E Wagner biography. Short biography R

Richard Wagner, full name Wilhelm Richard Wagner (German: Wilhelm Richard Wagner; May 22, 1813, Leipzig - February 13, 1883, Venice) was a German composer and art theorist. The largest opera reformer, Wagner had a significant impact on European musical culture, especially German.

Wagner's mysticism and ideologically colored anti-Semitism influenced German nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century, and later on National Socialism, which surrounded his work with a cult, which in some countries (especially Israel) caused an "anti-Wagnerian" reaction after World War II. Wagner was born into the family of an official Carl Friedrich Wagner (1770-1813). Under the influence of his stepfather, the actor Ludwig Geyer, Wagner, being educated at the Saint Thomas School in Leipzig, from 1828 began to study music with the cantor of the Church of Saint Thomas Theodor Weinlig, in 1831 he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig. In 1833-1842 he led a restless life, often in great need in Würzburg, where he worked as a theater choirmaster, Magdeburg, then in Königsberg and Riga, where he was a conductor. musical theaters, then in Norway, London and Paris, where he wrote the overture "Faust" and the opera " Flying Dutchman».

In 1842, the triumphal premiere of the opera "Rienzi, the last of the tribunes" in Dresden laid the foundation for his fame. A year later, he became court bandmaster at the royal Saxon court. In 1843, his half-sister Cicilia had a son, Richard, the future philosopher Richard Avenarius. Wagner became his godfather. In 1849, Wagner participated in the Dresden May Uprising (where he met M.A. Bakunin) and after the defeat fled to Zurich, where he wrote the libretto of the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungen", the music of its first two parts ("Gold of the Rhine" and " Valkyrie") and the opera "Tristan and Isolde". In 1858, Wagner visited a short time Venice, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris and Berlin.

In 1864, having achieved the favor of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who paid his debts and supported him further, he moved to Munich, where he wrote comic opera"The Nuremberg Mastersingers" and the last two parts of the Ring of the Nibelung: "Siegfried" and "The Death of the Gods". In 1872, the laying of the foundation stone for the House of Festivals took place in Bayreuth, which opened in 1876. Where the premiere of the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen took place on August 13-17, 1876. In 1882, the mystery opera Parsifal was staged in Bayreuth. In the same year, Wagner left for Venice for health reasons, where he died in 1883 of a heart attack. Wagner is buried in Bayreuth.

Wagner opera composer

Creativity R. Wagner

To a much greater extent than all European composers of the 19th century, Wagner considered his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is put into the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Wagner's article " Piece of art of the future”: “Just as a person will not be free until he joyfully accepts the bonds that connect him with Nature, so art will not become free until he has no reason to be ashamed of his connection with life.” From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art must be created by a community of people and belong to this community; the highest form of art is musical drama, understood as an organic unity of word and sound. The embodiment of the first idea was Bayreuth, where the opera house for the first time began to be interpreted as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment institution; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form "musical drama" created by Wagner.

It was her creation that became the goal creative life Wagner. Some of its elements were embodied in early operas composer of the 1840s - "The Flying Dutchman", "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin". The theory of musical drama was most fully embodied in Wagner's Swiss articles ("Opera and Drama", "Art and Revolution", "Music and Drama", "Artistic Work of the Future"), and in practice - in his later operas: "Tristan and Isolde", the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" and the mysteries "Parsifal".

According to Wagner, a musical drama is a work in which the romantic idea of ​​the synthesis of the arts (music and drama) is realized, the expression of software in opera. To implement this plan, Wagner abandoned the traditions of opera forms that existed at that time - primarily Italian and French. He criticized the first for excesses, the second for pomp. With furious criticism, he attacked the works of the leading representatives of classical opera (Rossini, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Aubert), calling their music "candied boredom."

Trying to bring the opera closer to life, he came to the idea of ​​a through dramatic development - from beginning to end, not only of one act, but of the entire work and even a cycle of works (all four operas of the Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle).

IN classical opera Verdi and Rossini separate numbers (arias, duets, ensembles with choirs) divide a single musical movement into fragments. Wagner completely abandoned them in favor of large end-to-end vocal and symphonic scenes flowing one into another, and replaced arias and duets with dramatic monologues and dialogues. Wagner replaced overtures with preludes - short musical introductions to each act, on a semantic level, inextricably linked with the action. Moreover, starting with the opera Lohengrin, these preludes were performed not before the opening of the curtain, but already with the stage open.

