Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art

Father M. Owen Lee, who is known for his erudite commentaries on Metropolitan Opera broadcasts has recently published another book about the Wagner's Ring Cycle, called "Athena Sings. Wagner and the Greeks." Father Lee is a Classics scholar, so it should be no surprise that the Greeks also inhabit "Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art." One of the chief characters that Wagner is compared to in this slender book is Philoctetes, who was given a great gift by the god Apollo, but was also maimed with an incurable wound.The three essays that make up this book were written to be given during the 1998 Larkin-Stuart lectures at the University of Toronto. These lectures are devoted to religious and ethical concerns, and Father Lee took the opportunity to examine the relationship of the artist, Wagner to his art.The first lecture, "Wagner and the Wound That Would Not Heal" tells the story of Philoctetes, who was shunned by his fellow soldiers because of his unhealing wound. Finally, they exiled him on an island on their way to conquer Troy. In their tenth year of war, after the death of Achilles, the Greeks heard a prophecy "that the city would never be taken unless the wounded Philoctetes was brought to Troy with his bow (the gift from Apollo)." The Greeks sailed back to the island where they had abandoned Philoctetes and persuade the wounded, bitter man to use his gift to help them.Father Owen is not a Wagner apologist, but he asks us to recognize our debt to the "hateful, wounded man [we] are in need of"---he whose music can penetrate deeply into our psyche and bring us, if not peace, then at least self-knowledge.The second lecture, "Wagner's Influence: The First Hundred Years" discusses the effect that Wagner exercised, for good and ill, on music, art, literature, politics, and psychology. The author quotes philosopher Bryan Magee as being able to say: "Wagner has had a greater influence than any other single artist on the culture of our age."Of course, the worm at the core of this lecture is Wagner's "unquestioned influence on Adolf Hitler." There are still people who won't listen to Wagner's music, and Father Lee acknowledges this artist's blatant anti-Semitism: "He probably wreaked more havoc on himself with his essay 'Judaism in Music' than with anything else he wrote." A hundred years later, Goebbels was able to use it as vicious propaganda.Can we acknowledge this hateful, wounded man and still be pierced by the beauty of his music? The author goes on to quote Leonard Bernstein's article in the 'New York Times,' entitled "Wagner's Music isn't Racist:""...And if Wagner wrote great music, as I think he did, why should we not embrace it fully and be nourished by it?"The third and last lecture that completes this book is entitled, "You Use Works of Art to See Your Soul." Father Owen Lee concentrates on Wagner's early opera, "Tannhäuser" to prove his point, with help from authors such as Baudelaire and Goethe. He is even tempted to wonder if Wagner had Martin Luther in mind when he created his tormented young hero, "who was gifted in song, clashed with the Pope, sought refuge in the Wartburg, defied the society he knew, and profoundly changed it."Or perhaps, Wagner was thinking of Wagner.These essays have convinced this reviewer at least, that a seriously flawed human being can produce indispensable, undying, truthful art.

father Lee is a real scholar, but i hate this title. Wagner was not a terrible man. he was a genius with feet of clay--He wrote arguably the greatest of all operas, Tristan und Isolde, and 12 other operas most of which would be placed in the top 50, some top 25. He changed keys, used motifs to tell the story, let the music tell the true story while the singers say what they think is happening to them--but they might be delusional....the music tells the truth. He was a german nationalist, and his nationalism led him to the belief that immigrants, including Jews, should pursue their own culture rather than take on the culture of their adopted country. This is an idea Theodore Herzberg, father of Zionism, who loved Wagner's operas, used to establish Zionism--the Jews should have their own culture and their own nation. Oddly enough, while Wagner was critical of the Jews, his favorite conductor was jewish and he was surrounded by Jewish intellectuals. and his entourage at the tie of his death was largely Jewish. Nor was he a womanizer. There were at most 7 women in his life. 6 of whom he was intimate with. Unfortunately, at least four were married, and he took his second wife Cosima away from his conductor, hans von bulow, with her enthusiastic cooperation. So complicated? Absolutely. Terrible? As the conductor Leon Botstein has said, wagner was no worse than the average central european anti semite of his era.

This book is excellent and scholarly, but it’s so short! I feel like it should have lasted longer and I would have appreciated more information about Wagner’s upbringing and what shaped his thoughts.

This book contains what was originally a series of three lecture by Father Owen Lee, a renowned Wagner scholar best known for his appearance on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast intermissions over several decades. Although the subtitle "The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art" suggests an attempt to reconcile the composer's personality with his output, it really has more to do with the influences on him (particularly Sophocles' play "Philoctetes") and Wagner's influence on subsequent art, literature and music. The third lecture focuses on Tannhäuser as a summa of Wagner's artistic predicament.It is thoroughly readable, and those familiar with Father Lee's radio work will hear his voice throughout. End notes and an excellent bibliography fill out the volume. This is for 'intermediate and advanced' Wagnerites. Neophytes will find much in need of further clarification.

A great book on a great composer.

Father Owen Lee, whom some of us Old Guys remember from when he used to be a regular commentator on the Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, is very knowledgeable about Wagner, the composer whom many of us love to hate and hate to love. These 1998 lectures at the University of Toronto give a very helpful insight into a man who was a great composer and a fairly wretched human being. The third lecture, sort of a commentary on Tannhauser, is a great aid to understanding a beautiful but somewhat bizarre music drama.

Book was delivered promptly. I found it to be very insightful.

I'm unimpressed. Each and every Wagnerite has his or her own opinion. Given the vast literature on Wagner (and one point to praise in this book is that the author debunks the myth that there are "more books on Wagner than on anyone else except Christ and Napoleon"), this didn't seem to me to add much. Reading it is like like listening to a Wagner fanatic at a party. He or she is entitled to his or her view, but it is arrogant to assume that this is a definitive opinion. It's not just that I disagree with his view. Even if I agreed with it, I'd resent the presentation of this as a *definitive* view.

The books of Fr Lee are very accessible and short . They stem from lectures he gave for Wagner performances

We are Wagner fans and always enjoyed "Father Owen Lee's" knowledge of Music and Story on the Met Opera Panel ....