A film by Jens Neubert
Music by Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt
Original music by Torsten Rasch

An exile from his native land following the failed revolution of 1848, the impoverished Richard Wagner is in Zurich working on his opera Tristan und Isolde. There he meets Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck, ardent admirers of his music. Wagner’s passionate and scandalous affair with Mathilde, whose poems he set to music, is explored in this feature film by director Jens Neubert. After their relationship ended, Wagner left Zurich for Italy, forever remembering Mathilde as ‘my first and only love’.

Joonas Saartamo stars as Wagner and is one of Finland’s best-known and most respected actors and won his first Jussi- Award (The Finnish Oscar) for Best Actor for his outstanding performance as the lead in Sakari Kirjavainen’s feature The Silence in 2012.

Sophie Auster is an admired singer. In 2016 Sophie was a grand prize recipient in The John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song Little Bird. In October 2017, she won the Cosmopolitan singer of the year award in Spain and has toured Europe and America with her most recent album Next Time. The lead single, Mexico, will be featured in the upcoming John Turturro film The Jesus Rolls.

In 2010, Jens Neubert directed Hunter’s Bride, a film-opera based on the opera Der Freischütz, which was invited to several festivals including Vancouver, São Paulo, and was nominated for the Montreal World Film Festival – World Greatest Films.

German baritone Michael Volle sings on the soundtrack; he is one of the leading interpreters of German repertoire, singing at the Met in New York, the Berlin State Opera and at other major theatres, and was Singer of the Year, awarded by the magazine Opernwelt (2008 and 2014).

The conductor on the soundtrack is Eckehard Stier who has guest conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Dresdner Philharmonie, Staatskapelle Halle, Münchner Symphoniker, MDR Sinfonieorchester, and many others.

Cast:
- Mathilde Wesendonck: Sophie Auster
- Richard Wagner: Joonas Saartamo
- Minna Wagner: Julienne Pfeil (actor)
- Otto Wesendonck: Rüdiger Hauffe