External action in the late Wagner operas (especially in Tristan and Isolde) is reduced to a minimum, it is transferred to the psychological side, to the realm of the characters' feelings. Wagner believed that the word is not capable of expressing the depth and meaning of inner experiences, therefore, it is the orchestra that plays the leading role in the musical drama, and not the vocal part. The latter is entirely subordinated to orchestration and is considered by Wagner as one of the instruments symphony orchestra. At the same time, the vocal part in a musical drama is the equivalent of a theatrical dramatic speech. There is almost no song, arioznost in it. In connection with the specifics of vocals in Wagner's opera music (exceptional length, mandatory requirement for dramatic skill, merciless exploitation of the limiting registers of voice tessitura), new stereotypes of singing voices were established in solo performance practice - Wagner's tenor, Wagner's soprano, etc.

Wagner attached exceptional importance to orchestration and, more broadly, to symphonism. Wagner's orchestra is compared to an ancient choir that commented on what was happening and conveyed a "hidden" meaning. Reforming the orchestra, the composer created a tuba quartet, introduced a bass tuba, a contrabass trombone, expanded string group, used six harps. In the entire history of opera before Wagner, no composer used an orchestra of this magnitude (for example, Der Ring des Nibelungen is performed by a quadruple orchestra with eight horns).

Wagner's innovation in the field of harmony is generally recognized. The tonality inherited by him from the Viennese classics and early romantics, he greatly expanded by intensifying chromatism and modal alterations. Having weakened (straightforward for the classics) the uniqueness of the connections between the center (tonic) and the periphery, deliberately avoiding the direct resolution of dissonance into consonance, he gave tension, dynamism and continuity to the modulation development. The hallmark of Wagnerian harmony is the Tristan Chord (from the prelude to the opera Tristan und Isolde) and the leitmotif of fate from Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Wagner introduced a developed system of leitmotifs. Each such leitmotif (short musical characteristic) is a designation of something: a specific character or living being (for example, the Rhine leitmotif in Rhine Gold), objects that often act as symbolic characters (a ring, a sword and gold in The Ring, a love drink in Tristan and Isolde"), scenes of action (the leitmotifs of the Grail in Lohengrin and Valhalla in the Rhine Gold) and even an abstract idea (numerous leitmotifs of fate and fate in the Ring of the Nibelung cycle, languor, a loving look in Tristan and Isolde). The Wagnerian system of leitmotifs was most fully developed in The Ring - accumulating from opera to opera, intertwining with each other, each time receiving new development options, all the leitmotifs of this cycle as a result combine and interact in the most complex and extremely difficult to perceive musical texture of the final operas "The Death of the Gods" (where there are already more than a hundred of them).

Understanding music as the personification of continuous movement, the development of feelings led Wagner to the idea of ​​​​merging these leitmotifs into a single stream of symphonic development, into an “endless melody” (unendliche Melodie). The absence of a tonic support (throughout the entire opera Tristan und Isolde), the incompleteness of each theme (throughout the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle, with the exception of the climactic funeral march in the opera The Death of the Gods) contribute to a continuous build-up of emotions that does not receive resolution, which allows keep the listener in constant tension (as in the preludes to the operas Tristan and Isolde and Lohengrin).

The literary heritage of Richard Wagner is enormous. Of greatest interest are his works on the theory and history of art, as well as musical critical articles. An extensive epistolary of Wagner and his diaries have been preserved. As for the influences of various philosophers that Wagner experienced, Feuerbach is traditionally referred to here. A.F. Losev, in the rough drafts of his article on Wagner, believes that the composer's acquaintance with Feuerbach's work was rather superficial. The key conclusion that Wagner made from Feuerbach's reflections was the need to renounce all philosophy, which, according to Losev, indicates a fundamental rejection of any philosophical borrowing in the process of free creativity. As for the influence of Schopenhauer, it was, apparently, stronger, and in the Ring of the Nibelung, as well as in Tristan and Isolde, one can find paraphrases of some of the positions of the great philosopher. However, one can hardly say that Schopenhauer became for Wagner the source of his philosophical ideas. Losev believes that Wagner comprehends the ideas of the philosopher in such a peculiar way that it is only a stretch to talk about following them.

