Richard Wagner :: essays research papers

Richard Wilhelm WagnerRichard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22, 1813. His work was through throughout the romantic period. His father died soon after his birth, and in 1814 the family move to Dresden. In 1822 Wagner entered Dresdens Kreuzschule. In 1828 he enrolled at the Nicolaischule in Leipzig, where he began lessons in harmony with the conductor named Christian Gottlieb Mller. Over the next triad age he composed several piano sonatas, overtures, and seven songs. excite by the works of Beethoven, Mozart, and Weber and Shakespeare, Goethe, and Schiller, he taught himself piano and composition. He entered the University of Leipzig. in that respect he lived wildly but he seriously paid heed to composition. His Symphony in C was performed in Prague in 1832 and the following year it was played in Leipzig. The next six years he spent as a conductor at low class local theaters. In 1836 he married the actress Minna Planer, and in 1839, they left for Paris. Living with poor German artists, Wagner wrote melodic journalism and did cut work. But in 1840 he accomplished Rienzi, his commencement ceremony major opera. It was successfully produced at Dresden in 1842 and resulted in his slot as musical director of the Saxon court. Here The Flying Dutchman was produced in 1843, and Tannh user was completed in 1845. These operas were much criticized, because they lacked the melodies of the popular operas. Wagner withalk part in the German political revolt of 1848-1849 and was forced to leave the country. For about ten years he lived in Zrich, Switzerland. In 1864 King Ludwig II of Bavaria invited him to persist in his musical work in Munich. During the years in Munich, he completed The Ring of the Nibelung which was a series of operas based on old German myths that he had begun in Zrich. The opera house in Munich was too small for these great operas. Wagner suggested that a theater be built from his witness designs. The king approved the project, and the outcome was the famous Wagnerian Festival plain in Bayreuth, Bavaria.