ABSTRACT
Wagner’s mature operas concern heroes who move in a mythic realm, and who are prompted by emotions which have been lifted free of ordinary human contingencies and endowed with a cosmic significance and force. In works like the Ring, Tristan and Parsifal, the human condition is idealized, as it might be in the narratives and liturgy of a religion. To take these operas seriously is to be drawn into a peculiar modern project, which is that of remaking the gods out of human material. This project, it seems to me, identifies both the artistic triumph of Wagner, and the hostility with which that triumph is so often greeted.
