Monsters of Music with Tom Allen

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Comedian Tom Allen and guests explore the scandalous lives of classical music's legends.

Join comedian Tom Allen and celebrity guests as they explore the scandalous lives of classical music's legends to work out if they were angelic geniuses... or grade A monsters.

Welcome to Monsters of Music where comedian Tom Allen and celebrity guests dig into the scandalous lives of classical music's legends. With the help of conductor and classical music expert Ben Gernon, our guests unearth the facts to decide whether these classical characters were angelic geniuses or grade-A monsters.

Monsters of Music with Tom Allen: Wagner’s Tainted Legacy with Frank Cottrell Boyce

Wagner’s Tainted Legacy with Frank Cottrell Boyce

BBC Sounds - Monsters of Music with Tom Allen, Wagner’s Tainted Legacy with Frank Cottrell Boyce

Richard Wagner was a romantic, a revolutionary and bitter antisemite.

Richard Wagner was a groundbreaking composer who left a long musical legacy. But he was also an antisemite whose music would become linked to the Nazi party.

Richard Wagner was a romantic, a revolutionary and hostile antisemite. The composer of some of the most enduring and influential classical music, his pieces feature in famous film scores, wedding processions and would go on to soundtrack the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. 

History remembers him for his bigoted political essays and 'Here Comes The Bride'. But his story also included a one-sided romance with an eccentric Prince, a decadent life funded by adoring sponsors and scandalous affairs with married women. In this episode, screenwriter and author Frank Cottrell-Boyce joins Tom and Ben to trace the complicated life of one of classical music's most famous composers and place him on the monster scale.

Listen only on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Audio Always 
Producer: Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Exec Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson

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Monsters of Music with Tom Allen

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