A psychodrama of archetypal types, a fascinating mixture of extreme sensuality and high intellectualism, the eternal story of love verses power, an allegorical epic of the failure of traditional values, full of forbidden eroticism, sublime emotion, violent materialism, pure spiritualism, and plenty more! All expressed, somewhat fantastically and literally, with Wagner's motive laden music, which acts as a psychological mirror to the action, and also to the listener's mind.
Not without it's faults- it can be self-indulgent, vulgar, overbearing, boring.
Wagner's poetry and plot can sometimes be too slow, and overlabour the point. But some of his characterisation is inspired. And the psychological interactions are incredible.
But most of all, his music, when fully developed in the later works, fully realises the pure and immediate expression of the human condition by everchanging, always familiar yet always new infinite melody, drawn by dazzling, virtuoso orchestration which remains a major influence on music and culture in general.