Written in exile from Germany, this potent study of Europers"s most controversial composer explodes the frontiers of musical and cultural analysis. Measuring key elements of Wagnerrs"s oeuvre with patent musical dexterity, Adorno sheds light on a nineteenth-century bourgeois figure whose operas betray the social gestures and high-culture fantasies that helped plant the seeds of the modern Culture Industry. A foreword by Slavoj Zizek situates Adornors"s reflections within present debates over Wagnerrs"s anti-Semitism and the moral status of his work, proving why this book remains one of the most important character studies of the twentieth century.