Barry Millington

As well as editing The Wagner Journal, Barry Millington is chief music critic for the London Evening Standard, a lecturer for Martin Randall Travel and an obituary writer for the Guardian. He additionally works as a dramaturg, chiefly in collaboration with Keith Warner.

He has been thinking and writing about Wagner for more decades than he cares to admit, and likes to consider himself a bridge between the academic community and lay Wagner enthusiasts.

  

 Photo: John Batten

 

Barry says:

When I started The Wagner Journal (briefly with Stewart Spencer) in 2007, the purpose was to provide a forum where informed opinion on Wagner and his works could be exchanged in the depth at which the subject demands. After many years of writing for other periodicals among whose priorities the manifold glories of Der Ring der Nibelungen did not loom large, I decided that the only way to do it was by going independent. There was no way of knowing whether one would be able to source enough high-quality scholarly material that would be accessible to the intelligent lay reader, or whether enough Wagner-lovers would want to find time in their busy lives to digest it. Nor was it possible to tell in advance whether the finances would stack up.

Looking back nearly two decades later, even I am astonished at the huge and endlessly stimulating range of approaches to Wagner we have been able to accommodate. And with the loyalty of our subscriber base and the generosity of many benefactors, I’m delighted to say we have been able to continue producing the journal with only one small rise in the cover price (in 2013), at the same time maintaining the high production standards we set from the first issue.          

 With the support of my esteemed colleagues Tash Siddiqui (associate editor) and Richard Laing (reviews editor), and of the distinguished members of the editorial board whose authority underpins it, I have every hope and expectation that the journal will be able to continue as long as the Wagnerian community seeks spiritual nourishment at the grail.