Michael Downes begins his acknowledgements by mentioning the friends who ‘expressed well-meaning scepticism about whether such a volume was really needed’, a reasonable concern, given the huge quantity that has been published about Wagner’s magnum opus in the 150 years since its premiere. Fortunately, Downes finds an interesting angle, focussing on the genesis of the work, and taking us through its protracted conception. This allows plenty of scope for historical context, and for discussions of Wagner’s artistic decisions. The result is a consciously user-friendly companion to the Ring cycle, concise and amiable in a way that its subject matter conspicuously is not.

As a framing device, Downes begins and ends at performances of the Stefan Herheim production in Berlin, first in 2022 and then again in 2024, to report how his experience of writing the book has changed his perceptions. Early on, he mistakes the bass trumpet used to represent the Rhinegold in this production for a Wagner tuba, though he describes the latter instrument and its use with admirable clarity later. He writes in the Prologue that ‘The Ring is a story not only from the nineteenth century, but also about it’. That view has been common currency at least since the Patrice Chéreau production in 1976 and is also suggested by the book’s title, but is not seriously explored in the text, which generally avoids such interpretive indulgences.

The main sources are first the composer’s autobiography, and then, from 1869, Cosima’s diaries. Both sources are acknowledged to be biased here, but are only rarely questioned on points of detail. We begin with a summary of Wagner’s years in Dresden, his earlier operas, and the events that led to his Zurich exile. The composer’s role in the Dresden uprising is detailed, but not the significance this might have on the political dimension of his work. ‘Sourcing the Story’ discusses the Germanic and Nordic source material. The accessibility of the discussion is welcome, in a subject that often gets bogged down in turgid historicism and linguistics. There are no quotes from Old Norse, for example, and discussions of secondary sources and 19^th-century philology are restricted to essentials.

Meanwhile, here are throughout, the narrative continues in the background, even as these specific discussions come to the fore. Present-tense narration dominates, but the chronology is not sufficiently precise to maintain this continuously. As a result, long sections often slip into the past tense – reading like diary entries – and occasionally into the future. The results can be jarring, although rarely to the point of outright confusion.

Wagner famously wrote the ‘poem’, the libretto, in reverse order, and then the music from beginning to end. When Downes reaches the point when work begins on the score, around 1853, he weaves the next 20 years or so of historical narrative into a discussion of the plot itself. This allows him to highlight all of the autobiographical elements and link them directly to the events of Wagner’s life. He relates the marital strife between Wotan and Fricka in Walküre to contemporaneous difficulties between the composer and his first wife, Minna. The love triangle between Sieglinde, Siegmund and Hunding is related to Wagner’s relations with the Wesendoncks. More prosaically, the sound of the forge in Siegfried is linked to a tinsmith shop across the road from Wagner’s home in Zurich.

A chapter is devoted to the construction of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and another to the preparations for the 1876 premiere. Downes gives a good feeling for the huge difficulties and financial burdens. He repeats, without attribution, the apocryphal story about Fafner’s neck supposedly being sent to Beirut, but all in the cause of a good story. More significantly, he emphasises the extend to which Wagner was unhappy with the first production, a fact deliberately overlooked by his widow and many other conservative producers since.

The later history of the Ring cycle is mapped though discussion of the Wieland Wagner productions and the Jahrhundertring, though nothing since from the Green Hill. The Nazi history is handled comprehensively but soberly. There is also detailed discussion of the Metropolitan Opera and its role in disseminating the work in the States.

For appendices: an engagingly written synopsis of each opera and a list or Further Reading, Viewing and Listening. I’m afraid I can’t endorse all the recommended recordings (the Krauss and Knappertsbusch Bayreuth cycles in place of Keilberth; Barenboim described as the leading Wagnerian conductor of his generation), but that only goes to show the range now available ­– Downes counts over 30 commercial audio recordings alone. The reading list is similarly expansive, seven pages and limited exclusively to English-language publications. Browsing through the authors here, it seems a pity that the book does not engage with some of the more radical interpreters of recent years – the names of Mark Berry and Roger Scruton stand out. But to do so would risk presenting the Ring cycle as philosophy or cultural allegory, whereas this book is clearly designed to encourage listeners to enjoy it on its own terms. 

Story of the Century is out now on Faber. faber.co.uk

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