Tim Blanning
Clash of the Titans
Verdi and/or Wagner: Two Men, Two Worlds, Two Centuries
By Peter Conrad
Thames & Hudson 384pp £24.95 order from our bookshop
Peter Conrad’s book begins and ends at the edge of Venice, beyond the Arsenal, in a public park that boasts statues commemorating Verdi and Wagner. Whether by accident or design, their location makes it impossible to view both simultaneously. However, as they were born in the same year (1813) and were the pre-eminent opera composers of their respective countries in the nineteenth century, a comparison is certainly invited. It is odd, as Conrad points out, that the task has not been undertaken before. With nearly four hundred pages and 200,000 words at his disposal, he has been given the opportunity to fill and seal the gap hermetically.
As befits a scholar who has spent his career teaching English literature, his approach is neither historical nor musicological. Rather he moves, apparently at random, from one topic to another, scattering observations
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw