Michael Trimble, Dale C. Hesdorffer, Robert Letellier and Gordon T. Plant, In Wagner’s Eyes: Casting Light on a Disputed Portrait

November 2019, Volume 13, Number 3, 20–31.

In Richard Wagner’s opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wotan is always portrayed as having one eye damaged. This is usually indicated by the singer covering the eye with a patch, a hat, hair or specific make-up. In a study of which eye has been selected as damaged in various productions of the Ring at several opera houses since the very first performances, we reported that 5.9 per cent of Wotans had their right eye covered and 94.1 per cent had their left eye covered. Our conclusion was that the predominant choice of the left eye as injured stemmed from Wagner himself. In this paper we comment on Wagner’s own eyes, and his visual problems.