The Society has a library of English and foreign-language (mostly German, obviously) books available to serious researchers. Requests for access can be made by e-mailing the Society.

 On another note, I am seeking to expand the Library`s collection of Wagner performances given in this country so that it is truly representative of British Wagner.  Already “gathered in” are performances dating back to the legendary Coronation season of 1936-1937 consisting of Tristan (both the infamous EMI “Reiner/Beecham” mixture and single performances from 1936 under Reiner and 1937 under Beecham), together with extended excerpts from Reiner`s 1937 Hollander and 1937 Parsifal.  Furtwangler`s Ring is represented by excerpts from Gotterdammerung and the complete Walkure 3^rd Act – the complete Ring is rumored to exist in private hands but regrettably not ours. 

 The 1950s provides a fairly rich haul taking in Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Meistersinger in 1951 (sadly lacking the third act) and Ring operas under Kempe and Konwitschny.   Solti`s 1960s tenure at Covent Garden provides a complete Ring from 1963 supplemented by a 1965 Parsifal and Tristan from 1962 and 1971, which latter year also provides Sir Reginald Goodall conducting Parsifal.  From later in that decade we have Sir Colin Davis` complete Ring and his Tristan.

 More recent years bring performances by the country`s regional opera companies of Tristan, Tannhauser, & Hollander, together with London performances of Meistersinger, Hollander, Lohengrin, and Parsifal, under conductors as varied as Dohnanyi, Daniel, Haitink, and Gergiev.  We also have some single Acts from operas such as Solti performing Parsifal Act 2 at the Proms 1965 and Goodall doing Act 3 in 1985.

 The Society also has a rather smaller collection of video recordings of most of the major operas.  This collection is currently being expanded by a number of DVDs, all Region 2 and PAL format.