SLLF Annual Guest Lecture

21 March 2012

Time: 6:30pm
Venue: ArtsOne Lecture Theatre ArtsOne Building, Mile End Campus

“The Wagner Problem: Character Flawed, Reputation Tainted”
Hans Rudolf Vaget, Helen and Laura Shedd Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature Emeritus

 

Richard Wagner has been referred to as "the most controversial artistic figure of all time" (F. Spotts). In this lecture I examine the different layers of the controversy and of the Wagner problem, focusing on the four most frequently
expressed reservations about the man and the artist: his attitude towards money, towards women, towards Jews,
and the posthumous linking of his name to that of Hitler.

A reception will follow the lecture