Richard Wagner
TIME LINE: Wagner’s Life
1813: Wilhelm Richard Wagner is born on May 22.
Wagner’s father dies on November 23.
;1814: Wagner’s mother remarries
§ 1815: Wagner’s mother has a daughter Cacilie
§ 1821: Wagner’s step-father dies
§ 1829: Wagner composes his first music: two piano sonatas and a string quartet
§ 1830: Writes a piano arrangement for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
§ 1832: Begins work on first opera, Die Hochzeit
§ 1833: Begins work on Die Feen
§ 1836: Marries Minna Planer
§ 1839: Flees to London to avoid creditors, then to Paris
§ 1847: Takes an interest in Greek plays
§ 1857: Begins work on Tristan & Isolde
§ 1858: Minna finds love letter Richard wrote to Mathilde
§ 1859: Moves to Paris with Minna and completes Tristan & Isolde
§ 1862: Richard and Minna separate and Wagner moves to Vienna
§ 1864: Wagner begins affair with Cosima Von Bulow
§ 1865: A daughter Isolde is born to Richard and Cosima and he moves to Switzerland
§ 1867: A second daughter, Eva, is born to Richard and Cosima
§ 1869: A son, Siegfried, is born to Richard and Cosima
§ 1870: Richard and Cosima finally get married
§ 1878: Begins writing a series of reactionary essays
§ 1883: Richard Wagner dies of a heart attack in Venice on February 13. The funeral was held at Bayreuth on February 18.
WAGNER’S WORKS
OPERA COMPLETED
Die Feen 6 Jan 1834
Das Liebesverbot Dec 1835
Rienzi 19 Nov 1840
Der fliegende Holländer 30 Oct 1841
Tannhäuser 13 Apr 1845
Lohengrin 28 Apr 1848
Das Rheingold 26 Sep 1854
Die Walküre 23 Mar 1856
Siegfried 5 Feb 1871
Götterdämmerung 21 Nov 1874
Tristan und Isolde 6 Aug 1859
Die Meistersinger 24 Oct 1867
Parsifal 13 Jan 1882
RICHARD WAGNER
Richard Wagner was one of the most influential and controversial classical composers of all time. Most of his works were operas and they addressed many aspects of his personal feelings: society, politics, religions, etc. Though many hated (and still hate) him and his work, most revere him to be a multitalented genius that brought 19th Century music to higher levels.
Wagner’s Life
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig. At six months old, Wagner lost his father Frau Karl Friedrich to typhoid, which he caught from the corpses lying unburied in the streets after the Napoleonic War in Leipzig. Less than a year later, Wagner’s mother married Ludwig Geyer, who Wagner believes is his real father, even though nothing was ever proved. Geyer, like Wagner had an artistic gift. He was an actor a painter, dramatist, and singer. As a child, Geyer was determined “to make something” of Wagner (Jacobs 3). He failed at drawing and painting. Wagner did not realize he had a talent until Geyer was on his deathbed with collapsed lungs.
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