Wagner - The life and work of Richard Wagner

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Television series
German title Wagner - The life and work of Richard Wagner
Original title wagner
Country of production Great Britain , Austria , Hungary
original language English
year 1983
length 466 minutes
Episodes 10 in 1 season
Director Tony Palmer
script Charles Wood
production Alan Wright
camera Vittorio Storaro
occupation
synchronization

Wagner - The life and work of Richard Wagner (original title Wagner ) is an English-Austrian-Hungarian biographical mini-series in ten parts from 1983 about the opera composer Richard Wagner .

action

Part 1

At the time of the Dresden May Uprising of 1849 Richard Wagner was court conductor of the Saxon King Friedrich August II. Wagner made the first plans for his opera Lohengrin . He has difficulties selling and staging his operas because, on the one hand, he sympathizes with the bourgeois revolution against royalty and, on the other hand, Giacomo Meyerbeer is the audience's favorite. Wagner, on the other hand, dreams of higher demands in the opera and his own theater.

Part 2

Because of his active participation in the uprising, Wagner is wanted in a wanted list and fled to Zurich in Switzerland with his wife Minna , who after a miscarriage could no longer have children. During his exile he was supported by Franz Liszt who performed Wagner's operas in Germany. In Switzerland, Wagner begins his first work on Der Ring des Nibelungen and plans an opera about Wieland the blacksmith . He accepted Karl Ritter and Hans von Bülow as pupils and undertook extensive mountain hikes with them. In the mountains he dreams up suitable backdrops for the ring .

Meanwhile, he begins an affair with Jessie Laussot, the daughter of his sponsor Mrs. Taylor. For a short time he travels to Bordeaux after her.

In 1851, health problems force Wagner into the sanatorium. During the cure he reads Arthur Schopenhauer's work The World as Will and Idea .

For 5 years with no possibility of returning to Germany, he has not composed any new works during this time. But finally he finds the energy to continue writing on the ring .

part 3

Through mediation, the businessman Otto Wesendonck becomes Wagner's new sponsor. He lets the Wagner couple live in the garden house of his villa. Over time, an affair develops between Wagner and Wesendonck's wife Mathilde .

Meanwhile, Hans von Bülow marries Franz Liszt's daughter Cosima .

Under the impression of his affair with Mathilde, Wagner begins working on Tristan and Isolde . Finally, the desperate Minna leaves her husband after 22 years of marriage. Wagner travels to Venice and continues his work on Tristan and Isolde there .

Part 4

In Paris, Wagner, with many difficulties, prepares the performance of a French version of Tannhauser and the singer's war on Wartburg . Shortly before the performance, Wagner had a dispute with the Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer about his essay Das Judenthum in der Musik . The performance of Tannhäuser is sabotaged by disturbers. As part of the preparations for the performance, Wagner and Minna make a new attempt to live together. Shortly after the failure of Tannhauser, Minna travels to the cure.

Part 5

While Wagner was looking for financiers for the Ring and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , he met the influential critic Eduard Hanslick in Vienna . Wagner's search for financiers leads him to Russia. When Minna successfully campaigned for Wagner's amnesty during her cure with the King of Saxony, Wagner cheated on his wife in Russia and considered divorcing her. Despite the amnesty brought about by Minna's influence, the marriage between Wagner and her has cooled down.

Part 6

While working on the Mastersingers , Wagner has to flee when two bailiffs stand at the door. Shortly afterwards Wagner receives a visit from court secretary Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister , who is supposed to bring Wagner to the royal court in Munich on behalf of the newly crowned King Ludwig II , who was impressed by Wagner's Lohengrin . King Ludwig pays Wagner's debts, and his plans to build his own new type of theater are within reach.

In the meantime, Wagner and Cosima have fallen in love with each other, whereas Cosima's father Franz Liszt expresses concerns about Hans von Bülow, among other things.

Part 7

King Ludwig enables the long-awaited world premiere of Tristan und Isolde ; Hans von Bülow is to become the conductor. During rehearsals with the singer couple Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the leading roles, Wagner's friend Gottfried Semper made the first plans for the festival theater that Wagner had planned for a long time.

King Ludwig's extensive commitment to Richard Wagner aroused the displeasure of the King's ministers; Wagner's secret liaison with Cosima and his extravagance, among other things, serve as the explosive. A little later Cosima (possibly von Wagner) is pregnant, while von Bülow thinks he is the father. Cosima soon gives birth to daughter Isolde.

