Original subtitles

Siegfried.

Now our real child is born.

Baby...

Sweet baby.

Lovely child.

Our child.

'We were, I was very much afraid,

'going to find ourselves at war again.

'Bismarck of Prussia to fight France.

'He was set on it. France equally determined to fight Bismarck.

'Lt was only a question of when.

'And because Bavaria had lost her last war against Prussia,

'as we did, we were all going to have to fight alongside Bismarck,

'and like it.

'I didn't. Ludwig didn't like it.

'But an excuse was to be found

'to bring about one Germany at last.

'All the states under one Kaiser, and under Prussia, of course.

'Wagner's hopes for a united, strong Germany realised.

'The events which had to some extent started in Dresden

'were at last to come to fruition for Wagner,

'through war.

'Wotan rides,

'but first Lohengrin had to be persuaded,

'though he had little choice, little choice. '

What you must do...

The designs are not what I wish but that can be put right.

What is important is that we control the entire production without interference.

Now that Pfordten has been dismissed, we must, er... seize our chance.

And you, young master Richter...

You must be in a position of complete power,

able to grab them by their pizzles and twist some sense into them.

You will obey my instructions to the letter.

Now, Loge... You must tell Schlosser. Is it Schlosser who is to portray him?

You must tell him that he is to avoid being comic.

It could so easily become comic. This won't do.

His hair must be flames, red flames.

So at last it begins.

Wonderful. They look wonderful.

Where is everybody?

Switzerland. Everybody is in Switzerland, Majesty.

- Rheingold

- Rheingold

- Rheingold -

Mummy!

Mummy!

Tune those B flats, horns.

Fs, Fs. Tune the Fs.

Can't you read the notes? There are few enough of them, for God's sake.

- Dum... Da.

Louder, louder. I can't hear.

- Yaaa... da-da, da-da...

- Yaaa... Yaaa, da-daaa... -

That's better. Sing it, sing it. Breathe. Four bars.

Da-da... Not two bars. Four.

Longer phrases.

Stop, stop, stop.

It's terrible. You have to take it in four-bar phrases.

Breathe in. - Yaaa, da-daaa, da-daaa, da-daaa... -

No tugging in the middle. No taa-ta-taa, ta...

- Taaa-da-daaa, da-daaa -

Let's try it again. This time, come with my beat rather than yours.

Softer, horns. Softer.

Ssshhh! Just breathe. Just breathe.

That's good, that's good, that's good. Sweet, sweet.

Yes, but in four bars, cellos. Not two bars. Four bars.

Keep up with me. You're getting slower.

- Taaa-ta-taaaa, ta-taaaa, ta-taaaa -

No. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Terrible. Terrible.

Well?

It is as well we are employed.

Gloves and white neck cloth cost money.

What do you intend?

Well, you're still my wife. It's quite simple.

I see you. I want to be able to see you. Always.

I do not wish to see you ever again, until after we are divorced.

Wagner seduces everyone. You, me. Our children next.

Bülow, that is evil. That is shocking.

You owe everything to him, as I do.

- I have... - You owe everything to Wagner.

There's no small ability myself.

- Do you love him? - I do.

I do.

You were given the opportunity to be the finest, the greatest exponent of Wagner.

I am.

Or at least I have been.

I ask you because Wagner will never ask you himself.

No, of course he won't.

I shall not divorce you.

- Rheingold cannot be ready. - The King insists.

- Never mind the King. - Never mind the King?

You forget yourself, young man. If we do not mind the King,

we are in danger of not minding anything any more

for we will be away from Munich.

His Majesty expects the world premiere of this opera Rheingold tomorrow.

You, sir...

I am tired of being harangued by an absent composer.

His Majesty will expect to see a performance on such and such a day.

September 5th. I obey only Wagner.

The money that has been poured into this undertaking.

Singers travelling 200 miles to exercise their tonsils.

And not only this. What kind of an opera is this?

Herr Minister. This is the kind of opera that makes young women seasick.

The stage is flooded with water. There is no interval.

Giants, a dwarf, and a possible rainbow.

But most of all, the kind of opera it is, nobody's given a chance to sing properly.

I resign!

Herr Richter.

