Richard Wagner and Wagner operas
Said about Richard Wagner
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)