Review: From the Nazis to RBG, how Richard Wagner changed the world
You cannot escape Richard Wagner.
If this review has reached you, anywhere in the world and by whatever means, you have already had your life affected in some way by a 19th-century megalomaniacal composer of mythic German operas. It doesn't matter that classical turns you off and you wouldn't be caught dead (or asleep) at the opera. It doesn't matter if you have canceled Wagner and every domineering dead, white, European male thing about him. That hasn't stopped the "Lohengrin" Bridal Chorus from bringing near-universal joy at weddings.
New Yorker music critic Alex Ross' magnificent new book, "Wagnerism," presents this particular "ism" as an overwhelming force containing, like atomic energy, constructive and destructive powers. Underscoring Wagner's pervasive influence on culture and society, Ross makes his subject less
