1813-1832
Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Germany, the son of middle-class parents. His father, Carl Friedrich Wagner, died when he was only six-month old.
On August 28, 1814, his mother soon found comfort in the arms of Ludwig Geyer, a theater actor, whom she married. This hasty second marriage led to think that Geyer was the real father of Richard Wagner. The question of his real origins will haunt Wagner during his whole life.
In 1825, Richard Wagner began to study the piano and composed sonatas, overtures and even a symphony.
Richard Wagner began to compose a first opera Die Hochzeit (The Wedding) which remained unfinished and Die Feen (The Fairies) which he completed in 1834. Failing to convince any theaters to produce his work, Wagner decided to write a second opera Liebesverbot. Meanwhile, he became musical director of a small theater at Madgebourg.. He conducted in 1836 the première of Liebesverbot but this performance failed, leading to the bankruptcy of the troup.
In 1836, he met Minna Planer whom he married but their union crumbled, and he and his wife lived separate lives. Wagner had a two-year appointment as Kappelmeister at Riga in 1837 and composed Rienzi. With this opera, Wagner hoped to conquer the Great Opera of Paris. After an eventful travel, he reached Paris in 1839. He believed to meet a quick success with Rienzi but all his requests were uneffective. He sank into poverty and his only resource was to write piano transcriptions of renowned operas.
1840-1848
In spite of his poverty in Paris, Wagner composed Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). In 1842, Rienzi was finally staged at Dresden. Wagner immediately left Paris. Rienzi knew an unexpected success and Wagner became second Hofkapellmeister at Dresden. With his title, he managed to impose Der Fliegende Holländer (1843) and Tannhäuser (1845).
During 1848, Wagner completed Lohengrin but there was no representations. Richard Wagner was still in debt. Nevertheless, he thought of his future works : Die Meistersinger and Siegfrieds Tod, which is the first draft of Der Ring des Niebelungen.
But the Revolution spread accross Europe during 1848. Being a friend of the Russsian anarchist, Bakounine, Wagner became himself an activist during the Dresden Insurrection in 1849. After its failure, Richard Wagner was forced to flee ouf of Germany.
This difficult situation should have destroyed many artists, but it stimulated Wagner instead. He was not allowed to return to his own country. His creditors having got on his trail again, began to press for payment. Life had become unbearable. The constant shortage of funds became his principle worry.
Scarcely a month after ascending the Bavarian throne, Ludwig II. of Bavaria, had a fateful meeting with his cabinet Secretary, Franz von Pfistermeister whom he ordered to begin an immediate search for the composer Richard Wagner and to bring him immediately to Munich.
The Cabinet secretary finally caught up with Richard Wagner in Stuttagart. On May 3, 1864, Pfistermeister introduced himself to Wagner with what must have seemed incredible words :
"I have the honor to be Private Secretary to His Majesty King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He has charged me, my dear Master, to invite you to his Court, and to beg that you will come without delay."
Wagner was overwhelmed ; his salvation was at hand. The fifty-year-old composer immediately sat down and wrote the first of many letters to the young king :
"Beloved, Gracious King!
I send you these tears of most heavenly emotion, to tell you that now the wonders of poetry have appeared as a divine truth into my wretched, loveless life. That life, its ultimate poetry, its finest music, belongs henceforth to you, my gracious young King, dispense it as your own!
In upmost rapture, faithful and true,
Your subject, Richard Wagner"
But because of political pressure, Wagned was forced to leave Munich and settle in Switzerland. There, he fell in love with Cosima von Bülow, daughter of Franz Listz and wife of Hans von Bülow, a renowned conductor, very close to Richard Wagner.
In Tribschen, on the shores of the Lake Luzerne, Richard Wagner finished Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1867, first performed in Munich with the presence of King Ludwig II. Wagner went on with the Ring des Nibelungen and finished Siegfried in 1869. Cosima endly divorced with Hans von Bülow in 1870 and married Richard Wagner the same year. As a celebration of the birth of his son in 1869, Siegfried, Wagner composed Siegfried-Idyll, inspired by some themes of Siegfried.
From 1871, Wagner studied the building of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which began in 1872 and was completed thanks to Ludwig's generosity.
By the summer of 1876, the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth was complete. Adjoining the building, at the edge of the New Palace of the Margraves, stood Wagner's own vila, Wanhfried (Dream Fulfilled). Wagner returned to the writing of what was to be his last opera Parsifal "Noch einmal, zum letzten Mal" (Once more, for the last time). On 26 July 1882, Parsifal was finally premiered in Bayreuth. Ludwig II, however, was absent.
Following the Bayreuth festival, Wagner went to Venice to find some rest. But on February 13, 1883, he suddendly died of an heart attack. His body was carried down the Grand Canal from the house where he had lived and died, the Palazzo Vendramin, to the railway station to begin its long journey back to Bayreuth. On February 18, Wagner's body was buried in the garden at Wahnfried.
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