Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor. He revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts. Wagner’s works include Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and The Nutcracker. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.

About Richard Wagner in brief

Summary Richard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor. He revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music. Until his final years, Wagner’s life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. Wagner was also a major inspiration, and wrote a major piano transcription of the 9th Symphony of Mozart’s Requiem. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of the Requiem by his son Mozart in March 1828, then in March, the same year, the composer’s 7th Symphony was performed. Wagner died in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1883, and is buried in the Bayreuther Waldfriedhof, near his family’s home in Leipzig. He is survived by his wife, Johanna Rosine, and two sons, Richard and Heinrich. Wagner’s works include Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and The Nutcracker. He also wrote the libretto and the music for each of his stage works, including Der Ring and Parsifals.

He died of a heart attack at the age of 83. He had a son, Richard Wagner, who died in 1945, and a daughter, Maria Wagner. Wagner is buried at the Allianz-Wilhelm-Wagner-Stift, in Berlin, where he is buried with his wife and three children. Wagner also wrote a biography of his father, which is published by the University of Würzburg. His son Richard Wagner is also a well-known musician and conductor, having worked at the Metropolitan Opera in Berlin and at the Staatstheater, Berlin, among other places. Wagner wrote a number of operas, including the four-opera cycle Der Ring, which was first performed in 1849. He wrote his first musical work in 1826, a tragedy called Leubald-Verzeichnis 1, listed in the Wagner-Werk-V 1, which he set to music. In 1828 he heard Beethoven’s Symphony 7th and then the same symphony in March of the following year. He later wrote the first version of the Symphony 9th and 9th Symphony of Requiem, which were performed at the same time in Berlin in 1828. Wagner had his own opera house built, theBayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. His most important stage works continue to be played at the annual Bayre Ruth Festival, run by his descendants.