Richard Wagner
By: Mahala Smith
ichard Wagner and his family moved back to Leipzig in
1827, an in 1828 Beethoven became his inspiration when
he heard his 7th and 9th Symphony. Then Wagner wrote a
piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also
greatly impressed by a performance of the Requiem of
Mozart.
n 1829, at the age of 16, Richard saw Wilhelmine
Schröder-Devrient on stage. She became his ideal of
the fusion of drama and music in opera.
omposed his first opera, Die Feen (The Fairies) at the
age of 20 in 1833. Also, his brother Karl Albert
managed to get Richard a position as a choir master
in Würzburg.
e and his wife Minna had enormous debts in 1839,
so they fled to London. On their stormy passage
with their Newfoundland dog named Robber,
Wagner was inspired to create The Flying
Dutchman.
fter spending time in Paris, The
Wagner’s where headed to
Dresden. Wagner lived in Dresden
for the next six years, eventually
being appointed the Royal Saxon
Court Conductor. He staged the
first two of his three middleperiod operas in Dresden. They
where titled The Flying Dutchman
and Tannhäuser
ichard was involved in political parties. The German
Confederation called for constitutional freedoms and for Germany
to become a one nation state. In April 1849, King Frederick
Augustus II of Saxony rejected the new constitution. Warrants
were issued to arrest the revolutionaries, Richard fled and visited
Paris first and then settling in Zürich.
uring his exile, Richard Wagner
completed Lohengrin, his friend
Franz Liszt staged it in his
absence. It premiered in
Weimar in August 1850.
agner was isolated from the German musical world and without any
score of income. Before leaving Dresden, he drafted a scenario that
would become the four opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. He
expanded the story line of his piece Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried's Death)
exploring the hero’s background.
lso, in the year of 1850, one of
Wagner’s most vulgar pieces, The
Jew in Music, viciously attacked the
Jewish composers and musicians,
mostly in the German society.
reatly infatuated with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife
of the silk merchant Otto Wesendonck, inspired
Wagner to work on the Ring cycle, and began to work
on the love story of Tristan and Isolde.
evertheless, while still
infatuated with her, he
composed the Wesendonck
Lieder.
ventually the ban on Richard Wagner for the political acts in
Germany, where lifted. Der Ring des Nibelungen, unfortunately,
was never finished. Also, his financial woes only increased. He had
planned on performing Tristan und Isolde, but that dream became
impossible and the opera was never preformed.
etiring from his life at the age of 80, Richard died of a
heart attack. Before his death, he completed Parsifal,
and a festival was held for the opening of the opera. He
was carried on a gondola over the Grand Canal, and
then the body returned and buried in the garden of the
Villa Wahnfried.
Richard Wagner Museum.
Richard Wagner Museum cont.
•Villa gifted
from Ludwig II
of Bavaria.
"Here where I
found peace
delusion,
delusion Peace
to this house of
mine named"
engraved.
Resources
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmine_Schr%C3%B6der-Devrient
• http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-wagner
• New Grolier Student Encyclopedia; Deluxe Library Edition
• http://www.bayreuth.de/tourismus_kultur_freizeit/tourismus/fests
piele/richard_wagner_museum_1025.html