Richard Wagner – A Portrait

Lennart Svensson

Following his English language literary debut Ernst Jünger – A Portrait, author Lennart Svensson concentrates his focus on another controversial character, Richard Wagner.

In Richard Wagner – A Portrait Svensson offers a well-rounded biography of Richard Wagner’s life and work. As a long-term admirer of Wagner’s music, Svensson is also unafraid to look at the controversial aspects of the composer’s life – including his relations with Friedrich Nietzsche and the influence his music would come to have in German Nationalist circles, and in the work of the Italian poet d’Annunzio.

In addition to relating the personal history of Wagner in the biography, Svensson also examines the compositions themselves, such as The Fairies, Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Wieland the Smith, Tristan and Isolde, The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, The Ring of the Nibelung, and Parsifal.

Svensson’s new biography also provides an in-depth analysis of the themes that Wagner chose to work with in his compositions, such as forbidden love, Teutonic mythology, the Grail saga, and tragedy.

About the Author

Lennart Svensson holds a BA in Indology  and his previous works include Antropolis and Camouflage. Ernst Jünger – A Portrait was his debut in English.