There is, of course, no shortage of grist for any writer milling the grain of “opera [including Wagner’s] as an institution of gay culture,” and in Wagnerism Ross is consistent in maintaining the “disinterested” position and in insisting on the complexities, nuances, and contradictions of the subject. His chapter on Gay Wagner, Gay Wagnerites, and Deaths in Venice, folded in with sections on Feminist Wagner and Wagner and Women, is among the most informative and insightful of his book. Still, there is an unmistakeable gay (or perhaps I should say LGBT) leaning to his selections and emphases throughout the text, as there is for the subject choices in his New Yorker columns, and a propensity for gay-shaded interpretations of key dramatic events (try Kundry’s Kiss, for example). Any writer is perfectly entitled to his interpretations (it’s up to us to decide whether or not we agree), and any devotee is entitled to receive and enjoy works and performances via whatever points of connection he or she finds. I believe it is fair to point out, however, that when it comes to the deployment of interpretive powers in production, performance, and criticism, gay tastes, perceptions, and aesthetics are an awkward fit with E-19 opera. In that great body of work, the vast majority of its creators were quite decidedly at the heterosexual end of the spectrum, as are the characters and actions represented. The spine of its redundant narrative is the restoration of purloined patriarchal birthright to an outsider male protagonist through alliance with a woman, and the energy that drives it is passionate heterosexual love expressed through binary male/female voice types of ever-increasing power and expressive intensity, not least in Wagner. And here, I guess, we have material for many more books.

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I sometimes had the feeling while reading Wagnerism (perhaps I’m projecting my own wishes onto the book) that Ross is seeking to sum up, to put an end to the “ism.” That would be all right with me. Let’s end that history, and bend our energies to performing the operas, than which none are greater, with strength, clarity, and integrity, for what they say to us and how they challenge us, rather than for our yearning to remake them in our image. We might even find out what it is we wish we could say with comparable conviction and, if we are lucky, genius.

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NEXT TIME: If all goes well and I receive the materials in good time, I’ll be listening to the new recording of Die Meistersinger, conducted by Christian Thielemann and, starring as Hans Sachs, one singer whose voice really does suggest Wagnerian greatness, the bass Georg Zeppenfeld. A comparison or two might surface, as well.

Happy holidays and a very happy, and healthier, New Year to all.

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