Day: March 30, 2012

Front facade of Houghton Library

You’ve Got Mail: A bit of blackmail with that redemption?

Not surprisingly given his monumental achievements in the opera world, Richard Wagner was a bit of a control freak. We have ample evidence in his correspondence and even in the operas themselves, of back-room negotiation, power plays, and even the occasional blackmail of one kind or another. The complex performance and publication history of Tannhäuser…