Richard Wagner

Short biography Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 in Leipzig and died on 13 February 1883 in Venice. He received piano lessons from an early age and from 1831 studied music under the Thomaskantor Christian Theodor Weinlig in Leipzig. His career took him as a conductor to Riga, Dresden and ultimately Bayreuth, where in 1876 he opened his own festival theatre. He spent formative years of his life in Swiss exile, to which he was forced to flee following the revolution of 1848/49.

Historical placement Wagner ranks among the most significant composers of the late Romantic period and is regarded as the creator of the music drama, which he developed in deliberate contrast to traditional opera. His style is characterised by the systematic use of leitmotifs, the dissolution of conventional set-piece structures, and a highly chromatic harmonic language that marked an epochal turning point in musical history with the 'Tristan chord'. His theoretical writings, in particular the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, exerted a lasting influence on composers, conductors and music aestheticians well beyond the nineteenth century.

Personal connections Christian Theodor Weinlig was Wagner's most important composition teacher in Leipzig. Franz Liszt was a close friend and patron of Wagner; Wagner's later wife Cosima was Liszt's daughter. Hans von Bülow, Cosima's first husband, conducted the première of Tristan und Isolde in 1865 and was closely associated with Wagner as an interpreter of his works. Engelbert Humperdinck worked as Wagner's assistant in Bayreuth in 1880/81 during the preparations for Parsifal. Anton Bruckner held Wagner in great admiration; Wagner is said to have accepted the dedication of Bruckner's Third Symphony.

Important works

Der fliegende Holländer – opera (WWV 63, 1843)
Tannhäuser – opera (WWV 70, 1845)
Lohengrin – opera (WWV 75, 1850)
Das Rheingold – music drama, Part 1 of the stage festival play Der Ring des Nibelungen (WWV 86A, 1869)
Die Walküre – music drama, Part 2 of the Ring (WWV 86B, 1870)
Siegfried – music drama, Part 3 of the Ring (WWV 86C, 1876)
Götterdämmerung – music drama, Part 4 of the Ring (WWV 86D, 1876)
Tristan und Isolde – music drama (WWV 90, 1865)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – opera (WWV 96, 1868)
Parsifal – sacred stage festival play (WWV 111, 1882)