Osmo Vänskä conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in Havana, Cuba in May 2015. Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Richard Wagner Richard Wagner artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music
Lorin Maazel conducting Mozart's Symphony No. 40 — with no score — live at Carnegie Hall on March 3, 2012. Melanie Burford for NPR hide caption
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld and his wife Malwina were Wagner's original Tristan and Isolde in 1865. Joseph Albert/Wikimedia Commons hide caption
Gods, monsters and Rhinemaidens populate Richard Wagner's 16-hour epic Ring cycle. Marco Secchi/Getty Images hide caption
Sarah Joy Miller as Anna Nicole Smith in Anna Nicole by Mark-Anthony Turnage, the final production from the New York City Opera, which closed its doors for good this fall. Stephanie Berger hide caption
It was a big year for extravagant classical box sets. Denise DeBelius/NPR hide caption
The Valkyries, led by Brunnhilde (soprano Debra Voigt, lower left), are the warrior maidens of Richard Wagner's epic Ring cycle. Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera hide caption
Richard Wagner was a larger than life figure, and his innovations as a composer changed Western music forever. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption
The Self-Help Guide To Wagner
Rudolph Cronau's drawing of Wagner's opera house, Bayreuth, flanked by his birthplace (left) and place of death. Wikimedia Commons hide caption
Tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Petra Stadler/courtesy of the artist hide caption
Washington National Opera on World of Opera -- The Flying Dutchman
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