The philosophical and aesthetic basis of A.F. Losev defines it as "mystical symbolism". The key to understanding the ontological concept of Wagner are the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" and the opera "Tristan and Isolde". Firstly, Wagner's dream of musical universalism was fully embodied in The Ring. “In The Ring, this theory was embodied through the use of leitmotifs, when every idea and every poetic image is immediately specifically organized with the help of musical motive", - writes Losev. In addition, the "Ring" fully reflected the passion for the ideas of Schopenhauer. However, it must be remembered that acquaintance with them happened when the text of the tetralogy was ready and work began on the music. Like Schopenhauer, Wagner feels the unfavorable and even senseless basis of the universe. The only meaning of existence is thought to be to renounce this universal will and, plunging into the abyss of pure intellect and inaction, to find true aesthetic pleasure in music.

However, Wagner, unlike Schopenhauer, considers it possible and even predetermined a world in which people will no longer live in the name of the constant pursuit of gold, which in Wagnerian mythology symbolizes the will of the world. Nothing is known for sure about this world, but there is no doubt about its coming after the global catastrophe. The theme of the global catastrophe is very important for the ontology of the "Ring" and, apparently, is a new rethinking of the revolution, which is no longer understood as a change in the social system, but as a cosmological action that changes the very essence of the universe.

As for Tristan and Isolde, the ideas embodied in it were significantly influenced by a short fascination with Buddhism and at the same time dramatic story love for Mathilde Wesendonck. This is where Wagner's long-sought merging of divided human nature takes place. This connection occurs with the departure of Tristan and Isolde into oblivion. Thought of as a completely Buddhist fusion with the eternal and imperishable world, it resolves, according to Losev, the contradiction between subject and object, on which European culture is based. The most important is the theme of love and death, which for Wagner are inextricably linked. Love is inherent in a person, completely subordinating him to himself, just as death is the inevitable end of his life. It is in this sense that Wagner's love potion should be understood. “Freedom, bliss, pleasure, death and fatalistic predetermination - this is what a love drink is, so brilliantly depicted by Wagner,” writes Losev.

Wagner's operatic reform had a significant impact on European and Russian music, marking the highest stage of musical romanticism and at the same time laying the foundations for future modernist movements. A significant part of the subsequent operatic works. The use of the leitmotif system in operas after Wagner became trivial and universal. No less significant was the influence of Wagner's innovative musical language, especially his harmony, in which the composer revised the "old" (previously considered unshakable) canons of tonality.

Among Russian musicians, a connoisseur and propagandist of Wagner was his friend A.N. Serov. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov, who publicly criticized Wagner, nevertheless experienced (especially in his later work) the influence of Wagner in harmony, orchestral writing, and musical dramaturgy. Valuable articles about Wagner were left by a major Russian musical critic G.A. Laroche. In general, "Wagnerian" is more directly felt in the works of "pro-Western" composers. Russia XIX century (for example, A.G. Rubinshtein) than representatives national school. The influence of Wagner (musical and aesthetic) is noted in Russia in the first decades of the 20th century, in the works and deeds of A.N. Scriabin.

In the West, the center of the Wagner cult became the so-called Weimar school(self-name - New german school) formed around F. Liszt in Weimar. Its representatives (P. Cornelius, G. von Bulow, I. Raff, and others) supported Wagner, above all, in his desire to expand the scope of musical expression (harmony, orchestral writing, operatic dramaturgy). Among the Western composers who were influenced by Wagner are Anton Bruckner, Hugo Wolf, Claude Debussy, Gustavnovsky, Arnold Schoenberg (in early work) and many others.

The reaction to the cult of Wagner was the “anti-Wagnerian” tendency that opposed itself to him, major representatives which were the composer Johannes Brahms And musical aesthetic E. Hanslik, who defended the immanence and self-sufficiency of music, its unconnectedness with external, non-musical "irritants". In Russia, anti-Wagnerian sentiments are characteristic of the national wing of composers, primarily M.P. Mussorgsky and A.P. Borodin.

