Product Description

For over a century the Wagners have presided over the Bayreuth Festival, playing host to many of the greatest and ghastliest figures in the arts and politics amidst family in-fighting and political controversy. Drawing on extensive interviews with members of the family and on both archive and recent material, Jonathan Carr presents a balanced but gripping portrait of the Wagners and their circle; a story which presents a mirror of Germany's rise, fall and resurrection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12634 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

A.N Wilson, TLS
'The Wagner Clan ... deserves its place on the groaning shelf, beside the various histories of Bayreuth, and biographies of the Wagners.'

Tim Martin, The Independent on Sunday
'It offers both a fascinating introduction to laymen and a wealth of new information to the most dedicated Wagnerians.'

Neil Fisher, The Times
'Jonathan Carr has charted in forensic detail the sections of family history that will never have made it into official festival literature... The conclusions are as grimly compelling as they are soberly delivered.'

Customer Reviews

Not for the specialist, but a useful, if superficial introduction.
There is no question that this book contains many weaknesses as the previous reviewer suggests. As someone who has been reading about Wagner seriously for years and collecting endless versions of his work on cd and dvd, I found it irritating that the book fails to reflect the importance and appeal of Wagner's work, trivialising for the sake of a bon mot that is generally not that 'bon'.

However, it is not aimed at the specialist: I have read books about Wagner and politics, anti-semitism in his music, Winifred Wagner, the history of the festival at Bayreuth, Wieland Wagner and so on, as well as many books very specifically focused on the works themselves. Most people aren't as committed or as interested as I am or the previous reviewer, so a simplified gloss of the whole area is not inappropriate.

Carr manages to reflect the complexity of the Jewish issue for Wagner, the endless ambiguities in his positions, and explores the later periods in the family history quite fairly. It is absurd to suggest that Magee's 'Wagner and Philosophy' should be read instead as it is for a different market. (I only read Carr's book as it was a gift and would not have bought it as it is clearly for the more general reader.) As such, it does its job quite well in opening up to wider scrutiny some of the extraordinary stories and conflicts embedded in the Wagner family history, the problem of the Nazi past and the difficult future the festival may have. It also contextualises the Wagner family's 'problematic' (to say the very least) past, within German society's struggle to address similar debates about responsibility for the past and cultural memory.

If you have already been infected by the Wagner virus and have shelves full of books on him and related subjects, as I have, then this will frustrate. If your interest already requires more substantial and authoritative reading, then try Nike Wagner's 'The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty'. But she is part of the clan and gives a biased, albeit very interesting account. If you're curious and haven't read much about the family, then this is fine. For a brief, easy to read and intelligent, unpompous intro to the mn and his music then Bryan Magee's brief 'Aspects of Wagner' is hard to beat.

Unfortunately, Wagnermaniacs, and I count myself as one, are too often prone to disparage anyone who writes about the 'Master' in less than reverential tones or without the air of high seriousness his work merits, and I'd rather someone read this and developed their interest rather than blanch before more esoteric fare.

Fine study of the Wagner family
In this his last book, Jonathan Carr (1942-2008), the biographer of Helmut Schmidt and Gustav Mahler, has written a brilliant collective biography of the Wagner family. He tells the story of Richard Wagner's extraordinary music and of his family's fights over the ownership and control of the Bayreuth music festival.

Wagner backed the 1848 revolutions, but had failed to learn from the 1789 French Revolution which, as Carr points out, "gave a mighty boost to the cause of Jewish emancipation." Wagner's repellent anti-Semitism stains his fame.

Also, the Wagner family was closer to Hitler than any other German family was. They knew Hitler as `Uncle Wolf', so often did he visit their Bayreuth home. The family welcomed his patronage and never distanced themselves from his politics. Later, they showed no remorse and accepted no responsibility for Nazi crimes.

Carr concludes that Wagner was not `particularly to blame for the Holocaust', largely because there were so many other guilty parties. Nor was his music especially palatable to the Nazis, although they used his `Ride of the Valkyries' as sound track to newsreels of their air raids, as did Francis Ford Coppola to scenes of US helicopter attacks on Vietnam in `Apocalypse Now'.

Wagner's great opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen "shows how disaster strikes those spurred by greed and lust for power." Wagner's rebellious grand-daughter Friedelind later called Hitler `Alberich-Hitler', identifying him with the Ring's lethal Nibelung, whose hunger for power sparks the saga that ends in the apocalypse of Götterdämmerung.

RICHARD WAGNER AND HIS LEGACY
FROM THE START OF THE FAMILY AND WAGNER'S RELATIONSHIP WITH LISZT AND HIS MEETING WITH COSIMA THE BOOK BRINGS YOU RIGHT UP TO DATE WITH HIS FAMILY FEUDS AND HOW THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN FOUGHT FOR CONTROL OF THE BAYREUTH FESTIVAL AND IN MORE REGENT TIMES THEIR CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH HITLER AND THE NAZI PARTY.
A FAIRLY "HEAVY" READ BUT WELL WORTH THE EFFORT FOR WAGNERIANS AND NONE WAGNERIANS ALIKE.