Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard

Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard (b Leipzig, 1813; d Venice, 1883). Ger. composer, conductor, poet, and author. One of the handful of composers who changed the course of mus. Went to sch. in Dresden and attended Thomasschule, Leipzig, 1830–1. Deeply interested in literature as youth. Mus. inclination intensified by hearing Schröder-Devrient in Bellini. Wrote sym. 1832 and later that year made first attempt at opera, Die Hochzeit, which he destroyed. Choral cond. at Würzburg 1833 and in 1834 completed opera Die Feen. Became cond. of orch. at th. in Lauchstädt and later in 1834 mus. dir. of th. at Magdeburg. His 2nd opera Das Liebesverbot, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, prod. there 1836. Married actress Minna Planer. Ass. cond. at Riga 1837–9. Went to Paris 1839. Wrote Rienzi 1838–40 and Der fliegende Holländer 1841. Lived in poverty in Paris, doing mus. hack-work and writing articles. In 1842 returned to Dresden, where Rienzi was prod. with great success. Der fliegende Holländer equal success in 1843, leading to Wagner's appointment as court opera cond. Cond. legendary perfs. of Beethoven's 9th Sym. and works by Mozart, Weber, and Gluck. Tannhäuser prod. at Dresden 1845. Began project for series of operas based on Nibelungen sagas, completing lib. of Siegfrieds Tod, 1848. Sided with revolutionaries in 1849 uprising in Dresden. Fled to Liszt at Weimar after police issued warrant for his arrest, eventually settling in Zurich where he wrote series of essays, incl. the important Oper und Drama in which he expounded his theory of music drama, the unification of mus. and drama superseding all other considerations (such as singers’ special requirements in the way of display arias). Also continued to write text of his Nibelung operas and comp. mus. of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. In permanent financial straits, was helped by Julie Ritter and by Ger. merchant Otto Wesendonck, with whose wife Mathilde Wesendonck he had affair. Under the influence of this emotional experience he wrote lib. and mus. of Tristan und Isolde (1857–9), interrupting Siegfried after completing Act 2. In 1855 visited London as cond. of Phil. Soc. concerts. Wife Minna left him (not for first time) in 1858 because of Wesendonck affair but rejoined him in 1859. Cond. in Paris 1860 and rev. Tannhäuser for perf. at Opéra in 1861; but tried to withdraw it after riots instigated by Jockey Club. Allowed to re-enter Ger., except Saxony. Heard Lohengrin (comp. 1846–8) in Vienna and hoped for prod. there of Tristan, but it was abandoned after 77 rehearsals as ‘unperformable’. Amnesty granted from Saxony 1862. At work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from 1862. Fled Vienna 1864 because of pressing debts, but while in Stuttgart was ‘rescued’ by young King Ludwig of Bavaria, a passionate admirer of Wagner's mus., who became his patron and invited him to Munich, where Tristan was prod. 1865, cond. by Hans von Bülow, with whose wife, Cosima, Wagner had been in love since 1863. Work resumed on Nibelung operas under stimulus of Ludwig's enthusiasm. Opposition to Wagner in Munich political circles led to his departure from Munich and his settling at the villa of Tribschen, Lucerne, where Cosima, having borne him 2 daughters, joined him in 1868. Minna having died in 1866 and Cosima's marriage being annulled in 1869 (the year in which she gave birth to Wagner's son Siegfried), Wagner and Cosima were married in 1870. Das Rheingold and Die Walküre prod. in Munich 1869 and 1870, Die Meistersinger in 1868. In 1871 persuaded Bayreuth municipal authority to grant land for erection of th. specially designed for staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen; foundation-stone laid 1872. Toured Ger. to seek artists and raise funds for first Bayreuth Fest. Settled into new home, Wahnfried, at Bayreuth 1874, where he completed Götterdämmerung, 4th opera in Ring project begun in 1848. Bayreuth th. opened August 1876 and Ring perf. complete under Hans Richter, supervised in every detail by Wagner. In 1877 cond. series of concerts at Royal Albert Hall, London, to raise funds to cover Bayreuth deficit, and then began work on Parsifal, which he had first contemplated in 1857 (completed 1882, perf. in July at Bayreuth). From 1878, suffered series of heart attacks, fatal one occurring in Venice on 13 Feb. 1883. Buried at Wahnfried.