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Biography, life story of Richard Wagner

WAGNER Richard (1813-1883), German composer, conductor, music writer. Reformer operatic art. In the opera-drama, he carried out a synthesis of philosophical, poetic and musical principles. In his works, this found expression in a developed system of leitmotifs, a vocal-symphonic style of thinking. An innovator in the field of harmony and orchestration. Most musical dramas are based on mythological subjects (own librettos). Operas: Rienzi (1840), The Flying Dutchman (1841), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1848), Tristan and Isolde (1859), The Nuremberg Mastersingers (1867), Parsifal "(1882); tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung" - "Gold of the Rhine", "Valkyrie", "Siegfried", "Death of the Gods" (1854-1874). Journalistic and musical-aesthetic works: "Art and Revolution", "Artwork of the Future" (1848), "Opera and Drama" (1851).

WAGNER (Wagner) Richard (full name Wilhelm Richard) (May 22, 1813, Leipzig - February 13, 1883, Venice), German composer.

Carier start
Born into the family of a police officer, his father died a few months after the birth of the future composer. In August 1814, Wagner's mother married the artist, actor and poet L. Geyer (Perhaps he was the real father of the future composer). Wagner attended school in Dresden, then in Leipzig. At the age of 15 he wrote his first theatrical play, and at 16 he began composing music. In 1831 he entered the University of Leipzig and at the same time began to study music theory under the guidance of K. T. Weinlig, cantor of St. Thomas. A year later, the symphony created by Wagner was successfully performed in the main concert hall Leipzig Gewandhaus. In 1833, Wagner received a position as a theater choirmaster in Würzburg and composed the opera The Fairies (based on the play by C. Gozzi The Snake Woman), which was not performed during his lifetime. From now until the end of his life, Wagner himself wrote the librettos of his operas [some experts do not appreciate the literary merits of his texts, while others (including B. Shaw) rank them among the heights of German poetry].

CONTINUED BELOW

Conductor-reformer
In 1835 Wagner wrote his second opera, Love Forbidden (based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure). The following year it was staged in Magdeburg. By that time, Wagner had already made his debut as a conductor (he performed with a small opera troupe, which soon went bankrupt). In 1836, he married the singer Minna Planer and settled with her in Koenigsberg, where he was given the position of music director of the city theater. In 1837 he took a similar position in Riga and began writing his third opera, Rienzi (based on the novel by the English writer E. Bulwer-Lytton). In Riga, Wagner developed an active conductor's activity, performing mainly the music of Beethoven. Wagner made a real revolution in the art of conducting. In order to achieve a more complete contact with the orchestra, he abandoned the custom of conducting while standing facing the audience, and turned to face the orchestra. He also carried out the separation of the functions of the right and left hands, which still retains its significance: the right hand (in which the conductor holds the baton) is occupied mainly with the designation of tempo and rhythm, while the left indicates the introductions of the instruments, as well as dynamic and phrasing nuances.

New Opera
In 1839, Wagner and his wife, fleeing creditors, moved from Riga to London, and from there to Paris. Here Wagner became close to,. The source of his earnings was daily work for publishing houses and theaters; in parallel, he composed the words and music of an opera based on the legend of a ghost ship (“the flying Dutchman”). Nevertheless, in 1842 his "Rienzi" - an example of " grand opera"in the French spirit - was accepted for production in Dresden. Its premiere was a great success. The plot of the opera (about a Roman patriot and the “last stand” of the 14th century) reflected the political interests and ideals of Wagner himself, who was a member of the Young Germany anarchist intellectual group. The opera The Flying Dutchman, staged in 1843, was received with more restraint. Meanwhile, it testifies to the significantly increased skill of Wagner as a musician-playwright. Starting with The Flying Dutchman, Wagner gradually departs from the traditional opera of the 18th and 19th centuries. number structure. The opera's central theme of redemption by woman's love becomes a through plot of Wagner's entire work, and to some extent of his entire life. This theme was developed with extraordinary force in the two subsequent works of Wagner, the operas Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1848), which are also based on old legends and break with the number structure even more radically. The role of the main carrier musical content takes over the orchestra; relatively complete passages and whole scenes flow into each other smoothly, without clearly expressed formal caesuras, and in solo vocal parts a flexible and free ariose style prevails.

