Wagner 

A huge panorama of Richard 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 ... See full summary »

Stars:

Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, László Gálffi

Cast

Series cast summary:
Richard Burton	...	Richard Wagner 10 episodes, 1981-1984
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Cosima von Bulow 9 episodes, 1981-1984
László Gálffi	...	King Ludwig II of Bavaria / ... 9 episodes, 1981-1984
John Gielgud	...	Pfistermeister 9 episodes, 1981-1984
Miguel Herz-Kestranek	...	Hans von Bülow 8 episodes, 1981-1984
Gyula Benkö	...	Narrator 8 episodes, 1981-1984
Gemma Craven	...	Minna / ... 7 episodes, 1981-1984
Ralph Richardson	...	Pfordten 6 episodes, 1983-1984
Richard Pasco	...	Otto Wesendonck 5 episodes, 1981-1983
Laurence Olivier	...	Pfeuffer 5 episodes, 1983-1984
Ronald Pickup	...	Nietzsche / ... 5 episodes, 1983-1984
Andrew Cruickshank	...	Narrator / ... 5 episodes, 1981-1983

Storyline

A huge panorama of Richard 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. Richard 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:

wagner | 1850s | musician | composer | anti semitism | 

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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:

Lucerne, Switzerland

Company Credits

Production Co:

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

Technical Specs

Runtime:

469 min (restored integral)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Composer William Walton has a cameo as King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony. Walton was seventy-eight at the time and played the King as a doddering old fool. The real Frederick Augustus was only about fifty-years-old at the time of the action.

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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)

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Alternate Versions

A feature-length 466-minute director's cut was released on DVD in 2011.

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!