Wagner (1983– )

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at ... See full summary »

Stars:

Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Gemma Craven

Cast

Series cast summary:
Richard Burton	...	Richard Wagner (10 episodes, 1983)
Laurence Olivier	...	Pfeuffer (5 episodes, 1983)

Storyline

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth. Wagner's radical musical and political ideas, his German nationalism and even his anti-Semitism are set in the context of his life and times.

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Plot Keywords:

musician | composer | character name in title

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | Music

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Details

Country:

UK Austria Hungary

Language:

English

Release Date:

December 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wagner - Das Leben und Werk Richard Wagners

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hungarofilm, London Trust, Magyar Televízió Müvelödési Föszerkesztöség (MTV) (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

300 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This production represents the only time that the three great British theatrical knights, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson all appeared together on screen. As their characters appear to be fictional, and all have names which begin with "Pf", this does not appear to be fortuitous casting, but a deliberate whim of the director. The three knights were all in the casts of Richard III and Oh! What a Lovely War, but they were never together on screen at the same time in those films.

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Goofs

When Wagner speaks at the political meeting, the vertical German flags in the background have the wrong sequence of black-gold-red, while the ones draping the podium are the correct black-red-gold ones. (The flags are the 1832 Hambach Festival flag - the modern German flag dating from 1848 was developed from the Hambach colours)

User Reviews

Unedited it works much better

I quickly bought the 300 minute version listed here when it first came available. Although I love Wagner and his music I almost couldn't get through the tapes. Terrible stuff. How could they do this? Then I found the answer.

The original mini-series was 9 hours long. They cut FOUR HOURS out of the story. I've seen the whole series and now I can say -- GREAT STUFF. Well, if your a Wagner fan to begin with, that is. It really is MUCH better than the edited version.

I hope I never get an enemy so evil I want to give them my 300 minute Wagner tape set. I hope I find a real friend who will buy me the 9 hour version as a gift!