Wagner's mus., richly expressive, intensely illustrative, and on the grandest scale, dominated the 19th cent. and split the mus. world into opposing factions. His influence, good and bad, on countless other composers is still a prime factor a century after his death. He wrote the texts of all his operas, reading copiously in the sources of the legends he selected as subjects and writing a prose sketch, then the poem (lib.) before he comp. any of the mus., though it is clear that certain ideas came to him ready-clothed in mus. He was inspired by the Ger. Romantic spirit of Weber's operas, and to some extent by the grandiose operatic aims of Meyerbeer, whom he despised. In Liszt he found a fellow-spirit from whom he learned much, as he did from Berlioz. But he surpassed them all in the single-mindedness with which he pursued his dream of an art form in which mus. and drama should be one and indivisible, his Zukunftsmusik (mus. of the future). With the chromaticism of Tristan he took tonality to its limits and beyond, and opened the way for the Schoenbergian revolution. Philosophical and psychological undertones contribute immensely to the spell of the Tristan mus. Wagner brought to a fine art the use of Leitmotiv to depict not only characters but their emotions, and wove them into an orch. texture of such richness that the orch. assumed an extra dimension in operatic terms. His operas also required a new technique of singing and a new breed of singers with the intelligence to convey the subtleties of his art. The idea that ‘bawling’ was all that Wagner needed has long been disproved by generations of singers by whom his music has been shown to be as singable as bel canto. In a sense Wagner was a dead-end, since he was a unique genius. The sheer mastery of The Ring, the sustaining of such an imposing achievement at a white-heat of inspiration for something like 15 hours of mus., is among the most amazing artistic achievements of the human spirit. But opera could never be the same after him: he made it the vehicle for the expression of the most complex emotional and psychological issues, but, being first and foremost a musician, these are still secondary to the hypnotic power of the mus., at least for those (and they number millions) who fall under its sway. Prin. works:OPERAS AND MUSIC DRAMAS: Die Feen (The Fairies) (1833–4); Das Liebesverbot (Forbidden Love) (1835–6); Rienzi (1838–40); Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) (1840–1, various rev.); Tannhäuser (1843–5, rev. 1847–51, 1861–75); Lohengrin (1846–8); Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Nibelung's Ring): Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) (1853–4), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) (1854–6), Siegfried (1856–7 and 1864–71), Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) (1869–74, some ideas composed as Siegfrieds Tod many years earlier); Tristan und Isolde (1857–9); Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) (1862–7); Parsifal (1877–82).ORCH.: Concert Ov. in D minor (1831), in C (1832); Ov. in E minor (to E. Raupach's play König Enzio) (1831–2); sym. in C (1832); Christopher Columbus, ov. (1834–5); Polonia, ov. (1836); Rule, Britannia, ov. (1837); Faust, ov. (1839–40, rev. 1843–4, 1855); Trauermusik (after motifs from Weber's Euryanthe), wind instr. (1844); Träume, vn., small orch. (1857); Huldigungsmarsch, military band (1864; orch. vers. 1865, completed by Raff, 1871); Siegfried Idyll (1870); Kaisermarsch (1871); Centennial March (1876).CHORAL: Weihegruss (1843); Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (The Love Feast of the Apostles), orch. with male ch. (1843); An Webers Grabe (1844); Kinder-Katechismus, children's vv., pf (1873), rev. with orch. (1874).PIANO: sonata in B♭ (1831); Lied ohne Worte (1840); Album Sonata in A♭ (1853); Albumblätter in A♭ and C (1861).SONGS: 7 Songs from Goethe's Faust (1832); Der Tannenbaum (1838); Les deux grenadiers (1839–40); Les adieux de Marie Stuart (1840); 5 Gedichte von Mathilde Wesendonck (5 Wesendonck Songs), v. and pf. (1857–8; orch. Mottl; arr. Henze for high v. and chamber orch., 1979).WRITINGS: My Life (1865–80); German Opera (1851); Art and Revolution (1849); Judaism in Music (1850); Opera and Drama (1850–1); The Music of the Future (1860); Religion and Art (1880); On Conducting (1869).