Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>A friend has lent me a 5-hour video of "Wagner", starring Richard Burton.
>Leonard Maltin's tome was less than enthusiastic, but I'd be interested
>in others' opinions before investing that much time.

While it's far from a great film, I found it enjoyable from several points
of view. It takes liberties with some biographical details and, if you
don't already have a modest grasp of Wagner's biography, you'll spend a lot
of time wondering what's going on.

Although Burton looks far too old for the Wagner of 35 whom we first meet,
and though he never looks anything like the historical Wagner, he does
put across a coherent characterization. (Coherent doesn't necessarily
mean correct, of course.) One of the surprising little pleasures of this
not-so-little film is how much many of the actors look like the real people
they portray. Liszt and Cosima come particularly to mind, but there are
others. The portrayal of Ludwig II is pretty good, and John Gielgud (sp?)
is outstanding as the chancellor whose name I've never learned to
pronounce.

Will the five hours be well spent? I'd say so.

Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other pages at
http://www.magi.com/~richard/