You are suspended.

I shall see Rheingold on the 5th September. It belongs to me.

I have paid for it. Wagner is being... impudent.

I want to see Rheingold.

I have waited too long. He sends me a telegram saying that it must be postponed.

I have every right, in view of the fact that I own the work, to see it when I wish to see it.

Majesty, your command.

However, I have been forced to suspend Richter.

- He was insufferable. - Find someone else!

They tried Lassen in Weimar, Herbeck in Vienna, Levi in Karlsruhe

and Saint-Saëns in Paris.

- Bülow? - Yes. None of them accepted.

- Possibly the chorus master, Wullner. - Tell him to get his hands off my score.

Let him conduct one of Perfall's operas, but not mine.

No chorus master will conduct anything of mine. Who is he, some Jew,

many times passed over?

I will hold a full piano rehearsal with scenery. Ah. He who portrays Wotan.

Thank God you are come, Richard.

They call me a spy because I write to you,

you, the genius who has done so much.

No, no. No, no. No. Herr Wagner, you are not permitted to enter the theatre.

- Wait here. I shall speak to the king. - Sir. The king is not in Munich.

'My dear Hans.

'I learn from Richter

'that now you have submitted your resignation from the theatre in Munich,

'intend to leave Germany,

'and that you wish me to give my views about the fate of our children

'and the disposal of our property?

'Lf you are leaving Munich

'because you feel incapable any longer

of enduring the intrigues and unpleasantness

by which you are surrounded and overwhelmed,

'permit me to say you are wrong.

'Your character's well-known. There's nobody who does not respect you,

'and everything which causes an indignant outcry will be directed against me.

'Ln the first place, I am a woman who is expected to uphold the moral order.

'Ln the second place, I am a mother

'and I appear to be sacrificing my own children.

'And in the third place, you are a man of honour whom I married of my own free will.

'Whatever my good intentions, I have never made you happy.

'I do not believe that you can scoff at these feelings.

'And it is in their name that I ask you

'whether you have the strength to separate from me officially

'to allow me to bring up our children

'and to remain in contact with me.

'Of course, the world and your family are within their rights

'in advising you not to leave the bringing up of our children to me,

for they claim the right to see me simply as a woman who has broken her sacred vows

'to indulge... her passion. '

He can rave about how good Rheingold was. Of course it wasn't.

How could it be? As for Valkyrie, well, we'll see.

But he won't have Siegfried because I haven't finished Siegfried.

Have I? Have I, Fidi? It will remain very carefully unfinished.

Until I get my own theatre

in which to perform the whole Ring in the way it should be performed.

You should go to Munich to see what they've done with Rheingold.

- Did you see it? - I refused out of respect for your feelings.

- Perhaps you should. - I'll never go to Munich again.

The king would not see me. The theatre was closed to me. Never again.

Ludwig owns me, owns me and my works,

but I shall never condone his action by going to see my work travestied.

- That is good news. - Ah, Judith.

The light in your eyes.

Look at Fidi. His eyes.

Somebody said of him that he has a sword in his eyes.

'The French. Look at them. The Jew, Mendes. Famous critic, likes my work.

'Must be mad. Brought his friend Villiers, another mad Frenchman.

'As for his wife, daughter of Gautier, another critic, look at her. '

How would you like to go bird's nesting in that girl's garden? Huh?

I shall.

Richard, what are you doing?

Climbing, climbing.

You French must do something to expiate your crimes.

- Crimes? - The crimes of France. Nietzsche?

Nobody will deny that France has given the world a great deal. Ah.

Is it criminal for France to defend herself?

Yes. It is a great crime to resist the civilising influence of the German peoples.

Whatever the arguments between France and Bismarck

over who should be on the throne of Spain or wherever,

there is a struggle between the French and Germans over who should lead Europe.

A war will solve the problem.

And I hope it will also lead to a united Germany at last.

I believe that this is the first intention of Bismarck.

In this noble aim, France has a part to play. You must be defeated, and soundly.

And you will be. For the French character in comparison with the German

is appallingly narrow, filled with false poetry, false logic, misplaced eloquence.

You have forgotten how to be Frenchmen, a once noble race akin to the German race.

