Richard wagner biography summary template
•
Richard Wagner
German composer (1813–1883)
"Wagner" redirects here. For other uses, see Wagner (disambiguation) and Richard Wagner (disambiguation).
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (VAHG-nər;[1][2]German:[ˈʁɪçaʁtˈvaːɡnɐ]ⓘ; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), whereby he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. The drama was to be presented as a continuously sung narrative, without conventional oper
•
The Man: Richard Wagner
Early years
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, at No. 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions), in the Jewish quarter. He was however an ethnic German, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker. Wagner's father Carl died of typhus six months after Richard's birth, after which Johanna began living with Carl's friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer's residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father.
Geyer's love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiograph
•
Richard Wagner: the composer who shook the opera world
Read on for an introduction into the life and work of the composer Richard Wagner, whose operas - including the epic Ring cycle - brought hitherto undreamed-of musical and emotional skådespel into the form.
Who was Wagner?
Richard Wagner revolutionised musikdrama during the 19th century with his theory of Gesamtkunstwerk - a music drama in which the music, poetry, and dramatic elements were completely inseparable. He popularised the use of leitmotifs - musical phrases which represented specific characters - wanting a listener to be able to hear the physical dramatic action in the orchestral score.
Which are Wagner's best and most famous operas?
What are Wagner's most famous works?
The composer's most renowned works include, of course, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle). Completed in 1876, this was an epic story of a magic fingerprydnad told in four full-length operas. These are Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walkür