Great Composers: Wagner

This video is part of a BBC series that profiles some of the world's best-known composers. This program presents a look at Richard Wagner. Wagner's significance reaches beyond the world of music. In addition to his operatic genius, exemplified in his masterwork, +Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner was a prolific writer on subjects from culture to politics. The video shows that the influence of his music and ideas on his native Germany, as well as the rest of Western civilization, has been profound and sometimes disturbing. Excerpts of Wagner's music are presented throughout the program.