The Life of Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (pronounced Vagner) was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Germany. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a Leipzig police clerk, and Johanna Rosine, who was the daughter of a baker. Wagner’s father Carl died six months after Richard was born. After Carl’s death, his mother Johanna began living with Ludwig Geyer, who was an actor and a playwright and also Carl’s friend. In 1814, Johanna married Geyer and the new family moved to Dresden. Until Richard was fourteen, he was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer and most certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father. Geyer’s love of the theater was shared by his step-son Richard. Richard took part in his step-father’s performances, remembering once playing the part of an angel. In 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel’s school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where Wagner took some piano instruction from one of his teachers. Wagner struggled to play a scale on the keyboard, and preferred playing overtures by ear. In 1827, following the sudden death of Geyer, Wagner and his family had returned to Leipzig. As a young boy, Wagner always had an interest in music, though he had not received any serious training. As soon as he started school at the Nicolaischule, he became increasingly absorbed in the music of his time. His obsession with composing music was powered by the performances of Carl Maria von Weber, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giocomo Meyerbeer, and Vincenzo Bellini. Between 1829 and 1830, Wagner wrote his first serious compositions: two piano sonatas and string quartet, which was then followed by a piano arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Between 1833 and 1836, Wagner composed his first two operas, the first was Die Feen, completed in 1833, and the second was Das Liebesverbot, completed in 1836. By this time, he had met an actress named Christine Wilhelmine “Minna” Planer, who would become his first wife, and had accepted the job of music director of the Heinrich Bethmann’s theatrical company based in Magdeburg. On March 19, 1836, Wagner conducted the premiere of Das Liebesverbot, his first opera to be produced. His work was a total disaster and it bankrupted Bethmann’s company. With no other job, he left Magdeburg and followed Minna to Konnigsberg. On November 24, 1836, Minna and Wagner married. A few months later, Wagner accepted the job of the city’s music director. Financial problems plagued Wagner for most of his life. With the theater at Konnigsberg rapidly going bankrupt, Wagner decided to look for employment elsewhere. Wagner received the post of music director in the city of Riga. He started writing the music to Rienzi in August of 1838 assuming that his current position would give him the financial stability to finish such an elaborate opera. In 1839, Wagner learned that the theater would not be renewing his contract. The couple had accumulated such a large debt that the couple left Riga for Paris to avoid their creditors. The couple lived in Paris from 1839 to 1842. Despite all of his personal and financial setbacks, Wagner finished Rienzi in November of 1840. At the end of that year, Wagner petitioned the King of Saxony to produce Rienzi at the Dresden Court Theater. In June 1841, Rienzi was accepted at Dresden. Richard and Minna left Paris in July of 1842. The year 1843 was generous to Wagner. He conducted the premiere of Der Fliegende Hollander, was appointed musical director of the King of Saxony’s Court, and was able to borrow money to pay his debts. Wagner’s involvement in politics abruptly ended his welcome in Dresden. In May 1849, a warrant for his arrest was issued by the authorities concerning his unlawful participation in the revolutionary activities that had taken place in the city. Wagner fled Dresden and settled in Zurich. By 1862, Wagner and his wife Minna had separated. Wagner’s life took a dramatic upturn in 1864 when King Ludwig II succeeded to the throne of Bavaria. The young king, being a passionate admirer of Wagner’s operas, had Wagner brought to Munich. Ludwig settled Wagner’s substantial debt, and proposed to stage Tristan, Die Meistersinger, The Ring, and others of Wagner’s operas. Tristan und Isolde premiered on June 10, 1865 at the National Theatre in Munich. The conductor of this premiere was Hans von Bulow, whose wife Cosima, 24 years younger than Wagner, had given birth two months earlier to Wagner’s daughter Isolde. A year after the premiere of Tristan, Wagner’s wife, Minna, died. It was a well-known fact that Wagner and Cosima were lovers, and Hans von Bulow not only allowed it to happen, but he condoned it. Following Minna’s death, Cosima wrote to her husband on numerous occasions asking him to give her a divorce, but he refused. Only after she had two more children with Wagner did von Bulow allow the divorce. Her divorce was final in July 1870 after delays in the legal process. Richard and Cosima’s wedding took place on August 25, 1870. Richard and Cosima’s marriage lasted until Wagner died of a heart attack on February 13, 1883. Adolf Hitler was an admirer of Wagner’s music and saw an embodiment of his own vision of the German nation in Wagner’s works. In a speech, Hitler claimed that Wagner’s works glorified the heroic Teutonic nature… Greatness lies in the heroic. There continues to be a debate about the extent that Wagner’s views could have influenced the Nazi way of thinking.

Sources:
1. Music – An Appreciation (8th Brief Edition)
2. www.wagneroperas.com