Politics and music. "Ring of the Nibelung"
Seized with revolutionary fervor, Wagner took part in the Dresden anti-government rebellion and, after its defeat (1849), fled first to Weimar (k), and then, through Paris, to Switzerland. Being declared a state criminal, he did not cross the borders of Germany for 13 years. In 1850-51 he wrote the anti-Semitic pamphlet "Jewry in Music", partly directed against his former patron, and the work "Opera and Drama", which summarized his ideas regarding musical theater. At the same time, he began to work on the words and music of a cycle of operas based on the ancient Scandinavian sagas and the medieval German epic. By 1853, the text of this cycle (the future tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen") was printed and read to friends, among whom belonged the philanthropist Otto Wesendonck and his wife, the multi-talented Matilda. Five of her poems served as the basis for Wagner's songs for voice and piano, and the dramatic story of Wagner's forbidden relationship with his friend's wife was reflected in the musical drama Tristan and Isolde, conceived in 1854 and completed five years later, when half of the tetralogy had already been written.

Return to Germany
In 1858 Wagner quarreled with Mathilde Wesendonck and left Switzerland, and in 1860 he was reunited with his wife in Paris. In 1861 Paris Opera"Tannhäuser" was delivered. Despite the fact that Wagner revised the opera in accordance with the tastes of the French public (in particular, he added a large ballet bacchanal scene at the beginning of the first act), the work was severely booed, and the scandal at the premiere was politically motivated. In 1862, Wagner received a full amnesty and the right to unimpeded entry into Germany, and at the same time he finally separated from his sick and childless wife (she died in 1866). In 1863 he successfully conducted in Vienna, Russia, and other European countries(Wagner's conducting repertoire included orchestral excerpts from his own operas and Beethoven's symphonies), and the following year, at the invitation of the young King of Bavaria, Ludwig II, he settled near Munich. The king, who bowed to Wagner, gave him generous financial assistance.

"Tristan and Isolde"
Due to court intrigues, Wagner's stay in Bavaria was short-lived. The atmosphere around Wagner became especially tense after it became known about his affair with Cosima von Bülow, the daughter of Liszt and the wife of his student, musical director of the Royal Opera, H. von Bülow, who, however, did not change his attitude towards Wagner and in 1865 spent Munich premiere of "Tristan and Isolde". The music of "Tristan" with unheard of expressive power reproduces all shades of love passion. At the same time, the huge score (over four hours of music) was executed with surprisingly economical means. The main melodic element is a four-sound ascending chromatic motif (the introduction to the opera begins with it and its last scene, “The Death of Isolde”, ends with it), and the principle of ellipsis prevails in harmony, that is, the constantly delayed resolution of dissonance (the so-called “endless melody”) . Thus, an atmosphere of irresistible and passionate yearning is recreated. The concept of the opera is based on the idea of ​​the unity of love and death and reflects Wagner's commitment to the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer.

"Nuremberg Meistersingers"
The “Meistersingers of Nuremberg” dedicated to Ludwig II, a story about the victory of a new, free and sublime art over the limited pedantry of conservatives, is sustained in a completely different spirit. Although the action of The Meistersingers takes place in Nuremberg in the mid-16th century, the central collision of the opera has a distinct autobiographical overtone. If in "Tristan" the element of intense chromaticity dominates, then in "Meistersinger" - full-blooded, powerful diatonic; essential role plays counterpoint. The characters of the opera are not mythological figures (as in the rest of Wagner's mature operas), but people of flesh and blood, representing different strata of society. The opera is replete with folk and everyday scenes and contains a number of relatively complete songs, choirs, dances, and ensembles. One of the central characters, Hans Sachs (Sachs) - a real historical person, craftsman, poet and musician (Meistersinger, that is, "master of singing") - is presented in the opera as a bearer of primordial German values. The final monologue of Sachs, crowning the opera, is a real manifesto of German nationalism.