Brothers, searchers of the grail.

You have become Parisians, kept women.

Streetwalkers, whores.

Paris. Femme entretenue of the world.

Paris. Oh, I see I have shocked you.

When we knew you were coming, we thought it might be unpleasant to have you,

even though you are friends, because of your country declaring war.

But I determined to try and help you understand.

Sit you down, feed you, dash some cold water on you,

in the hope that some French at least will come to their senses.

What does the Herr Professor say on that?

- I'm frightened. - No. No.

I'm frightened that we might not win. Very frightened.

But it is only through a new, united Germany that I can see hope for the world.

We must break our intellectual subservience to France,

break it once and for all.

We must win.

I regret I have become a Swiss citizen. I cannot fight myself.

- Would I could rejoin my regiment. - But you were wounded last time.

I sustained a chest injury while mounting my horse.

I have made enquiries. The only way I can get involved is in the ambulance service.

This I shall do.

How noble. I wish I could do the same.

Oh, no, Cosima. That would never do.

You'd be shot as a spy. She has the regrettable habit of crying out in her sleep.

In French.

Might I remind you of something you said years ago?

You said something to the effect that in longing for German grandeur,

the German usually dreams of nothing other than a revival of the Holy Roman Empire.

Such an idea filling even the most good-natured German

with an unmistakable appetite for mastery,

and a craving for supremacy over other people.

Good night, Herr Wagner, Frau von Bülow.

Typical Frenchman.

Gentlemen, is there any more to be said?

No, Majesty.

No.

Hohenlohe, is there no way of avoiding war with France?

No. I've been to Berlin.

The King of Prussia and Bismarck are determined on it.

I fear so.

This time with France.

Yes.

At least this time there's a chance of being on the winning side.

Is there?

The ordinary people of Bavaria would rather have a century of France

than a year of Prussia.

Our treaty which brought about the end of our disagreements with Prussia

means that we are expected to fight with Prussia.

However, I'm trying very hard to actually avoid doing so.

I shall do it in French, hmm?

J'ordonne la mobilisation.

French body over here!

'The little professor is gone to war. '

- 'Who? ' - 'Nietzsche. Gone to war. '

'I should go. I should volunteer. '

'No, you're an artist.

'The duty of military service rests with the ordinary person,

'especially those that are German, indeed, also those who are not.

'The Jews, certainly,

'a race that accepts all from Germany but rarely contributes.

'All Jews would profit from service in the German army.

'They would thus gain a German attitude and be the better for it. '

'Are the Jews not Germans? '

'No, Loldi, they're not. They are the Nibelungen. Nibelungen.

'Ah. I shall suggest that Bismarck brings back the beating of women

'just as soon as he's beaten the French, what?

'With words. My words. '

'Is there going to be anything coming from this frightful misery?

'Do I want greatness to come from this?

'Must I not only bear this but love it?

'Wagner, are you not perhaps looking at things too simply?

'No, of course you're not. I write to you this.

'For the first time, I feel it.

'The strongest and noblest will to life

'does not reside in our puny struggle to exist

'but in the Will to Power.

'Yes.

'The Will to Power. '

- Dann der Trauben

- Nektar rauben

- Reihentanz und Spiel und Scherz

- Was die Sinnen

- Nur gewinnen

- Ach, erfüllt es je das Herz?

- Ach, erfüllt es je das Herz?

'So, I shall write and say in my diary

'for Thursday August 25th, 1870...

'Mmm... How shall I put it?

'This day at eight o'clock, we were married.

'Richard Wagner and I.

'Oh, may I be worthy of bearing that name?

'A very ordinary German name.

'But simply the most glorious German name.

'Bismarck has done it.

'What a christening present for Fidi.

'The local newspaper prints pictures of French soldiers.

'From them all, the wretchedness and degeneracy of the people stare out.

'Ln those bestial, besotted faces, one sees complete idiocy.

'Soon be Christmas, the winter upon us.

'Richard will want to perform as the great German hero Santa Claus.

'Yesterday, Richard read to me from his biography.

'And the shameless conduct of his wife Minna towards him made me shudder.

'When we returned from our walk, we found an Italian in the courtyard.

