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The Life and Works of Richard Wagner (1913): Becce, Froelich and Messter

This chapter researched and explores the rare early film biography of Richard Wagner, which is probably the very first feature length “bio-pic” of its kind. The work of three of the German silent cinemas most important and influential practitioners (Giuseppe Becce, Carl Froelich and Oskar Messter), the author/researcher worked on restoring the film to a screenable condition, providing new English-language inter-titles, and collaborated with the British composer, Barry Seaman, on the creation of a new orchestral score, with the objective of making the film available to a contemporary audience.

The original film restoration was commissioned by the Wagner Society of Northern California, which hosted the premiere screening of the new version. The author wrote and presented an introductory lecture to this screening and the numerous ones which followed internationally. The author also introduced the film and took part in discussion panels at the College Conservatoire of Music, University of Cincinnati in Spring 2009, as part of a conference celebrating Wagner’s relationship to cinema, an event from which this chapter and collection subsequently emanated.

This work has further led on to collaboration with the award-winning film director Tony Palmer, which has resulted in the creation of a commercial DVD release of the original film in 2011.