These three Larkin-Stuart lectures, part of a series devoted to religious and ethical concerns, will examine some aspects of the life and work of Richard Wagner. This may be cause for some surprise, for Wagner was not a religious man in any conventional sense, nor could he be considered to have observed, in his life, particularly high ethical standards. In fact, his life, his works, and his influence have been, for more than a century, matters of controversy.¹ I have spoken and written over the years on many men and some women who have laboured in varied fields of artistic...

We shall be talking tonight about the pervasive influence, for good and ill, that Wagner has exercised through the hundred and more years since his death – an impingement on music, art, literature, politics, and psychology so vast that the philosopher Bryan Magee is able to say, ‘Wagner has had a greater influence than any other single artist on the culture of our age’¹

That is a statement that is likely to seem exaggerated to anyone educated at this university, or at most North American institutions of higher learning. Until the international boom in Wagner studies that began in the...

With this lecture we bring to an end our three-evening examination of Wagner, and I should say at this point that, even with the time generously allotted me by the Larkin-Stuart committee, I haven’t found room to do more than touch on many matters that I should have liked to speak of in detail. Because my mandate was to speak mainly on ethical concerns, I haven’t done much more than allude to how Wagner introduced into drama a whole dimension that was unavailable to other great dramatists – an omniscient orchestra that, through leitmotifs, constantly comments on the action, that...