'His countenance moved me to pity.

'The whole eclipse of a nation was reflected in it like a dream.

'This race is likeable, but I doubt whether it is still capable of active deeds.

'Garibaldi is an old fool.

'There, that is what I shall write.

'About this day, plainly and dully, I will tell you what happened.

'As I awoke, my ear caught a sound

'which swelled ever fuller and fuller.

'No longer could I imagine myself to be dreaming.

'Music was sounding.

'And what music!

'When it died away, Richard came in with the five children

'and presented me with the score of the Symphonic Birthday Greeting. '

"'Now let me die," I exclaimed to Richard.

'He replied,

"'It would be easier to die for me than to live for me. "'

For you. Happy birthday.

A symphonic birthday greeting.

Bismarck.

The hero of the future.

And what will he do, this hero?

Rise up booted and spurred over the bodies of his neighbours?

Perhaps.

- Philosophers are out of place in war. - Philosophers!

They plunged us into the dark ages, the shits,

made us speculate on existence instead of getting on existing,

taking the only path apart from immolation

that could possibly alleviate the suffering of existence.

I refer, of course, to art.

Do you see the Greeks, after their golden revels, ever having very sore heads?

It's we who have had the sore heads, 2,000 years of sore heads,

brought about by philosophers.

And I include among them the hedge-priests,

and God chaunters...

...and brisket beaters

who taught us to despise ourselves,

made self-disgust the highest virtue given to man...

kicked our pride in the arse and left us nothing...

came between our pure, primitive and artistic yearnings

and our hearts... produced half-men.

We shall make man whole again.

Through art.

Do you tell that to your students?

Then money must be found! This castle will be built! I command it!

Your Majesty, it's other matters I would wish to press.

- Don't talk to me about other matters! - They are important.

There comes a time when messages cannot be passed from groom to king.

Groom? This is not a groom, this is my friend.

I had another friend, a great friend. They drove him away.

- I hear he has other friends now. - Other friends? Ha!

He makes approaches to the Kaiser.

He is suggesting a festival to be dedicated to the peaceful conclusion of the war

and asks for a subsidy from the Kaiser, suggesting a new theatre,

his theatre, in which to stage the festival.

His theatre? It will be our theatre, ours together.

I am his king and his friend, the only person who understands him.

Go away! Go away!

I can't hold the book, my fingers are freezing.

Let me.

"Let no one believe that the German spirit has forever lost its mystical home

"when it can still understand so plainly the voices of the birds that tell of that home. "

Listen, Nietzsche, listen.

I don't need to, Wagner. I wrote it.

You wrote it for me.

What are you, Wagner?

Listen. "Some day it will find itself awake in all the morning freshness,

"destroy vicious dwarfs, wake Brünnhilde,

"and even Wotan's spear will not stop its course. "

I wrote that before the war.

But it is even more true now, and inspiring.

Is it? Is it?

Is it?

Any theatre will do. Which is the biggest theatre?

Which opera house has the biggest stage in Germany?

Heavens. How would I know?

Come on. We'll find out.

Cosima?

- What is it? - Cosima.

Look at this.

My Christmas present to you.

A manuscript.

It's to be published. Please, give me your views.

It is wonderful. It is everything we believe to be true.

- Are you fully recovered? - I think so.

It was a glorious thing you did. It must have been such a privilege.

To see a real German army take the field, how it must have inspired you.

I don't think discipline in war, courage in battle,

the actions of heroes and leaders,

unity, obedience, duty,

has anything to do with culture.

- Do you not? - Cosima.

Which opera house has the largest stage in Germany?

I am not sure.

Bayreuth has the deepest stage.

Bayreuth?

I seem to remember.

Where is it? I've been there. Come, you're a soldier.

- Me? - Yes, where is it?

- Franconia? - Franconia, yes.

Here.

- Berlin here. - A small town, Protestant.

Yes, Berlin.

With Pfistermeister replaced by Lutz, who knows what that will bring?

Yes, Bayreuth, halfway between Berlin and Munich.

Halfway between Bismarck and the King.

Ideal.

- Wonderful. - Rococo. It won't do.

Can you see the Ring with all its primeval splendour here?

This is a Mozart house.

