Video: Arturo Toscanini conducts Wagner live on March 3th 1948

Arturo Toscanini conducts Richard Wagner live on March 3th 1948

Lohengrin, Prelude 0:00

Tannhäuser, Overture & Bacchanale 3:10

Siegfried, forest murmurs 26:32

Götterdämmerung, Dawn & Siegfried Rhine Journey 35:14

Die Walküre, the Ride of the Walkyries 46:26

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Interview: Nike Wagner. Why Beethoven Is Better

And she doesn't like been named after a pair of trainers. 

Nike Wagner, the great granddaughter of Richard Wagner, became the new director of the Beethoven Festival in Bonn this year. Before that, the 68-year-old spent 10 years heading up the Weimar Art Festival. On Talking Germany, she tells us about her plans for the Beethoven Festival, and why Beethoven is a better ambassador for Germany than her famous relative Richard Wagner.

Nike Wagner was born in 1945 in Überlingen on Lake Constance. She was the third of four children born to opera director Wieland Wagner. One year after the end of the Second World War, the family moved to Bayreuth, where her father took over directing the famous Bayreuth Festival originally set up by Richard Wagner. The family lived in Richard Wagner's villa, "Wahnfried". Nike Wagner went on to study literature, music and theatre in Berlin, Paris, Chicago and Vienna. She did her doctorate in the United States, studying Austrian cultural critic Karl Kraus and Vienna Modernism around 1900. While working as an author and teaching in various countries, she applied repeatedly to take over as director of the Bayreuth Festival, but without success. Instead, she became director of the Weimar Art Festival in 2004, a position in which she continued for ten years before moving on this year to the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. Nike Wagner has a daughter from her first marriage to French director Jean Launay. She is now married to musicologist Jürg Stenzl and lives in Vienna.

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The Best Ring Cycle Of All Time: The Winners

What would a Wagner related awards ceremony be without a significant prelude? This year will see the first of what will be an annual "Wagnerian Readers Awards" (affectionately - and henceforth known - as the Erdas - the reasons for which shall become apparent later in the month) but first, we asked readers to chose the "greatest" recorded Ring cycle in four different categories:

On CD - Overall Winner?
Which Is The Greatest Furtwangler Ring?
On CD Which Is The Greatest Studio Ring?
Which Is The Greatest Bayreuth Ring On CD - the one Ring to rile them all?

The response was overwhelming and we offer our sincere thanks to everyone that took part  and made some very difficult choices. After all, many readers here are people with vast experience of Wagner and his work and there are few people who take Wagner "seriously" who tend to have only one Ring cycle - or at least have listened to only one. The truth is that many people are like us; they have different Rings for different moods. And is any recording truly "perfect? Indeed this - and peoples differing tastes - seemed to be reflected in voting where people, in perhaps everything but the overall category winner, where clearly divided.

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Nike Wagner On Why Beethoven is a Better Ambassador For Germany than Wagner

Bid to Run Bayreuth? I don't remember that. 

On Sunday on On Talking Germany, Nike Wagner, the new director of the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, tells DW about her plans for the Beethoven Festival, and why Beethoven is a better ambassador for Germany than her famous relative Richard Wagner.

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Giacinto Palmieri: Ride of the Wagnerian

Ride of the Wagnerian

A romp through Richard Wagner's"Ring" cycle... and a comedian's obsession with it

At the Brighton Fringe 2014

The Hobgoblin, 31 York Pl, Brighton, BN1 4GU

3-4,10-11,17-18 May, 5.30pm, FREE

What is it like to be obsessed with a15 hours long cycle of late Romantic operas sung in German?

Giacinto Palmieri loves Richard Wagner's"Ring of the Nibelung" so much that he told its plot to all his ex girlfriends(note the"ex"). Now he wants to do the same with his audience.

Hear all about dwarfs, giants, Walkyries, magic helms, love potions... and their connection with office parties, IKEA, Facebook and modern dating rituals.

A show for those who love Wagner, those who hate Wagner and those for whom he's just an X-Factor contestant.

People have said of Giacinto’s previous shows:

“Giacinto has charm as Tuscany has wine. [..] Mama would be proud of him here. It is just a half-hour show, but it is lovely and it is free. A charming, entertaining Fringe experience” (Kate Copstick, The Scotsman)

“Witty, urbane but with an agreeable touch of gormlessness– hilarious.” (Arthur Smith after MC-ing the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2010  edition, in which Palmieri was a finalist)

“Giacinto has an ear and an eye for what is funny” (Chortle)

More Details: http://www.laughinghorsecomedy.co.uk/brighton/show.asp?showid=2735

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Der Ring des Nibelungen: The Lego Movie

While waiting for the results of the "Greatest Ring Cycle" of all time. We thought you might find this of passing interest. Stay tuned.

An abridged Lego version of the operas "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung

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Help Needed: Design An Award

Any graphic designers reading? With our up and coming Wagnerian Readers Choice Award: One Ring To Rule Them All awards ceremony quickly approaching - and the start of our Awards of 2014 just around the corner - we need your help. Despite many late and sleepless nights, our "virtual" statue designs for award winners are rather pathetic to put it mildly. We are thus asking any designers that might be reading to submit your "Wagner" related designs (don't worry they only have to be in graphic form not physical awards).

And your remuneration? Alas nothing more than our undying thanks and your name and website being mentioned.

If you should be interested, please send your designs (no "sticky back plastic" used please) to our deputy editor: fred@the-wagnerian.com. Or alternatively via twitter or Facebook.

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The Best Ring Cycle Of All Time?

The UKs 1st "provincial " Ring Cycle. Leeds 1911

Edit: Due to a number of requests, voting will stay open until Saturday 8 March at 12 Midnight (GMT)

Only two more days left before polling closes. Some very surprising results so far;  more so in regard to what people would not include rather then what they would. Vote in 4 categories. Results to be announced in a star studied award ceremony - well we are publishing it at night so there will be some "stars" present.

To vote either click HERE or use the form below. It should only take a minute or so. All voting is anonymous and no user identification  data is collected by us.

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