Visions of Wagner

By Barry Millington

Few composers embrace such a span of disciplines — musicological, philosophical, historical, political, philological — as Richard Wagner. To what extent does the wide-ranging, comprehensive nature of Wagner’s works militate against a true understanding of them? How close are we, in his bicentenary year, to an understanding that does them justice? The following illustrations from The Sorcerer of Bayreuth: Richard Wagner, his Work and his World demonstrate the variety of perspectives on Wagner, from outdated stereotypes to new reappraisals.




Postcard showing the Red and White Lion

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In which Wagner was born on 22 May 1813. Ironically the house was situated in the Jewish Quarter of the city. (Collection Tom Phillips)

Christoph Marthaler’s Bayreuth production of Tristan und Isolde (2005)

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Emphasised the characters' chronic dysfunctionality, each occupying his or her own physical and emotional space. © Bayreuther Festpiele/Enrico Nawrath

A postcard showing Tannhäuser’s face

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Composed of the minstrel himself, Venus and her roseate attendants. (Collection Tom Phillips)

Alberich’s theft of the gold (a scene from the Ring)

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By Franz Heigel, 1865 – 66. © Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds, Munich

Brünnhilde on her rock refuses to give up the ring

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In spite of the pleading of her sister Valkyrie Waltraute. Drawing by Franz Stassen, c. 1910, © Private Collection, Munich

The Ride of the Valkyries

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By William T. Maud (1890). The trumpet is not authentic, but Wotan's two ravens, seen in the foreground, are.© Gavin Graham Gallery, London

Wagner holds court at Wahnfried.

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W. Beckmann's oil painting of 1882 imagines Cosima, Liszt and Wagner's disciple Hans von Wolzogen all appropriately enraptured by the Master's reading. © Richard Wagner Museum, Triebschen

Portrait of Wagner

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By Friedrich Pecht, a friend of the Paris years. The picture was painted c. 1864-65 for Ludwig II, whose bust is visible in the background, though a misunderstanding over the fee caused a political scandal. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Viennese caricature

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By Karl Klic (1873), turning the tables on Wagner and his anti-Semitism. © Ernst Kreowski and Eduard Fuchs, Richard Wagner in der Karikatur, Berlin, 1907

One of a series of eight photographs of Wagner

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Taken by the photographers Elliot & Fry on 24 May 1877, during his English visit that year. © Photo Elliot and Fry

The sensual extravagance of the Magic Garden in Parsifal

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As conceived by Paul von Joukowsky and executed by the Brückner brothers (1882), © Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung Schloss Wahn, Cologne

‘Frou-Frou Wagner’

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From Der Floh, 24 June 1877. Caricature depicting Wagner acquiring pink satin by the yard and being shafted by the journalist Daniel Spitzer, who published the letters to his milliner. © Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna

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Barry Millington is chief music critic for the London Evening Standard and the editor of The Wagner Journal. He has written and edited, or co-edited, seven books on Wagner, including The Sorcerer of Bayreuth: Richard Wagner, his Work and his World (2013), The Wagner Compendium (1992), The Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion (1993), and the New Grove Guide to Wagner and his Operas (2006). In addition to his writing, he has also acted as dramaturgical adviser to several international music festivals.

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