Richard Wagner

• born May 22, 1813, Leipzig Germany

• died February 13, 1883, Venice, Italy​

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​Early Life of Richard Wagner

• youngest of nine children. ​

• raised by his stepfather, an actor and painter. Richard attended good schools, but as a child he was not particularly interested in music.​

• studied music at age of sixteen at the university in Leipzig, Germany

• ages of nineteen and twenty-four began to compose operas.

• Conducted several operas and theatre companies

• not a reliable employee, and was always in debt

• married Cosima Liszt, daughter of the composer Franz Liszt.

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​Life in Paris and his operas

• Age twenty-four, hoping to achieve success as an opera composer, but again he failed.

• In 1842 (age twenty-seven), he returned to Germany where his opera Rienzi was performed in Dresden.

• It was a success.

• Finally Wagner began to earn some income as well as the freedom to devote all his time to composing operas.

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​Wagner's operas

• Wagner wrote both the libretto (the story of the opera) and the music.

• based most of his librettos on German myths and legends.

• In 1849 he moved to Zurich, Switzerland. During the next fifteen years, he wrote essays and books on the subject of theatre and drama, poetry, as well as four operas.

• By 1860 Wagner was producing his operas with his own money. Usually the performances were poorly received and lost money.​

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​Where did he work?

• Wagner received the financial support of a patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria (today a part of Germany).

• Gradually, audiences began to support his operas.

• Wagner developed grand ideas about writing lengthy operas.

• His opera Das Rheingold, premiered in 1869, was the first of his grand operas.

• He convinced King Ludwig and other patrons of the arts to build a lavish opera house in Bayreuth, Bavaria, for performances of his operas.

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​Wagner Societies and Music

• Wagner thought of himself as a very important person in the opera world.

• created “Wagner societies,” a kind of fan club, to help pay for performances of his operas at Bayreuth.

• The Bayreuth theatre opened on August 13, 1876, with a complete performance of his cycle of four operas known as The Ring of the Nibelung.

• He composed only one more opera, Parsifal, before he died while on vacation in Venice, Italy.

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​Famous Works of Music

Tannhäuser — an opera

Tristan and Isolde — an opera

Lohengrin — an opera

Der Ring de Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)

     — an opera

Parsifal — an opera​

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​Wagner as a person

Richard Wagner was vain, ambitious, egotistical, and, some would say, obnoxious. He had few friends. His first love was literature, and throughout his life he kept a notebook in which he wrote down every detail of his life.   ​

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