Siegfried Wagner Footage

[wmialil]

I have just found a 78 - Siegfried Wagner conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing the Siegfried Idyll. It is on three sides. Recorded in the 1920s I imagine. An interesting combination so soon after the First War.

[pointreyes6]

I wonder if he saw Mahler conduct? Anyone know

[klavierczar]

I have a recording of him conducting excerpts from his father's operas.interested?

[JamesraynorII]

@klavierczar yes

[Doromir]

He actually wrote more operas than his father. I have lived over 20 years in Germany but have never heard a single opera by Siegfried Wagner. Anybody have something to post? Could be interesting

[MissFireMagic]

@Doromir There are short excerpts from his operas Der Kobold and Der Schmied von Marienburg on Youtube.

[truefakeness]

Is it true that he was a Nazi sympathizer? Or was it the case that he was against the Nazis because he was homosexual?

I think I've heard both before and I don't know which is true, and can't seem to find information on this topic.

[MissFireMagic]

He was against hoodlums.

[robcat2075]

You won't find much. He's not a figure of great historical interest. But i think it's safe to say that Nazis were rather after his time and not during.

[Doromir]

Well, the Nazis were not in power during Siegfried Wagner's lifetime but they were certainly an issue in Germany. They had been a force to recon with for many years before winning the election in 1933

[robcat2075]

I suppose the most suggestive evidence is that his wife, Winifred, had a personal dalliance with Hitler beginning in 1923. We could argue either way as to whether that disposed him favorably or unfavorably to the Nazi's. ;-)

[1495dja]

Actually, what I heard was the Siegfried tried to dissociate himself from Hitler and the Nazis, despite his wife's fondness for them- He was also the first person to allow Jewish people both to work at and to attend Bayreuth. It seems he had several Jewish friends too- if one studies any of his operas one will find an incredibly strong anti-fascist presence including at the end of "Der Friedensengel" a chorus of angels proclaiming we must live by "peace, freedom, love and good"

[robcat2075]

I don't know about him being the first to let Jews buy tickets to Bayreuth, but his father beat him to it on letting them work there, since he hired Hermann Levi to conduct there, even premiering Parsifal.