Richard Wagner
and Wagner operas

Richard Wagner's music in films Richard Wagner's music has been used in many films	Marek Janowski's Wagner Cycle Dutchman first out in an exciting Wagner series	Herheim's Parsifal at Bayreuth 2011 Mark Berry revisits Herheim's masterpiece - the highlight of the Festival
Wagner used in a documentary Wagner Music used in documentary about building the San Francisco Bridge (1937)	Van Zweden: Parsifal (SACD) Klaus Florian Vogt as Parsifal and Katarina Dalayman as Kundry	Wagnerians recommend The best Richard Wagner CDs and DVDs
Detlef Roth on Amfortas Interview with Detlef Roth in Bayreuth	My Bayreuth Experience Visitors tell about their Bayreuth Festival experience	Neuenfels's Lohengrin 2011 Klaus Florian Vogt's staggering Lohengrin in Neuenfels's rat experiment
Daniel Slater Interview: Tristan in Oslo Daniel Slater interviewed about his production of Tristan und Isolde in Oslo	Stefan Herheim Interviews Stefan Herheim on Parsifal, Bayreuth and Daniele Gatti	Iréne Theorin in Bayreuth "Isolde is incredibly intense, and that really suits me"
Online tickets to Bayreuth Advice on how to get tickets to the Bayreuth Festival	Johanna Meier "I never sang Liebestod from the orchestra pit"	Peter Konwitschny "I am no representative of the Regietheater"
Rienzi on Blu-ray Vocal Values and Distracting Subplots	Lohengrin on DVD Harteros and Kaufmann the main reasons to buy	New triumph for Bychkov Tannhäuser at ROH - a musical triumph
Herheim's Parsifal 2008 Music theatre between dream and reality	Anne Evans Anne Evans talks about Brünnhilde and Bayreuth	Metropolitan's Rheingold Eric Owens nearly stole the show in Met's Rheingold
Hildegard Behrens Hildegard Behrens dies at 72 in Tokyo	In fernem Land Great versions of Lohengrin's Grail narrative	Siegfried in Washington Jerry Floyd explores Zambello's Siegfried
Neuenfels' Lohengrin 2010 Hans Neuenfels Lohengrin production at Bayreuth	Wagner makes Wagner Katharina's 2010 Meistersinger gets interesting, but too late	Tannhäuser in Oslo Herheim's Sängerkrieg in the Salvation Army
Stukas Nazi propaganda Wagner and Bayreuth used in Nazi propaganda	The Wagner Family Tony Palmer's "The Wagner Family" released on DVD	Lioba Braun Lioba Braun interview: Brangäne, Bayreuth and Isolde
Baumgarten's Tannhäuser Mark Berry sees no evidence of Baumgarten having engaged with the score at all	Wagner Characters The characters in Richard Wagner's operas	Bayreuth Festival 2010 No tears when Bayreuth buried Dorst's Ring Cycle
Claus Guth's Parsifal The blood of Amfortas is the rejuventating elixir	Kasper Holten's Copenhagen Tannhäuser "A splendid document of the Royal Danish Opera's 2009-10 production"	Metropolitan Walküre Machine Age Walküre at the Met
Daniel Barenboim: Complete Wagner Operas Daniel Barenboim's Wagner on 34 CD's	Tristan at Covent Garden Tristan und Isolde in London: Straightforward confusion	Tim Albery’s production of The Flying Dutchman: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (2011)

Said about Richard Wagner

"People who say that Wagner knew exactly how he wanted his works produced - so what right have you to stage the Ring on Mars or down a salt mine - are wrong," he says. "Wagner was precise [in his stage directions] because the theatrical world into which he launched his works was a total mess, and the quality was very poor. The reason he took such trouble was defensive: it wasn't so much that he knew what he wanted, but he jolly well knew what he didn't want."
Patrick Carnegy to The Guardian

“Conducting Tristan was another epiphany. I became a hopeless Wagner nut and it opened up a completely new world to me. There is this unique thing about Wagner, and that’s time management. The way he can create and alter time through a couple of hours. Not only create it, but also sustain it and keep it alive with very simple means. And in mature Wagner, the whole idea of constant recycling of material, and very little material. I mean, ‘Parsifal’ has nothing: a couple of chords. And he spins all that out of them.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen to Newcity Music

Always we seem to come back to Wagner though. Of course, Wagner is a magnificent composer: the music is incredible. Whatever other music I do, coming back to Wagner is like coming home.
John Tomlinson in conversation with Mark Berry

Wagner audiences are special, I think. It’s their music – but in a positive way; it’s a passion.
René Pape on Wagner audiences

The thing I love about Wagner's work is the subliminal, the erotic, the visionary factor - and that's how I stage things as well. I try to acquire an awareness of the archetypes, images and symbols and bring them to the surface; the music was composed to be interpreted that way. Wagner has nothing to do with realism or naturalism, but his work rather expresses the mental landscape of a man, treats sections of his personality that may be in conflict with one another - and people who may seem real but are in actual fact products of his dreams, which he can use or not as he pleases. It has to do with the strata of a personality.
David Alden in conversation with Peter Jonas

I am used to seeing you respect people only if and as long as they can be of use to you. A person no longer exists for you when their usefulness is over. You know nothing of gratitude for the past: All that is merely an infernal obligation! It has always been so – towards Brockhaus, the King, Lüttichau, Pusinelli, Tichatschek, and everyone else who has helped you in one way or another. Whilst I greatly love and esteem your talent, it is just the opposite with regard to your character. Since your last letter the first sign of life you give Johanna is - lend me a thousand thalers! A mere trifle!
Johanna's father Albert 1853 (Derek Watson: Richard Wagner - A Biography, p 131)

Such demoniac personalities cannot be judged by ordinary standards. They are egoists of the first water, and must be so, or they could never fulfil their mission.
Heinrich Porges (Derek Watson: Richard Wagner - A Biography, p 131)

Must Have Rings on DVD

Historical Wagner recordings

Richard Wagner's music dramas in other languages

Have you ever wondered what Meistersinger is called in Hungarian or Polish? Well, here are the titles of Richard Wagner's music dramas in other languages.

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

German - English - French - Italian - Spanish - Polish - Hungarian - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Finnish - Dutch - Icelandic - Latvian- Chinese - Russian -

Can you help to fill in the missing titles? Send us an e-mail

See also

• Richard Wagner on DVD
• Richard Wagner on CD
• Bayreuther Festspiele

Norway mourns massacre victims

If you see any errors or omissions, or you just have some comments, please e-mail us: editor@wagneropera.net

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