IN CONVERSATION - With Alex Ross

Classical New York

For the last decade, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, has been researching and writing about the outsize influence of German composer Richard Wagner on non-musicians — from literature, to film, to politics. The result of that work is his new book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, which was published on September 15. He spoke with producer Max Fine about Wagner's broad influence, how we deal with great art by problematic artists, and what it means to publish this book today.