Oliver Hilmes (born 1971 in Viersen, Germany) is a German author who has written several historical biographies. His study of Cosima Wagner, [1] the daughter of the 19th century composer Franz Liszt and his biography of Alma Mahler a Viennese-born socialite, have been translated into English.
Oliver Hilmes studied history, political science and psychology at Marburg University, the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Potsdam. He earned his doctorate with a dissertation on the history of the 20th century and has worked since 2002 for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been active as personal adviser to the general manager on such projects as the introduction of the Berlin Philharmonic's Education Program and the conversion of the orchestra into a foundation.
Oliver Hilmes achieved prominence through his biographies of Alma Mahler-Werfel, Cosima Wagner, [2] [3] Franz Liszt and Bavarian King Ludwig II. [4]
Tilman Krause, the literary critic of the German daily newspaper “Die Welt” described him in 2007 as the “Wunderkind among the German biographers”. [5]
Oliver Hilmes is on the board (from 1996–2013 as executive director) of the Karg-Elert Society, which promotes the study of the artistic and academic works of composer and music theoretician Sigfrid Karg-Elert. [6]
In 2016 he discovered the residency card of Richard Friedländer, a German Jew, in Berlin's residence archives, which affirms that Magda Goebbels was his biological daughter. [7]
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen,. It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, on 13 August 1876.
Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner, and with him founded the Bayreuth Festival as a showcase for his stage works; after his death she devoted the rest of her life to the promotion of his music and philosophy. Commentators have recognised Cosima as the principal inspiration for Wagner's later works, particularly Parsifal.
Siegfried Helferich Richard Wagner was a German composer and conductor, the son of Richard Wagner. He was an opera composer and the artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1908 to 1930.
Wolfgang Wagner was a German opera director. He is best known as the director (Festspielleiter) of the Bayreuth Festival, a position he initially assumed alongside his brother Wieland in 1951 until the latter's death in 1966. From then on, he assumed total control until he retired in 2008, although many of the productions which he commissioned were severely criticized in their day. He had been plagued by family conflicts and criticism for many years. He was the son of Siegfried Wagner, who was the son of Richard Wagner, and the great-grandson of Franz Liszt.
Harry Alfred Robert Kupfer was a German opera director and academic. A long-time director at the Komische Oper Berlin, he worked at major opera houses and at festivals internationally. Trained by Walter Felsenstein, he worked in the tradition of realistic directing. At the Bayreuth Festival, he staged Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer in 1978 and Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1988. At the Salzburg Festival, he directed the premiere of Penderecki's Die schwarze Maske in 1986 and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss in 2014.
Christian Thielemann is a German conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. He was artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2013 to 2022, and a regular conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. He also makes regular guest appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2020, Thielemann was appointed honorary professor at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden.
Henryk Marcin Broder is a Polish-born German journalist, author, and TV personality.
Peter Longerich is a German professor of history. He is regarded by fellow historians, including Ian Kershaw, Richard Evans, Timothy Snyder, Mark Roseman and Richard Overy, as one of the leading German authorities on the Holocaust.
Wahnfried was the name given by Richard Wagner to his villa in Bayreuth. The name is a German compound of Wahn and Fried(e).
Wagner is a 1983 television miniseries on the life of Richard Wagner with Richard Burton in the title role. It was directed by Tony Palmer and written by Charles Wood. The film was later released on DVD as a ten-part miniseries.
Marie ("Mimi") Baronessvon Schleinitz was an influential salonnière of the early German Reich in Berlin and one of the most important supporters of Richard Wagner.
Mahler on the Couch is a 2010 German film directed by Percy Adlon and Felix Adlon. It is an historical drama depicting an affair between Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius, and the subsequent psychoanalysis of Mahler's husband Gustav Mahler by Sigmund Freud.
Eva Maria Chamberlain was the daughter of Richard Wagner and Cosima Wagner, and the wife of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. When she was born, her mother was still married to Hans von Bülow. Through her mother, she was also a granddaughter of Franz Liszt. With her siblings Isolde and Siegfried, Eva was brought up by a house teacher.
Isolde Josefa Ludovika Beidler was the first child of the composer Richard Wagner and his wife, who is generally known as Cosima Wagner.
Martin Geck was a German musicologist. He taught at the Technical University of Dortmund. His publications concerned a number of major composers. Among the composers in whom he specialised was Johann Sebastian Bach.
Ludwig Karpath was an Austrian musicologist.
The Bayreuth premiere cast of Parsifal lists the contributors to the new productions of Richard Wagner's inaugural stage play Parsifal, including the premiere, which took place on 26 July 1882 at the Bayreuth Festival.
Johannes Hans Bastiaan was a German violinist. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for over 40 years. From 1945 to 1970, he served as primarius of the Bastiaan Quartet.
Rüdiger Schaper is a German writer, journalist and theatre critic.
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