Heritage of Fire

From the day of her birth in 1918, Friedelind Wagner had little choice but to cope with both the legacy and the burden of being a descendant of one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time, Richard Wagner. Friedelind Wagner was Richard Wagner’s independent-minded granddaughter. She was not the outcast of her family, as often claimed, but a heroic rebel. She despised her mothers adoration for Adolf Hitler and was the only member of the Wagner family who fled Germany in protest. Because of her strong opposition against the Nazi’s she went to England and later to New York with the help of the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini. Once she arrived in New York she broadcast, lectured and published against the Nazis. Later on she would write her memoirs: Heritage of Fire. The history connected to Wagner and Liszt is as overwhelming and ambivalent as his music. It’s a world in itself full of contradictions, love, conflicts, beauty and ideals. This is in many ways reflected in the life of Friedelind Wagner and in the music of Wagner and Liszt.