Former German infantryman Hans Himsel lived through scenes in 1944 at the Bayreuth opera house worthy of the finale of Richard Wagner’s “Gotterdammerung” when Valhalla goes up in flames. In this ...

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Whenever the music of Richard Wagner is performed, the composer’s famously antisemitic views come back into sharper focus. With a harrowing conflict in the Middle East and rising antisemitism ...

"A sniveling gnome with exceptional talent" — or so the composer was once described. Yet with his Bayreuth Festival, Richard Wagner managed to create a mythic idea of himself that has obscured who he ...

Mention Bayreuth and you think of Richard Wagner. In that city stands the Festspielhaus, a theatre where only his music is performed; a venue that the composer had built between 1872 and 1876, ...

Israel's public broadcaster has apologised to listeners after music by Richard Wagner was played on the radio. The 19th-Century German composer remains controversial in the country because of his ...