Richard Wagner was, and still is today, arguably the most controversial figure in classical music. A self-appointed deity and hyperdriven genius, Wagner is often considered the ultimate megalomaniac.

“It can’t be helped: one must first become a Wagnerian.” In this pithy, knowing phrase, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche summed up the immense influence that the composer Richard Wagner exerted not ...

If Houston Grand Opera's four-year span for staging "The Ring of the Nibelung" is too slow for you, maybe the Texas Music Festival can help. The University of Houston's monthlong festival will include ...

The art world has always been a bastion of globalism, with artists constantly borrowing from one another to create new, previously inconceivable works. In our increasingly anti-globalist, ...

L.A. Opera to perform its first full cycle of “The Ring,” the German composer’s 15-hour masterpiece. There’s an old saying: If you want something done, ask a busy man. In the next few months, James ...

To France’s Claude Debussy, Germany’s Richard Wagner was “that old poisoner” of the pure wells of music. In the 1890’s, fuming at the “grandiloquent hysteria” of the Wagnerian heroes—and calling his ...

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a devilishly difficult opera to perform well. At the very least, Composer Richard Wagner wrote requirements for a heldentenor of exceptional stamina, and power enough ...

The Bayreuth Festival in Germany is a ‘holy site of Wagnerian music’ that has specialized in performing only the operas of ...

Verena Wagner Lafferentz passed away last month. She was the last surviving grandchild of the composer Richard Wagner. The death of a 98-year-old widow in Germany last April attracted worldwide ...