Being Wagner cover art

Being Wagner

The Triumph of the Will

Preview

Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Being Wagner

By: Simon Callow
Narrated by: Simon Callow
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.
Cancel

About this listen

The perfect introduction to the Master.

Over a century after his death, Richard Wagner’s music dramas stand at the centre of the culture of classical music. He was a walking contradiction: aggressive, flirtatious, disciplined, capricious, heroic, visionary and poisonously anti-Semitic. His ten great mature masterpieces constitute an unmatched body of work, created against a backdrop of poverty, revolution, violent controversy, critical contempt and hysterical hero-worship.

In this book, Simon Callow plunges the reader headlong into Wagner’s world, examining the intellectual and artistic climate of this composer like no other who ever lived, creator of perhaps the most sublime and most troubling body of work in the history of music.

©2017 Simon Callow (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
Entertainment & Celebrities Celebrity Royalty Fantasy

Critic Reviews

‘Would Callow be able to tell me, in layman’s language, what it is about Tristan that makes it so powerful? The answer, I am happy to say, is yes. The perfect introduction for those, like me, who may not be obsessives but who sense that something profound is going on, and would like to know more. A delightful little book’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

‘A sparkly written, witty, learned and absorbing account, Callow brings The Master vividly to life’ The Times

‘Intelligent, fluent and buoyant’ The Daily Telegraph

Praise for Simon Callow’s ‘Charles Dickens’:

‘Simon Callow is not simply a terrific actor who happens to write – you could as well call him a terrific writer who happens to act’ The Times

‘This is the book we have long been waiting for and only Simon Callow could have written it… A marvellous book.’ Michael Slater

‘A comprehensive biography as enthralling as one of his own performances … A great achievement.’
Catherine Peters, Literary Review

‘Vivid and exuberant… This book, with its fresh angles and out-of-the-way sources, is the harvest of [Callow’s] dedication [to impersonating Dickens on stage]… His book is a celebration, jubilant, vigorous, imaginative, and, as Dickens might have said, an all-round sizzler.’ John Carey, Sunday Times

‘Callow … writes with great authority and elegant insouciance, which makes this "biography with a twist" very entertaining’ Independent on Sunday

‘By his enthusiasm for his subject, Callow has ensured that his book is a worthy addition to the Dickens studies’ Sunday Express

‘An excellent book’ Andrew Marr, Start the Week

‘Intelligent, fluent and buoyant’ Daily Telegraph

‘4/5… a crisply succinct account’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Colourful, almost salacious anecdotes abound’ Sunday Times

What listeners say about Being Wagner

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.