Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 3,18 Oct 2012,45 mins

Available for over a year

In the late 1860s Wagner, already hailed as a genius, was in the process of bringing the first two parts of the Ring Cycle to the stage; Nietzsche was an upcoming classicist and philosopher, the youngest man ever to have been made Professor in a German university. The friendship that developed between the two is documented in a vast collection of letters and writings, reflecting one of the most resonant cultural and philosophical scenes of 19th century Europe. In a special edition Anne McElvoy maps the intellectual development which informed Wagner's work. Producer Gavin Heard.

Programme Website
More episodes