Actor and writer Stephen Fry explores his passion for the world's most controversial composer, but can he salvage Richard Wagner's music from its dark associations with anti-Semitism and Hitler? Fry's quest begins in southern Germany where he is granted unique access to Bayreuth's legendary annual Wagner festival. In Switzerland he discovers the origins of Wagner's masterpiece "The Ring." In Bavaria he marvels at the fairytale castle inspired by Wagner's...

Richard Wagner was notoriously anti-Semitic, and his writings on the Jews were later embraced by Hitler and the Nazis. But many of Wagner's closest associates were Jews-- young musicians who became personally devoted to him, and provided crucial help to his career. Even as Wagner called for the elimination of the Jews from German life, many of his most active supporters were Jewish, as he himself noted with surprise. They included piano prodigy...

In the year 2154 two groups of people remain; the extremely wealthy who reside on an immaculate man-made space station named Elysium, and the rest, who occupy an overpopulated, destroyed Earth. Max decides to embark on a mission that could bring equality to the opposed worlds. "This is one of the better action films of the year."--Richard Roeper. "Elysium" is an action movie made for people thinking about something besides things blowing up. Damon...

A moving story of a first-year Harvard Law School student who comes to terms with his dreams in America's most competitive school. Hart finds he must survive much more than the pressures, all-night cramming and insecurities he expected. He becomes fearful of a brilliant professor, who terrorizes some, inspires others and who easily separates the men from the boys.

The chief classical music critic of "The New York Times" explores the concept of greatness in relation to composers, considering elements of biography, influence, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time. "When he began to listen to the great works of classical music as a child, Anthony Tommasini had many questions. Why did a particular piece move him? How did the music work? Over time, he realized that his passion for this music...