Richard Wagner

I

Introduction

Richard Wagner (1813-1883), German composer, conductor, and essayist, one of the most influential cultural figures of the 19th century. Through his creative work and his theoretical writings, Wagner revolutionized the concept and structure of opera.

II

Life

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig. His father died soon after his birth, and in 1814 the family moved to Dresden. In 1822 Wagner entered Dresden’s Kreuzschule. Here he became fascinated with ancient Greece and translated 12 books of the Odyssey by Homer, attempted to write an epic poem, and began a lurid five-act tragedy entitled Leubald. In 1828 he enrolled at the Nicolaischule in Leipzig, where he began lessons in harmony with conductor Christian Gottlieb Müller. Over the next three years he composed several piano sonatas, overtures, and seven songs to texts from Faust (1808), a drama by German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1831 Wagner entered Leipzig University to study music and began lessons in counterpoint (the combination of independent melodies) with organist Christian Theodor Weinlig, under whom he also composed sonatas, overtures, and a symphony. These early instrumental works were influenced heavily by the music of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

A

Early Operas and First Musical Appointments

Wagner's first attempt at opera composition was a projected three-act work entitled Die Hochzeit (The Wedding). He began the music in late 1832, but abandoned it when his sister Rosalie expressed distaste for the libretto (poetic text). Wagner retained some of the characters’ names in his first completed opera, Die Feen (The Fairies), a work he finished in early 1834 while chorus master at the city theater of Würzburg. In 1834 he was appointed music director of a traveling theater company based in Magdeburg, where in 1836 he conducted an unsuccessful performance of his new opera, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love). Later that year Wagner followed actress Minna Planer to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). They were married in November, and several months later Wagner was appointed music director of Königsberg’s theater.

In 1837 Wagner began a similar appointment in Rīga (in what is now Latvia), and started composing a new opera based on Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes (1835) by English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. In 1839 he and Minna fled Rīga to escape creditors; this entailed a rough sea voyage along the Norwegian coast. Wagner later claimed that this journey influenced the distinctive coloring of his next opera, Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), which is set in Norway; however, the fact that the opera was originally set in Scotland casts suspicion upon this claim. In September 1839 the Wagners arrived in Paris, France, where Wagner completed Rienzi (1840) and composed Der fliegende Holländer (1841). He also narrowly avoided debtors’ prison.

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B

Royal Kapellmeister and Political Activist

In 1842 the Wagners left Paris for Dresden, where the overwhelming success of the premiere of Rienzi established Wagner's reputation as an opera composer. Wagner himself conducted the premiere of Holländer in January 1843, and a month later he was appointed Kapellmeister (a conducting post) at the Royal Court Theater in Dresden. During the next years he composed Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1848) and waged a relentless campaign against the musical and political establishment of the Dresden court. Wagner’s participation in revolutionary activities, his authorship of articles celebrating revolution and anarchy, and his involvement with Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin finally led to a warrant for his arrest. With the help of Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt, whom Wagner had met eight years earlier in Paris, the Wagners fled to Switzerland and eventually settled in Zürich.

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