In his new book, The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, the philosopher and writer Roger Scruton brings together a lifetime of study to cast Wagner’s tetralogy as a quasi-sacred experience, with its themes of sacrifice, heroism, love and power revealing the hidden depths of the human condition. Tom Service talks to Scruton about Wagner’s philosophical influences, and asks how he addresses the criticisms often levelled against Wagner and his music.
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