When Wagner's grand piano was to be seized on the day of the planned premiere of Tristan and Isolde , Cosima helps him out financially. The postponement of the premiere of the opera due to the hoarseness of singer Malvina Schnorr is fueling the rumor mill among King Ludwig's ministers.

At the time of the world premiere of Tristan und Isolde , Wagner begins dictating his autobiography Mein Leben . A little later, Wagner was shocked to find out about the death of the Tristan singer Ludwig Schnorr.

Part 8

While Bavaria sees itself exposed to the threat of war by Prussia under Otto von Bismarck , the ministers of King Ludwig Wagner see it as a burden for the state of Bavaria. King Ludwig gives in to their pressure and sends Wagner away from Munich. Meanwhile, Minna dies in Dresden.

Wagner moves to the Tribschen country house near Lucerne with Cosima, who is leaving her husband Hans von Bülow . Here he continues work on the Mastersingers . When King Ludwig appears in Tribschen to be with Wagner, Wagner can convince him to return to Munich.

While Bavaria is being defeated by Prussia in the German War , Hans von Bülow is exposed to a press campaign because his wife is living with Richard Wagner. Richard Wagner and Cosima successfully ask King Ludwig to restore their public reputation. Cosima asks Hans von Bülow for a divorce. When Hans von Bülow gave up his post at the Court Theater in Munich, Hans Richter became Wagner's new conductor. Friedrich Nietzsche visits Wagner for the first time in Tribschen .

In 1869 their son Siegfried is born.

While another war threatens (under Prussia with Bavaria as an ally against France), King Ludwig sets a date for the performance of Das Rheingold . The preparations are chaotic; Hans Richter is dismissed. Wagner hopes that the war will lead to a pioneering role for Germany.

Part 9

Richard Wagner and Cosima get married in 1870. Wagner has the Siegfried Idyll performed in the Villa Tribschen as a birthday present for Cosima .

Wagner decides on Bayreuth as the location for his long-planned festival theater; the foundation stone is laid a little later. The construction work on the Festspielhaus and rehearsals on the Ring des Nibelungen take great effort .

Part 10

Friedrich Nietzsche feels compelled to leave Triebschen and Bayreuth for health reasons. Before that, however, he expresses his displeasure with Richard Wagner's anti-Semitism and insubstantial pomp.

King Ludwig also appears at the opening of the Festspielhaus, for whom a private performance is given before the actual premiere. King Ludwig congratulates Wagner on his work; financially, however, the ring proves to be a failure.

Wagner prepares the world premiere of Parsifal under the conductor Hermann Levi .

Wagner travels to Venice with his family. He died there on February 13, 1883.

background

After the work on the script was finished, director Tony Palmer and screenwriter Charles Wood presented to Wolfgang Wagner , Richard Wagner's grandson. He was enthusiastic about the portrayal of his grandfather in the planned film and said: "If you would tell the true story of my grandfather, nobody would believe it". As he added, Richard Wagner would make a career today “not in Bayreuth, but in Hollywood”.

The production cost around 30 million Deutschmarks (£ 7 million) and was filmed in over 200 different locations across Europe. The script was written with the help of Wagner expert Martin Gregor-Dellin . Most of the music was played by the conductor Sir Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic .

Contrary to statements to the contrary, the ten-part television series lasts 7 hours and 46 minutes. and was completed within less than a year of filming. In countries like Korea and Denmark, the series was reworked into a four to five hour theatrical version.

synchronization

The German version of the multi-part has the following voice actors :

role actor Voice actor
Richard Wagner Richard Burton Holger Hagen
Cosima von Bülow Vanessa Redgrave Ute Meinhardt
Pfistermeister John Gielgud Wilhelm Borchert
Hans von Bülow Miguel Herz-Kestranek Miguel Herz-Kestranek
Karl Ritter Gabriel Byrne Norbert Langer
King Ludwig II. László Gálffi Torsten Sense
Pfeufer Laurence Olivier Siegmar Schneider
Pfordten Ralph Richardson Eric Vaessen
Sulzer Cyril Cusack Edgar Ott

literature

  • Booklet for the 3-DVD-Box Wagner , morisel Film & Fotografie, 2013

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Booklet for the 3-DVD-Box Wagner , morisel Film & Fotografie, 2013
  2. a b Siegfried Wagner, quoted from: Wagner - a JR of the early days. In: Der Spiegel . April 18, 1983, Retrieved January 4, 2018 .
  3. a b Wagner - a JR from the early days. In: Der Spiegel . April 18, 1983, Retrieved January 4, 2018 .
  4. ^ Wagner - The life and work of Richard Wagner. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on August 31, 2018 .