliance of Wagner’s music, however, lies the literary content of his work - as perplexing as his most complex tonal phrases. And while many have read all sorts of psychological, sexual and religious significance into his operas (and these elements are certainly there) at the core one finds a sense of German nationalism dominating all other impulses.
Until Wager’s time, Germany had been no more than a hodgepodge of principalities and dukedoms, always fearful and somewhat jealous of the huge powers of Great Britain, France and Russia. As the German people began to congeal in the mid-nineteenth century, Wagner took it upon himself to make some sense of the various diverse and sometimes conflicting elements of Germanic culture. His music may be seen as giving audibility to the very birth pangs of Germany itself.
His operas, particularly from Tannhauser on, pose the weighty problems of a complex people trying to forge a single purpose around which to build a cohesive society: Teutonic paganism vs. Christianity, chaste love vs. raw sex, tribalism vs. nationalism, heroism vs. pragmatism...and what of racial purity; were Jews to be a part of the new nation?
Alas,Wagner was better at posing such questions than resolving them - a decidedly German trait in itself. But he left the world a huge body of compelling operatic work that has become something of a religion to its army of fans, and his innovative approach to the tonal, melodic, orchestral and emotive content of his work has had a dramatic influence on all major composers to follow.

* Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1992, page 106

- Greg Knepp, ClassicT-Shirt.com

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