{"product_id":"2026600000647-secondhand-richard-wagner-composer-of-operas","title":"Richard Wagner: Composer Of Operas","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket - some marks on spine and corners\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Boards - stained. Binding - shaky. Clean text. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis authoritative biographical and critical study presents a sweeping portrait of Richard Wagner, the towering and controversial figure of nineteenth-century German opera, examining both his monumental artistic achievements and the turbulent life that shaped them. Written with the sharp, opinionated tone characteristic of Victorian music criticism, the work argues passionately for Wagner's revolutionary significance to Western music, chronicling his transformation of opera into a unified art form — the Gesamtkunstwerk — through landmark works such as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal. Runciman details the composer's stormy personal relationships, political exile, and relentless self-promotion alongside his profound philosophical influences, particularly the ideas of Schopenhauer and Feuerbach. The result is a portrait that is as much a critical manifesto as a biography, illustrating how Wagner's genius was inseparable from his outsized ego and uncompromising artistic vision. Readers with an interest in music history, opera, or the cultural landscape of the Romantic era will find this a richly rewarding and intellectually stimulating account.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48755510542555,"sku":"2026600000647-SECONDHAND","price":20.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/db67cb2d-17ae-4161-a7b4-5e2e8d70a006.png?v=1778221394","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600000647-secondhand-richard-wagner-composer-of-operas","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}