I saw Wagner as I am a big classical music and opera fan and I love Richard Wagner's music, especially Wotan's Farewell from Die Walkure, Overture to Tannhauser and Prelude to Act 1 and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde.Wagner is just magnificent, and one of my favourite series or anything to do with composers. For one thing, I found the story presented well structured and interesting, although I knew a good deal about Wagner beforehand, there was stuff here that I didn't know and found it presented in an insightful way.Wagner is also very authentic in its look and the atmosphere it creates. Watching it I actually felt I was there, and the period recreation, costumes, settings and photography are not only gorgeous but very vivid too.The music is outstanding, and this is really a brilliantly written programme, thoughtful, brooding and also quite moving. The acting is across the board faultless with Richard Burton embodying the title role to magnificent effect and Vanessa Redgrave very effective. There are also great performances from Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Gemma Craven, Ronald Pickup, Ralph Richardson, Marthe Keller and Vernon Dobtchof.And Andrew Cruishank's narration is the ideal icing on the cake. Overall, Wagner is simply magnificent. Massive? Yes. Worth watching? Absolutely yes. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The only thing that would have made Richard Wagner's life complete is for his friend and patron King Ludwig of Bavaria to have become the Kaiser of a united Germany rather than that Hohenzollern bunch from Prussia. He'd have had it made if that was the case.Wagner was a genius not only in the composition of music, but in the production end as well. He might well be regarded as the Cecil B. DeMille of grand opera, the themes he wrote about were epic in nature requiring productions that were also epic. Wagner was constantly in need of money to support his grand style of living that he felt a genius ought to indulge in, but also for his productions. He searched for years before lighting on the King of Bavaria who had grand ideas about high living and felt it an honor to be the grand patron of the foremost German composer of his time.Richard Burton in this long mini-series has plenty of time and plenty of dialog to capture the character of Wagner in all its aspects. Good thing the man was a genius because no one else would have put up with his bad behavior. Friends were there to serve him, even giving up their wives for his occasional passion and in one case for his great love, second wife Cosima played by Vanessa Redgrave.The three classical acting knights, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud are all ministers to King Ludwig played by Hungarian actor Laszlo Galffi. They turn in fine performances of men driven to their wit's end serving a king who bungles into a war with Prussia that he loses and at the same time bankrupts his country both in creating grand palaces as his ancestors lived and in bankrolling the genius of Wagner. Richard Wagner's ideas of German superiority of raving anti-Semitism and of the unshakable belief in his own genius for good or ill reflected a lot of the bad in German culture. He was the Nazi's favorite composer and knowledge of that puts many off from his work today. Still his music does transcend the man and the one thing the mini-series Wagner has in abundance is his music. That and the multi-layered performance of Richard Burton is enough reason to watch Wagner even though it does bog down occasionally.

I just finished watching the Kultur 4 DVD set of this epic bio-pic, taken at a leisurely pace over five daily installments.Tony Palmer directs a dream cast, headed by an inimitable Richard Burton as Richard Wagner.Vittorio Storaro's sensitive cinematography on stunning European locations put this viewer immediately in that era. Too bad this transfer didn't get a digital remastering.Sets & costumes are convincingly authentic.Graham Bunn's exemplary editing spins an involving web of interest and keeps pace, seldom failing.All in all, a compelling work of an expansive, complex musical genius.

Yawn!!! How can one do that when faced with the beauty of Venice and the palaces of Germany and France? Easy, when you're dozing through two tape-fulls of Richard Burton's phone-in recitation of drivel!! Is it because we can't stand Minna's resigned acceptance of Wagner's continual infidelities flaunted in her face? Maybe, except that you soon almost don't blame him, as she is characterized so dully.The music is gorgeous of course, and you get the picture real fast of what a hypocrite, lech, arrogant and generally disgusting guy this Wagner was. (Could anyone be so yukky?) If so, why were so many people willing to support him and buy into his overinflated opinion of himself? It must have been the music, which is played over the gorgeous scenery of Venice, Lake Geneva and the mountains of Bavaria. As a travelogue accompanied by splendid music, I can well recommend it.We will have to wait for a more objective, better written life of Wagner. I can't help but believe that our revulsion toward Nazism and knowledge of his music being Hitler's favorite had something to do with this film's slant. One example is Wagner's spoken words of hatred of royalty and protestations of not taking money from kings, which he then contradicts by doing exactly that--silken gowns, gorgeous dwelling, etc. from the young king Ludwig. He hates Jews, but then sells various items to the Jewish lender. He is continually running from his creditors, overbuying on others' money. There was not ONE good thing about this jerk, other than his splendiferous music. How can that be?A waste of time for Vanessa Redgrave, Lawrence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Richard Burton and the rest. They must have had bills to pay.