Presented by Harvey De Roo, Retired Professor, English Department, and Instructor in Continuing Studies, SFU

Tuesday November 18, 2014, 114 Halpern Centre, 11:30 am

Wagner is the most complicated and controversial composer who ever lived. He made major contributions to Western music, opera, theatrical practice, and late 19th-century European literature. In his own day he was considered by many a seer in all subjects—the Master, they called him. Yet he was a very dark character, a vicious racist and anti-Semite, whose pamphleteering helped poison public discourse about Jews. His music and the vision of Germany and the world that he portrayed in his creative work were co-opted by Adolph Hitler in his construction of the Third Reich. To what extent are Wagner’s music dramas contaminated by his life and legacy, and how do we navigate them this side of the 20th century?

This is the third in the Fall 2014 SFURA Speakers Program. Presentations are free and open to all members of SFU and the public.  No reservations are required.  They are held at 11:30 am on Tuesdays with a talk of approximately 50 minutes, plus a short question period.

Members of the audience are invited to join the speaker and executive board for lunch at the Diamond Alumni Centre following the talk.