- I fear so. - You will go elsewhere?

No, no, no, my dear fellow. You don't get rid of us as easily as that. Does he?

Oh, no, Bayreuth has been decided on.

May I on behalf of the whole?

Madame Wagner...

May I, Madame Wagner, may I, on behalf of the whole?

Well, we will just have to build something of our own.

Ah...

We can't build anywhere else, not now.

My wife has decided on it. This house has failed us.

I shall not burn it down. I shall simply tower over it.

Herr Wagner.

The people of Germany have always loved you.

- May I on behalf of the? - Because I write pretty tunes?

No. Because you have helped us find our... destiny.

May I, on behalf of the whole?

This is where the King comes... where he stays when he comes to Bayreuth.

- When does he come to Bayreuth? - Well, not just yet, but should he come.

Herr Wagner, may I, on behalf?

- Well, he will now. - Yes.

- We're looking for a house. - And a hill for the theatre.

- We can't find a house. - Must it be on a hill?

- Of course. - We'll have to build a house.

- When we've built the theatre. - While we're building it.

Subscribers. I can conduct everywhere.

I can always make money conducting.

What we need is 1,000 subscribers at 1,000 marks each.

Then we won't need the King. He can go on building his castles and his follies.

There is a hill, just outside the town with nothing on it.

Herr Wagner, may I, on behalf of the whole?

And so, on this auspicious day...

to be remembered until the ends of recorded time...

on this glorious occasion...

amid so many loyal friends and with the blessing of your mayor,

I chose Bayreuth because it has no real standing theatre of its own.

Though Berlin wished me to build there,

Baden-Baden offered me a site, here in Bavaria in the centre of Germany,

near enough part of the kingdom of my beloved patron King Ludwig II,

who has... who has...

'... sent us this message, his seal,

'his own words, delivered to me to be placed within the foundation stone. '

'What did I say to him, my friend?

'From the depths of my soul,

'I sent him my warmest and sincerest congratulations on this day

'that is so significant for all Germany.

'He is building. So am I.

'Which of us will show the truth?

'Which of our creations will be the greater?

'Come and live with me

in my world, our world...

'... which I have created for you.

'Be blessed, my stone.

'Long may you stand and hold firm. That is what I wrote to him.

'Long may all my stones stand.

'Do you hear them, the stones singing of the glories of the past that was Germany?

'Gone, long ago, but living in my stones.

'Let our blessing and good fortune attend our great undertaking.

'Seal it in your stone, my friend. '

- At last! - What?

At last, this, coming together.

- What? - Well, it will come together. It has.

Yes, I'm convinced, after all the work.

- Money. - What? Oh, yes.

There isn't any. There just isn't enough to build a theatre.

We must have money to put something on.

There will be one performance, only one, that's all.

- You, what are you doing? - What?

- You, all of you? - The Wagner societies...

They're not getting the money. Not enough.

Do you know, some of them have the damned cheek to demand expenses?

Even so. This is something.

- What? - This.

Ah!

"'We are come looking for singers," said Wagner,

"'to every opera house in Germany, or so it seems. "

'The length and breadth of the country, they travelled,

'their ears assaulted by the most appalling noises,

'their imaginations never engaged beyond the initial bars,

'hearing music dragged or rushed.

'At every fresh place they hoped, hoped to find just one actor,

'one singer, not too far gone down the path of vulgarity to be of use.

'And all for his wonderful new theatre at Bayreuth. '

Herr Wagner! Water!

- I see that. - Struck water.

I intend to fill my house with water and fire, anyway.

'We all did our best to help set up Wagner societies,

'devoted to the raising of money for Bayreuth.

'Every German city had one.

'Ln Dresden, we had two.

'Banquets were given and the money trickled in slowly. '

'I propose a toast to all those, including the King,

'who subscribe to the building of our theatre...

'your theatre, and all those other dilettantes who have formed Wagner societies

'throughout the world, including America. '

'In England, we went to Windsor to see the Queen.

'A small woman, Richard said, and not very pretty.

'She stated she had heard of Herr Wagner.

'And wished him every success with his fundraising.

'Windsor, so dark and damp, and such hideous pictures.

