Wagner & Me

“My love of Wagner is tearing me apart,” says Stephen Fry.  Brought face to face with Hitler through a shared passion—the glorious operatic repertoire of history’s most controversial composer, Richard Wagner—famed British television personality Stephen Fry is forced into a confusing juggling match with his Jewish history in one hand, and his love for Wagner in the other. 

Stephen Fry’s journey takes him to Germany for the annual Bayreuth Festival, a Wagnerian extravaganza held in Wagner’s specially designed opera house, the Festspielhaus. With unprecedented access, Fry eavesdrops on rehearsals and pokes around backstage, in search of the secrets behind the creation of the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, Wagner’s operatic masterpieces.

As Fry travels around Germany, he attempts to answer the question of whether a work of art can ever be separated from its creator. Fry’s charm as a guide into Wagner’s music makes it worth the price of a ticket alone when the film dissects how the composer’s revolutionary technique works through the magnificent opening chords of “Tristan and Isolde.” Even those unmoved by Wagner’s music will be pulled into Fry’s inner conflict, his contradictions, and his passion, in this enthralling work of documentary cinema. 

Print Source: Wavelength Films, [email protected]