Michael Henderson

Converted to the Master

Michael Henderson has been to 100 operas by Wagner. He wasn’t always an admirer of the music

issue 18 July 2009

Michael Henderson has been to 100 operas by Wagner. He wasn’t always an admirer of the music

When sceptics ask how I ‘found’ the music dramas of Richard Wagner there is an obvious, contrary answer: I didn’t; he found me. As a young music-lover I was certainly no Wagnerian in the making. Although I had always had a love of the orchestra, and slipped easily into the initially perplexing world of opera, I had little knowledge of Wagner, and no desire to find out.

If anything I felt hostile. A master at prep school had entertained some of us 12-year-olds one Sunday afternoon, and popped on an LP called, improbably, Wagner’s Greatest Hits. One day, he counselled, as we tittered, we would grow out of pop, and open our ears to other kinds of music. His intentions were noble but the famous blast of trumpets that heralds the third act of Lohengrin nearly put me off Wagner for life.

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