'Some 20 concerts were planned in London at the Royal Albert Hall.

'But in the event, only eight were given. The concerts themselves were dreadful.

'The Queen asked how we found the music in England.

'Richard found it difficult not to answer that he was still looking for it. '

- Perhaps the theory is all. - What?

- I said... - I know. I don't theorise, Professor.

- You are not a musician. - No. No.

Do you write to the King?

I am coming to think that I know this world less and less.

I do believe that for all their banquets and compliments,

I am soundly hated by the whole of Germany.

- Does the King answer your letters? - What?

- What are you doing here? You? - I came to see you.

- To see this. - Piano compositions.

- Ah, yes. I hope you feel you can... - Piano compositions.

You write piano pieces.

Look. Look. Look at this. Look.

I hoped you would find my piano composition had some merit.

Bayreuth. Everything must relate to Bayreuth

and what we are trying to do here. Piano pieces do not.

What was that piece by Brahms left on the piano?

You insult me with Brahms. Jews, Jews, Jews!

They write vileness about me.

They must be attacked.

You must all attack them, all my friends, all those who are faithful to me.

There are proofs to be read, articles to be written, work to be done.

Nietzsche. What do you do? Piano pieces!

'I need no messages in my stones.

'I speak, I sing, I create my own poetry here.

'This is how it was. This is where the Meistersingers sang, our Meistersingers.

'Ours! I am the Swan Knight.

'Born to be another Wartburg. '

- Good, good. - Thank you.

I'm thinking of changing the title. What do you say?

Say?

Twilight Of The Gods is all right if you know what twilight means in this context.

But if the meaning isn't clear, the title is hardly precise enough.

- Judgment Of The Gods might be better. - What?

- Notung, Notung!

- Neidliches Schwert

- Was musstest du zerspringen? -

- Notung, Notung

- Neidliches... -

Rocks, rocks! Anyone can paint rocks. You don't have to squint at it.

For goodness' sake, hurry up.

Soft. Soft.

This is the Rhine, not a steam engine.

Softer, gentlemen. Softer, please.

Terrible!

Long phrases.

Softer, horns!

Three, figure three!

Keep up with me. You're getting close.

And...

- God knows where we are. - Are there still holes in the ceiling?

The building supervisor is doing what he can, but heavens!

There is worse. There is no hope of fitting all the musicians into that orchestra pit.

None.

Tune that top E flat.

Herr Richter, my violin strings have broken again. It's too hot down here.

- Yesterday the violin itself cracked. - Well, then, get it repaired.

It's almost impossible to find anyone to repair a violin.

- It will have to go to Munich. - Yes, yes. This town!

Everything costs twice as much as it did. Everything.

And this pit. It's like the engine room of a ship.

Richter. Ready to get off your arse and do some work?

Yes... Master.

- Morning, boys. Morning. - 'Only 702 subscriptions! '

I have done my best.

Yes, Herr Feustal, yes, you have.

5,200 marks. Enough to keep us running for two days.

- Wild im Walde wuchs ein Baum

- Den hab' ich im Forst gefällt

- Die braune Esche brannt' ich zur Kohl'

- Auf dem Herd nun liegt sie gehäuft -

I can't get up enough steam for the bridge to work the rainbow.

Why?

The simple fact is, Herr Wagner, we can't afford it.

I am told to save on vapours. They are considered expensive.

Never mind. Do something about the glare from the orchestra pit

during the Prelude to Rheingold. The effect is being entirely ruined.

- Apparently, your musicians need to see. - What? To play in an E flat and a B flat?

Two notes? Mad, mad.

- Well, it worked in Munich. - Did it?

We had one or two difficulties. Had to change the base.

The problem is the singers. Not exactly sylph-like, are they?

Then I'll try it.

- Hoi-ho! Hoi-ho!

Frau Wagner, was it not agreed there should be no free seats?

- Not even for rehearsals. - Yes, of course.

The Master wrote to every patron,

explaining that there was not to be any free seats, ever.

The entire Bayreuth Fire Brigade! Every man!

Admitted by Herr Wagner, gratis, free.

- I give up. - Shh!

- Hoi-ho!

