Wagner is one of the composers who marked an era, influencing many of the great musical currents. The influence of the famous Wilhelm Richard Wagner and his composition is noticeable in both melody and harmony as well as orchestration.
His ideas, proposals and way of life have been both admiring and critical. He was at least a controversial man. Musically, Wagner’s operas were characterized by a strong dilution of tones, blurring the boundary between singing and recitation.
- Wagner’s music transports his audience to worlds full of heroism and voluptuousness.
- The strength of his composition conquers the listener.
- Inviting him to sympathize with the story that unfolds on stage.
Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 in Leipzig, Germany. He was born in a modest house: his mother, Rosima Patz, was the daughter of a baker; his father, Karl Friedrich Wagner, was a police officer. A few months after little Richard’s birth, his father died as a result of a typhus epidemic.
Soon after, his mother married Ludwig Geyer, who would become his father-in-law. Geyer was an actor, singer and painter. For this reason, it is generally reported as an influence on the artistic inclinations of young Wagner. After Geyer’s work in a theatre company, the family moved to Dresden.
Wagner began attending the Vizehofkantor Carl Friedrich Schmidt school in Dresden in 1817. In 1822 he enrolled in the Kreuzschule (school of the cross) in Dresden, where Richard studied until the age of 14 and, at that school, took piano lessons.
Richard Wagner used the name Richard Geyer almost until the age of fifteen and changed his surname when he formalized his entry into the Nicolaischule (Nicolate School) in Leipzig on 21 January 1828.
The quantity and variety of his early compositions shows that Richard began as a composer with works of great generic diversity, among which there was a certain predominance of instrumental pieces following classical prototypes.
In 1833, when the artist was just twenty years old, he began his professional career by accepting the position of conductor of the Wurzburg choir. His works, at this early stage, were all low-budget and aimed at a provincial audience. As director, he completed his first opera, Die Feen (As Fadas), however, it will not be published until five years after his death.
Three years later Wagner married Minna Planer and by then had already composed several operas; during this period, Wagner began to develop his revolutionary ideas. Some claim that Wagner’s ideas, in a way, influenced Hitler’s ideas. Nazism In fact, today, his compositions continue to be veted in Israel.
This phase was quite obscure for Wagner; The marriage to Minna Planer did not help him much and he had a number of economic problems, as well as gambling and alcohol dependence, so his economic recovery has become even more difficult.
In 1839, the huge debt accumulated by Richard Wagner forced him to flee the country to settle in Paris. The composer did not set foot in Germany again until 1842, but his stay in Paris was a failure and he could not free any of his works in the city. He worked assiduously as an arranger for other composers, but without much notoriety.
Wagner wasn’t just an important composer. He also dared to try other artistic forms, such as writing. Between the 1840s and 1842, some of Wagner’s most important essays were published.
These essays addressed historical and theoretical issues that had been of great interest to the artist throughout his life. Wagner was also a prolific journalist, even publishing several reviews of Parisian musical events in the German press, and also wrote documentary works.
“Only strong men know love, only love includes beauty, only beauty produces art. The love of the weak among them can only produce the satisfaction of their lustful ambitions. -Richard Wagner-
It should be noted that there are ambiguities in some of his biographical data. This is mainly due to the fact that there are several inconsistencies incorporated by Wagner himself in his autobiography Mein Leben (Minha Vida).
This autobiography ranges from birth to age 51. The text is extremely subjective and his ego manifests itself, so it’s hard to know exactly what’s real about Wagner’s life. This autobiography was written in 1865 at the request of its benefactor, King Louis II of Bavaria.
After the opera Meyerbeer, Wagner became Germany’s most renowned composer. I was fortunate that, a few days after the premiere, there was the death of royal master Kapellmeister (director of the Royal Chamber) Francesco Morlacchi. On February 2, 1843, Wagner took on the lifetime work of Royal Kapellmeister, as it gave him political notoriety, making him an expert in combining creativity and management.
Wagner’s artistic interests quickly merged with his political activity, the composer sees theatre as a mirror of a reactionary society, so when the first is transformed, I would change the second, so Wagner became embroiled in subversive politics.
Warner had an affinity for German nationalism. The reflection of this thought is clearly seen both in his mythological characters and in the plots of his works. One idea that is repeated in his work is that of the German colonies.
“Every time I hear Wagner, I feel an irresistible urge to invade Poland. “Woody Allen
In 1849, the delicate political situation sparked a revolution in Dresden, which marked the end of Wagner’s career as a true chapel master and the issuance of an arrest warrant against Wagner led him to escape to Switzerland, where he remained in exile for eleven years.
During this period, Wagner lived in a very precarious situation. He was excluded from the world of German music and his income was as low as his hopes of being able to perform his works.
In 1864 Wagner was in Mariafeld, near Zurich, fleeing his creditors. King Louis II, his well-known admirer, offered him his hospitality and financial aid. Then the teacher composed Huldigungsmarsch (March of Tribute) for his benefactor.
In 1865 he released his famous book Tristan and Isolde in the city of Munich. A year later, his wife Minna died in Dresden and the composer moved to Geneva. Under the king’s patronage, Wagner worked on his operas without worrying about expenses. .
Years later, Wagner conceived the project of founding the Wagner Society, a theatre that would give birth to the famous festival of the same name that still exists today. The cornerstone of the Bayreuth Theatre was placed on its 59th anniversary. To achieve this, he organized a series of concerts throughout Germany with the aim of raising funds. The work was completed in 1874 with the help of Louis II.
The composer also built his Wahnfried home in Bayreuth, however, just two years after the play’s completion, the theater figures reveal huge losses. Wahnfried did a series of fundraising concerts to reduce losses, but soon after struggled. with his heart.
Between 1881 and 1882, Wagner suffered several heart attacks. On 13 February 1883, the famous composer died in Venice, Italy. His body was buried in the garden of his Wahnfried house.
Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of Nibelung) is undoubtedly his most important work and consists of four operas: Die Walker (Valkyrie), Das Rheingold (The Gold of the Rhine), Gotterd-mmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) and Siegfried: The Ring of the Nibelungs, Parsifal, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (The Master Singers of Nuremberg), Lohengrin, Tannhauser and Der Fliegende Hollunder (The Wandering Dutchman) are part of Bayreuth’s so-called Canon.
The full cycle did not take place until 1876 and thereafter the Canon will be represented at the annual festival, which is still held in Bayreuth, Germany.
Wagner’s ideas had both followers and critics, the legacy of Bavarian theatre, of a complexity never seen before, was made possible by his fervent admirer, King Louis II of Bavaria. This theatre is intended exclusively for the performance of his work, thus demonstrating that Wagner’s Genius is still alive despite the passage of time.