Avner Dorman | Wahnfried

World premiere recording of a brandnew opera about the Wagner clan under the musical direction of the Wagner specialist Justin Brown.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain is a failed entomologist, a Darwin enthusiast that cannot bring himself to kill a single bug. Unable to come up with his own grand theory, Chamberlain is looking for a different cause, a calling that would give meaning to his life. He finds his calling in the music of Richard Wagner, and in German nationalism.
Wagner’s widow, Cosima, enlists Chamberlain to lead the effort to immortalize Wagner’s music and link it forever with German nationalism. Chamberlain leaves his first wife and marries Wagner’s daughter Eva. He proceeds to write his magnum opus “The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century”, a book that becomes a seminal work in German nationalism. It is the first major work that advocates Aryan supremacy and promotes fighting Jewish influence.
Wahnfried tells the story of how Wagner’s music became associated with Nazism and how Cosima Wagner, Houston Chamberlain, and other members of the Wagner circle, became a central part of nationalism in Germany.

Worldwide Release in July 2020
Cat.No. 109383 (DVD)

Genre Opera
Recording location Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
Production year 2017
Duration 138 mins
Video format DVD / NTSC
Audio format PCM Stereo
Composer Avner Dorman
Orchestra / Band Badische Staatskapelle
Conductor Justin Brown
Soloist Houston Stewart Chamberlain MATTHIAS WOHLBRECHT Cosima Wagner CHRISTINA NIESSEN Anna Chamberlain KS. BARBARA DOBRZANSKA Siegfried “Fidi” Wagner ANDREW WATTS Winifred Wagner KS. INA SCHLINGENSIEPEN Eva Chamberlain AGNIESZKA TOMASZEWSKA Wagnerdämon KS. ARMIN KOLARCZYK Der Meisterjünger (Hitler) ELEAZAR RODRIGUEZ Hermann Levi RENATUS MESZAR