- Hoi-ho, ho, ho! -

- For you and the children. - Master.

- What now, Brandt? - An instrument to replace the orchestra.

Richter! Richter, come and see this! It may mean the end of the world.

"If the Ring coincides with Germany's victories... "

Something...

I am not staying.

You must.

Cosima, he is not staying, he leaves us.

Why will you not?

I have admired you both, devoted my thoughts to you both, but...

Not me. It is none of it me.

I am sick, of that there's no doubt. I have the most dreadful headaches.

I really must take a cure somewhere.

Oh, all these people, Wagner! All these Germans who flock to Bayreuth!

The clubs, the societies, decked in ribbons,

blowing trumpets, slashing at each other with sabres,

spouting their anti-Semitic rubbish.

You.

You have the nerve to write that Christ was not a Jew, do you not?

Do you care?

To imagine you could herd all the Jews into a theatre

and then burn it to the ground.

As if that would solve the world problem.

Whatever you think the world problem is.

Not to mention a cellar full of silk, in boxes.

A house fit for a king, paid for by a king.

Children who treat you like a god, your tomb built already, waiting to receive your body.

That picture.

The Holy Family.

Claptrap, mumbo-jumbo and claptrap!

Not you, your music will still rise above the posturing,

but this is all play-acting.

You're a small-time theatre manager who by some strange trick of fate

has been given the biggest, most glittering, over-decorated barn

to call a theatre ever, and it is all to you!

Opera! There's nothing else of value to you. The whole of Germany must flock to you.

In your estimation, they fought their wars simply so that you might tug on a curtain

and shout, "See the face of art!" As according to Wagner.

And what we sometimes call the Almighty,

those of us who should know better.

The Cross, the Grail, the Search!

"Suicide, the purest form of birth. " Claptrap!

Silk-clad dances of glee at the rare show you have persuaded

a poor deranged royal romantic to buy all the tickets for...

and pay for the tambourines into the bargain.

I have things to do.

I have hopes and aims beyond Bayreuth.

You have come into your own.

You know what it is the people want, your so-called German people.

You know what this age brought about by war and the yearnings for power

is in the market for.

You throw it all together.

Music, war,

death, ecstasy,

torment, bangs and crashes,

floods and conflagrations,

exquisite neuroses,

obsessions.

Sensual and profane hand-in-hand with vulgar coarse twitchings of sexual fantasy.

And potent...

...real grandeur.

Dangerous, elevating and plunging and convincing stirrings

in such a soup will feed criminals as well as genius.

You're dangerous.

You're a dangerous man, Wagner.

You talk of gods but you know there is no god but Wagner.

Yet you have the power to convince fools...

they might become gods.

Not you, not you.

Know that I know you.

At last.

That which you create,

I would not want to answer for its effect on a nation sniffing at power.

Well, tomorrow.

Majesty.

You came, you came.

At last.

- From here you can see it. - Yes.

It has taken five years, more.

We laid the foundation stone in May of 1872.

It poured with rain, I told you.

Last week, the rain was still coming through the roof.

All I've ever wanted. Our dream.

It's real.

- Your house? - Built.

The money you sent. And for the theatre. Most kind.

Everything...

ready.

Until the last minute, the very last minute, it was nearly impossible to show you anything.

We are letting you see it first in private, as you wished.

I hope the resonances won't be too much for you. It will be very loud.

After your Majesty has seen his own performance,

we will have the gala opening and let the Kaiser in with the others.

- Rheingold! Rheingold!

30 years ago, that... that... sent his soldiers to Dresden to crush us.

That prince who is now a Kaiser.

That dragon. Absurd!

Photographs. Photographs.

- Herr Wagner. - Majesty.

How future generations will envy us.

Those of us who have had the incomparable happiness of being with you...

now... at this moment.

Long after we both have ceased to be...

our work... will remain.

You. Majesty.

My co-creator.

You.

It has become... difficult.

It has become impossible.

Parsifal, yes.

Parsifal.

You had the nerve to suggest that Levi was baptised.

What?

Levi, the rabbi's son, the conductor of Parsifal.

What about him?

Baptised.

- About time. - No, no, no.

You wanted him baptised before he could conduct Parsifal.

