Richard Wagner
22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer and theatre director best known for his operas, or 'music dramas', including Tristan und Isolde, the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal. He revolutionized opera through his use of leitmotifs and chromatic harmony and built his own festival theatre at Bayreuth; his legacy is also marked by his antisemitic writings.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Richard Wagner.
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- Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Overlapped 70 years →
- Henry Bessemer (1813–1898) Overlapped 70 years →
Life events
Wagner was born in Leipzig, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a police clerk who died months after his birth.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner enrolled at Leipzig University and studied composition with Christian Theodor Weinlig, cantor of the Thomaskirche.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner married the actress Minna Planer in Tragheim; the troubled marriage lasted until her death in 1866.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing the success of Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman, Wagner became conductor at the Dresden court, where he premiered Tannhäuser.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner's participation in the failed May 1849 revolution in Dresden forced him to flee Germany; he spent years of exile mainly in Zurich, where he began the Ring cycle.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe young King Ludwig II summoned Wagner to Munich, settled his debts, and became the crucial patron of his later career.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgTristan und Isolde, whose harmonic language influenced the course of Western music, received its premiere under Hans von Bülow.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner married Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt and former wife of conductor Hans von Bülow, in Lucerne.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner's purpose-built festival theatre in Bayreuth opened with the first complete performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWagner died of a heart attack at the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi in Venice at age 69 and was buried in the garden of his villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth.
Source: en.wikipedia.org