If the legacy of Richard Wagner is chiefly musical and theatrical, in France, the composer’s innovations arguably had an even bigger impact on literature. From Baudelaire to Mallarmé, to Colette and Proust, the most important French writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century all produced influential commentary on Wagner in their essays, poetry, […]

Mainly but not only about Das Rheingold. Why did Wagner write it? Why is it like it is? Why do we still watch it? LIONEL FRIEND is an orchestral and operatic conductor who has spent much of his life with Wagner. He saw his first Ring in Bayreuth in 1968 and has subsequently acted as […]