Stephen Fry - Wagner and Me

If you don't share Stephen Fry's enthusiasm for Wagner then you will find this experience quite irritating and sometimes embarrassing as Stephen is besotted over this composer almost to the point of incomprehensibility. For Stephen it is all about the music itself, it seems, whereas if he had delved into the content of the opera myths themselves he would have seen a more close and sinister connection between the characters of these warped myths and the ideology of Nazism: Siegfried, the young man who does not understand fear, amoral and self-absorbed always seems to me the archetypical Nazi youth. I thought the best scene was the interview with the lady cellist who had suffered Auschwitz who asked what all the fuss about Wagner was and Stephen Fry looked rather tongue-tied! Yes, the music is great but the wrappers of the sweets are concealing a more bitter tasting object underneath.

A very moving documentary, something a lot of people can relate to. Maybe not for the love of Wagner but the love of something which may have been tainted by hate or persecution. I like how it is such a person documentary not just purely factual.

A fantastic, very informative and emotional documentary. Stephen Fry is fantastic, and his interviews and personal accounts of experiences are well worth watching. A must-have for any rental list!