WAGNER, RICHARD (b. Leipzig, Germany 22 May 1813; d. Venice, Italy 13 Feb 1883 )
Wagner's interest in composing opera was aroused by the German soprano Wilhelmine Schroder-Devrient's performance in Beethoven's Fidelio.
His early years were not successful. In 1837, he fled to London in debt. He and his wife, Minna, then moved to Paris. There he began the libretto of Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). An earlier work, Rienzi, premiered in Germany in 1842. It was followed, in 1843, by a successful production of Holländer. This is the first opera in which his Romantic theme of redemption through love appears; it became central to his subsequent works.
Tannhäuser, performed in 1845, was revised in 1861 for a Paris production commanded by the Emperor Napoleon. In the interim Wagner had fled France after involvement in the revolution of 1848. During this period he was promoted by the composer, Liszt, who sponsored the 1850 production of Lohengrin, at Weimar. He also encouraged the long development of Wagner's masterpiece, Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Despite artistic success, Wagner was dogged by marital and financial difficulties. By 1861 his estranged wife was dead and he became involved with Liszt's married daughter, Cosima.
King Ludwig II of Bavaria became his benefactor. The next opera, Tristan und Isolde, was not well received in M├╝nich in 1865. It is now recognised as a turning point in operatic writing. In particular it marks the development of the leitmotiv, giving new prominence to the orchestra.
In 1868 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg premièred in Münich. In the previous six years Wagner, exiled from Münich for political reasons, had finished Siegfried and most of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Das Rheingold (The Rhine-gold) followed in 1869 and Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) in 1870.
Die Meistersinger celebrates the life of ordinary men. However, the Ring cycle has definitively identified Wagnerian opera with heroes and gods. Completed over more than twenty years, it was performed in 1876 for the opening of Wagner's new opera house in Bayreuth. Parsifal (1882) was intended never to be given in any other venue.
Fired by the notion of complete theatre, Wagner determined to control its every element. This ranged from writing libretti for his own works, to their design and staging. The foundation of his own festival in Bayreuth finally placed him in the position to achieve this aim.
After his death, Cosima, whom he had married in 1870, continued to run it on her husband's principles. It continues to this day, dedicated to the preservation of his works .
