Richard Wagner

Wagner lived from 1813 – 1883 and was

born in Leipzig, Germany.

Wagner was different from most other musicians of his time due to his talents as a composer, a conductor, a music theorist, and an essayist.

“I only remember that one evening I heard a symphony of Beethoven’s for the first time, and it set me in a fever, and on my recovery, I had become a

musician.”

A life changing moment:

Wagner became involved in politics when a nationalist movement was gaining force in the independent German States, calling for constitutional freedoms and the unification of the weak princely states into a single nation. Wagner played an enthusiastic role in this movement, receiving guests at his house that included the editor of the radical left-wing paper and a Russian anarchist. Widespread discontent against the Saxon government came to a head in April 1849, when King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony dissolved Parliament and rejected a new constitution pressed upon him by the people. The May Uprising broke out, and the revolution was quickly crushed.

Warrants were issued for the arrest of the revolutionaries. Wagner had to flee, first to Paris and then to Zürich. Wagner spent the next twelve years in exile. He had completed Lohengrin before the Dresden uprising, and now wrote desperately to his friend Franz Liszt to have it staged in his absence. Liszt, who proved to be a friend in need, eventually conducted the premiere in Weimar in August 1850.

The "Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin, by Wagner, is the standard march played for the bride's entrance at most formal weddings in the US and at many weddings throughout the Western world. In English-speaking countries it is generally known as the "Wedding March" (though actually "wedding march" refers to any song accompanying the entrance or exit of the bride, most often Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March") or "Here

Comes the Bride".

Der Ring des Nibelungen: The cycle is modeled after

ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three

tragedies and one satyr play.

The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the Nibelung dwarf, Alberich from gold stolen from the river Rhine. Several mythic figures struggle for possession of the Ring

Both the libretto and the music were written by Richard Wagner over the course of twenty-six years.

Der Ring des Nibelungen:

Wagner was inspired by the poet-writer Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the silk merchant Otto von Wesendonck. Wagner met the Wesendoncks in Zürich in 1852. Otto, a fan of Wagner's music, placed a cottage on his estate at Wagner's disposal. By 1857, Wagner had become infatuated with Mathilde. Though Mathilde seems to have returned some of his affections, she had no intention of jeopardising her marriage, and kept her husband informed of her contacts with Wagner. Nevertheless, the affair inspired Wagner to put aside his work on the Ring cycle (which would not be resumed for the next twelve years) and begin work on Tristan und Isolde, based on the Arthurian love story of the knight Tristan and the (already-married) Lady Isolde.

Ludwig II of Bavaria

Wagner's fortunes took a dramatic upturn in 1864, when King Ludwig II assumed the throne of Bavaria at the age of 18. The young king, an ardent admirer of Wagner's operas since childhood, had the composer brought to Munich. He settled Wagner's considerable debts, and made plans to have his new opera produced. After grave difficulties in rehearsal, Tristan und Isolde premiered to enormous success at the National Theatre in Munich in 1865.

In the meantime, Wagner became embroiled in another affair, this time with Cosima von Bülow, the wife of the conductor Hans von,, one of Wagner's most ardent supporters and the conductor of the Tristan premiere. Cosima was the illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt and 24 years younger than Wagner. Liszt disapproved of his daughter seeing Wagner, though the two men were friends. In April 1865, she gave birth to Wagner's illegitimate daughter, who was named Isolde. Their indiscreet affair scandalized Munich, and to make matters worse, Wagner fell into disfavor amongst members of the court, who were suspicious of his influence on the king. In December 1865, Ludwig was finally forced to ask the composer to leave Munich. He apparently also toyed with the idea of abdicating in order to follow his hero into exile, but Wagner quickly dissuaded him.

Ludwig installed Wagner at a villa beside Switzerland's Lake Lucerne. Die Meistersinger was completed at Tribschen in 1867, and premiered in Munich the following year. In October, Cosima finally convinced Hans von Bülow to grant her a divorce. Richard and Cosima were married in 1870. (Liszt would not speak to his new son-in-law for years to come.) On Christmas Day of that year, Wagner presented the Siegfried Idyll for Cosima's birthday. The marriage to Cosima lasted to the end of Wagner's life. They had another daughter, named Eva, and a son named Siegfried.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is one of the most popular operas in the repertory, and the longest still commonly performed today,

usually taking around five hours.

The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the 16th century. The story revolves around the real-life guild of Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often master craftsmen in their main professions. The Meistersingers developed a craftsman like approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing

songs.

The Flying Dutchman (German title: Der fliegende Holländer), is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner. Wagner originally wrote it to be performed without intermission — an example of his efforts to break with tradition — and, while today's opera houses sometimes still follow this directive, it is most often performed in three acts. The central theme is redemption through love, which Wagner returns to in most of his subsequent operas. This work marks the first major shift in Wagner's work away from conventional opera and towards music drama. That is, rather than relying on a series of individual songs with clear boundaries, he created an uninterrupted melody filled with leitmotifs (literally, "leading motifs") associated with the characters and themes. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with a well-known ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman motifs. The story comes from the legend of the Flying Dutchman, about a ship captain condemned to sail until Judgement Day. Wagner claimed in Mein Leben that the inspiration was partly autobiographical, arising during his stormy sea crossing in July and August 1839, but a more likely source is Heinrich Heine's retelling in his Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski.

Parsifal is Wagner’s final opera. It is loosely based on Eschenbach’s Parzival, the medieval (13th century) epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for The Holy Grail. In Wagner's opera the hero Parsifal recovers the spear used to pierce Christ during his crucifixion. Wagner first conceived the work in 1857, but it was not completed until twenty-five years later. Wagner preferred to describe Parsifal not as an opera, but as "ein Bühnenweihfestspiel" - "A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage".