Richard Wagner related links

Bayreuther Festspiele

The festival every Wagnerian should visit. Plan your visit 7-10 years ahead due to waiting list.

Festspiele.de

News about the the Bayreuth Festival and other festivals.

Monsalvat

Parsifal site with lots of material.

Wagnerdiscography.com

Great source if you want to check the cast for Wagner recordings.

Wagnermania.com/bayreuth/

A great database with information about cast at the Bayreuth Festival. (Not exactly user friendly, though...)

The Wagner Journal
Periodical that seeks to examine Wagner and his works from a variety of perspectives – musicological, historical, literary, philosophical and political – and to illuminate the unique appeal of this endlessly fascinating composer.
Trell.org
Kristian Evensen's Wagner web site.
Kirsten Flagstad Museum
The Kirsten Flagstad Museum is located in the house she was born in Hamar, Norway
Wagneroperas.com
A lot of Wagner related material. By Vincent Vargas.
https://www.utexas.edu/courses/wagner/home.html
Course materials, essays, Ring plot, Ring motives, Ring tonal structures, Picture gallery, Video clips, Bibliography etc.

Wagner Calendar

The live Wagner Calendar of Fabrice Vaillant har replaced our own calendar.

Richard Wagner related blogs

Wagneropera.blogspot.com
Blog about various Richard Wagner related topics. Wagneropera.net's cousin.
Boulezian.blogspot.com
Interesting blog written by Mark Berry
Thewagnerblog.com
Forum for discussion of contemporary themes arising from the works of Richard Wagner. Discussions relating to Wagner’s musical, literary, theatrical, philosophical, political and theoretic work are all appropriate for this forum.
Wagneroperas.blogspot.com
Vincent Vargas' opera blog.
Intermezzo.typepad.com
Soprano and ex-pianist who "spend most of my free time going to concerts and opera in London and occasionally further afield".

More Wagner related web sites

Enrico Nawrath
Official photographer for the Bayreuth Festival
Wagnerheim.com
Paul Heise’s quest to grasp the conceptual unity of Richard Wagner’s music-drama.
www.theater-tv.com - Kulturinfos in einer neuen Dimension
Promo videoes from a handful of German theatres/opera houses: Staatsoper Hamburg, Theater Bremen, Staatsoper Hannover, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Theater für Niedersachsen, Nationaltheater Weimar, Oper Leipzig, Semperoper Dresden, Theater Dortmund

Social Media

One of the finest monuments in sound ever to have been raised to the everlasting glory of music. (Claude Debussy on Parsifal)

"The thing about Wagner is that there can be no true success in any production of his operas, only degrees of failure. There is so much in these bloody pieces, all you can do is try to live up to them." (Keith Warner, The Guardian)

"I have never come across an audience with so much hatred, so much anger, such a thirst for revenge. They take everything personally. It makes you a little bit scared, and it's really quite terrifying." (Lance Ryan on the audiences at Bayreuth)

"People sometimes complain that Wagner operas are too long, that they get stiff and sore about 10.30 because they have rushed in to hear one of his works straight from work and are not properly prepared for listening to his music. The audience, as much as the artists, must be prepared for a performance."
(Benjamin Britten to Alan Blyth, Gramophone)

"I was bowled over. It was the year after Wieland Wagner had died; to be able to see his productions was a total knock-out. These bare stagings, where everything was done with lighting. The light changed with the music, and the shadows and patterns seemed as archetypal as the music itself. Nobody had done that on the stage before. I thought it was extraordinary and wonderful."
(Patrick Carnegy to The Guardian)

Wagneropera.net