Richard Wagner
* May 22nd 1813, Leipzig – † February 13th 1883, Venice
Richard Wagner was a German composer, perhaps he was ’THE’ German’ composer – at least that is what he would have thought – or put otherwise - ”Who was Richard Wagner’s favorite composer?” – Answer – Richard Wagner!
Wagner’s followers -known as Wagnerians or Wagnerites – have in true Teutonic formation created for themselves international societies dedicated to the life, works, and operas of the man Richard Wagner – misery loves company!
His opponents just joke about him or just yawn when his name is mentioned.
Rossini said famously that ‘Wagner had wonderful moments, but dreadful quarters of an hour’ and the left-wing Berliners, Paul Hindemith and Hans Eisler even parodied his music.
These are the sort of jokes – and there are many about Wagner as a person. They are told about him because he was a very vain man and easy to make & poke fun at – he took himself all too seriously and thus he was an easy target.
He was by all accounts not an easy-going type human being but as an artist he took his work very seriously and for example NEVER forgave the French for a particularily nasty display of an audience public at one of his opera premiers in Paris. – and his reaction in this particular case was justified.
However his anti-semitic views were also well known and these are do leave a particular blemish on this mans reputation – in spite of the fact that many others were in his day – which is not to condone it but only to relativise it in context. Also in spite of the fact that he had nothing at all to do with any Nazi movement with which he always seems unjustly to be associated with - a phenonomen happened about 70 years after his death.
In actual fact Wagner in his youth was a politcal revolutionary of sorts and would for sure have fallen foul of the Nazi’s has he shared a historic era with them – which is conjecture only of course, but an argument which is somewhat logcially and fundamentally sound never the less.
Perhaps the reason for all the jokes and stories about Wagner is that one likes to joke about serious, profound and euphoric- things and the music of Herr Wagner was ‘all-of-the-above’ – namely ;serious, profound and euphoric!
You either love and adore the music, or you loathe it – and most opera goers do like Wagner – it is very special and unique – very tradtional, yet beyond romanticism and almost knocking on the doors of the 20th Century.
Richard Wagner was a man of many trades -conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or “music dramas” as they were later called).
Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner always wrote the scenario and libretto for his works himself.
Wagner’s compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their contrapuntal texture, rich chromaticism, harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with specific characters, locales, or plot elements.
Wagner pioneered advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, which greatly influenced the development of European classical music.
He transformed musical thought through his idea of Gesamtkunstwerk or complete or total artwork,
The synthesis of all the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts is epitomized by Wagners monumental 4 opera cycle – each one a masterpiece in its own right – Der Ring des Nibelungen which was completed in 1868.
The four separate operas, which are staged together only at the Bayreuth festival are;
-Das Rheingold
-Die Walküre
-Siegfried
-Götterdämmerung
Wagner even went so far as to build his own opera-house to try to stage these works as he had imagined them.
The Bayreuth Festspielhaus/ Bayreuth Festival Theatre are the resultant an opera house designed and built by Wagner in Bayreuth – near Nurnberg.
Bayreuth Festival Hall in 1882 as Wagner saw it - Wikipedia
The building and concomitant annual opera festival takes place specifically to produce and perform Wagner’s operas – the Wagnerian faithful from around the world, and there are many, vie to get tickets to the annual event.
Tags: Der Ring des Nibelungen Berlin, ota-berlin mini biography wagner, Richard Wagner
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