He was very upset. He should have understood.

Things. Things.

- I conducted the last performance myself. - Yes, so you said.

There's always Bayreuth.

It still totters from day to day, from month to month.

Still no money.

The Ring performed in '76. Complete financial disaster.

We had to sell everything to pay for it.

Lighting, machinery, costumes.

Then Parsifal, the last, the last.

Well, they liked that. And it was good, very good.

And the money rolled in and I thought, at last some rest.

But no, always dries up.

Always.

Concertising all over Europe, just to try and keep a roof on the building.

Bayreuth is in danger of never opening again.

Money... I even thought of giving up and going to America.

- Do you want me to play it for you? - What?

- Very well, if you don't wish me to. - Do you remember Siena?

In Siena... that's where...

Siena... the cathedral.

That Russian. Joukowsky.

The painter.

I stole that from you, Liszt.

- What? What bit? - That bit.

Then there was that Miss Pringle, English girl.

A flower maiden.

Well, at least she was... until you.

Ah, Miss Carrie Pringle.

- Do you want me to play it for you? - What?

God has been my strength.

'Cosi worried about vulgarity,

'that such a work as Parsifal should not be sullied by vulgarity.

'She tells everyone now that we wanted no applause.

'I wanted applause.

'I have always wanted applause.

'I was thunderstruck when we did not get it.

'Thunderstruck. Hmm?

'He should have been baptised.

'Levi. '

You should have been baptised.

'I finished with Bismarck

'when he actually gave German Jews equal citizenship with the rest of us.

'I had three Jews working on Parsifal.

'All hard workers.

'Gifted even.

'Levi led me a dance.

'We still are friends. He has not abandoned me.

'Ah, the desertion of friends.

'The list is so long.

'Cornelius. Ritter.

'He was a booby but he could still be useful, still do something.

'Took Joukowsky there.

'Took him to Ravello in the south. The magic garden.

'Have you seen it? Have I shown it to you?

'Joukowsky knew what I wanted.

'I have shown everyone so much,

'given people such inspiration.

'Whoever accuses me of insincerity must answer for it to God,

'but whoever accuses me of arrogance is... a fool.

'Tausig.

'Do you remember Tausig? In Vienna?

'My surety?

'Surety.

'Now, there's a Jew who was tormented by his origins, tormented to death.

'Minna, dead.

'Nietzsche came to see me in Sorrento.

'I thought him still worth talking to,

'told him of Parsifal, the great Christian legend, expounded on it for him.

'All friendship dead there,

'too bound up in his wretched headaches and vomits, blind as a bat.

'I wrote to his physician to tell him to curb his masturbating.

'Nietzsche masturbates, you know.

'I told him, persuade his patient to stop masturbating, eat vegetables

'and take cold-water plunges.

'They're all gone,

'all my so-called friends who would support me to the ends of life.

'Minna.

'Ludwig. '

I consider it the beginning.

Parsifal, a success.

It will be done everywhere.

Parsifal will never be done anywhere but in Bayreuth.

It must be kept for Bayreuth.

Bayreuth.

A madman's whim.

And the weather!

- Do you want me to play it for you? - What?

Your father, the old humbug.

- Humbug? - Yes, humbug.

The life he has led and now he fancies himself a priest.

The old lecher. Wants to play me his latest Ave Maria.

Get rid of him! I can't stand it any more.

Wasn't it you who said he inaugurated the new age?

Yes, in fingering.

Wagner! Wagner! Wagner!

Wagner! Wagner! Wagner!

Ludwig must go.

Ludwig must go.

- That bitch is here. - Bitch?

That English flower maiden.

Pringle.

Says she can't live without you. Beseeches you.

Hypocrite.

Lecher.

English flower maiden?

Min...

My... watch...

'Three years later,

'King Ludwig walked into the lake, arms up,

'drowning,

'seeking redemption,

'and died.

'Cosima held the dead body of Wagner for 25 hours, so I'm told...

'but herself lived on for another 47 years.

'While the theatre, the temple...

'on a hill outside Bayreuth...

'like that other hill

'outside that other city...

'so long ago.

'A temporary structure, still temporary...

'still there.

'And Wagner?

'Well... '