New theater in Bayreuth
The premiere of The Meistersingers (under the direction of ) took place in Munich in 1868. By this time, Wagner had been living in Tribschen near Lucerne for over two years. Cosima moved in with him in 1866. By the time they were legally married (1870), they already had two children (the youngest daughter was born later). Meanwhile, in Munich, at the insistence of Ludwig II, the first two operas of the still unfinished "Ring of the Nibelungen" - "Rheingold Gold" and "Valkyrie" - were staged. Wagner realized that in order to stage the entire cycle, he needed a special theater built according to a special project that takes into account the requirements of the “total work of art” (musical drama that combines music, poetry, scenography, stage movement, etc.). In 1872, he solemnly laid the foundation stone for a new theater in Bayreuth (northeast of Nuremberg) and energetically set about raising funds for its construction. In 1874, when the enterprise was on the verge of failure, the king once again helped Wagner. In the same year, Wagner completed the last opera in the cycle, The Sunset of the Gods.
The opening of the Bayreuth Festival Theater took place in the summer of 1876 with a production of the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen directed by Hans Richter. The whole tetralogy lasts about 18 hours (the longest musical composition in history). The Rhine Gold is not divided into acts and serves as an "opening evening", while the other three operas - "Valkyrie", "Siegfried" and "The Death of the Gods" - contain three acts each (there is also a prologue in The Death of the Gods , which likens the structure of this opera to the structure of the tetralogy as a whole). The huge structure is supported by a highly detailed system of short musical themes- the so-called leitmotifs - each of which carries symbolic meaning, pointing to a certain character, denoting a particular concept, object, etc. At the same time, leitmotifs are not just conventional signs, but also objects of active symphonic development; their combinations serve to clarify subtexts that are not directly expressed in the libretto (a similar system of techniques also operates in Tristan and Meistersingers). Embodied in the "Ring" ancient myth is not reduced to the history of the struggle of gods, people and dwarfs for power over the world, personified by the golden ring of the Nibelung (dwarf) Alberich. Like any true myth, it contains the deepest insights related to all aspects of human existence. Some commentators consider the "Ring" a prototype modern sciences about a person (psychoanalysis of Z. Freud, analytical psychology of C. G. Jung, structural anthropology of C. Levi-Strauss), others - the ideological basis of socialism or fascism, others - parables about industrial society etc., however, no particular interpretation exhausts the entire diversity of its content.

Last years
Wagner's artistic triumph at the first Bayreuth festival turned into a financial disaster. In 1877, hoping to make up for his losses, Wagner conducted concerts in London. Later in the same year, he began composing the opera (“solemn stage mystery”) Parsifal based on the epic novel by the medieval German poet-knight W. von Eschenbach. Most of 1880 Wagner spent in Italy. Parsifal was soon completed, and at the last Bayreuth celebrations in Wagner's life in 1882, it was premiered under the baton of Hermann Levy. In Parsifal, Wagner revisits the theme of redemption by highlighting Christian motives communion and self-denial. At the end of 1882, Wagner left for Venice, where he soon died of a heart attack. Buried in Bayreuth.

The Enduring Significance of Wagner
The degree of Wagner's influence on contemporaries and descendants cannot be overestimated. He enriched the harmonic and melodic language of music, opened up new spheres of musical expression and unheard of orchestral and vocal colors, introduced new methods of developing musical ideas into everyday life. The personality and work of Wagner caused adoration or hatred (or both of these feelings together - as in the case of Friedrich Nietzsche); but even the most staunch opponents of Wagner did not deny his greatness.
Wagner's son Siegfried (1869-1930) was a composer (author of several fabulous operas), conductor, opera director. On his birth, Wagner composed his only work for chamber orchestra, the charming Siegfried Idyll, based on themes from the opera Siegfried. The few surviving recordings of Siegfried Wagner (from Bayreuth performances) testify to his high conducting skills. Siegfried's sons, Wagner's grandsons, Wieland (1917-1966) and Wolfgang (b. 1919), are prominent opera directors.

Wilhelm Richard Wagner is a German dramatic composer and theorist, theater director, conductor, and controversialist who became famous for his operas, which had a revolutionary impact on Western music. Among his main works are The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), Tristan and Isolde (1865), Parsifal (1882). .) and the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" (1869-1876).

Richard Wagner: biography and creativity

Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, into a modest family. His father died shortly after the birth of his son, and within a year his mother married Ludwig Geyer. It is unknown if the latter, the itinerant actor, was the actual father of the boy. Musical education Wagner was an accident until he was 18, when he studied for a year with Theodor Weinlig in Leipzig. He began his career in 1833 as a choir conductor in Würzburg and wrote his early works made in imitation of German romantic compositions. At this time, his main idol was Beethoven.

Wagner wrote his first opera, The Fairies, in 1833, but it was not staged until after the composer's death. He was musical director of the theater in Magdeburg from 1834 to 1836, where his next work, Forbidden Love, based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, was staged in 1836. The opera was a complete fiasco and made the theater bankrupt. However, the composer's entire biography is full of financial problems. Richard Wagner in the same year in Königsberg married Minna Planner, a singer and actress who took an active part in the provincial theatrical life. A few months later, he accepted the post of musical director of the city theater, which, however, soon also went bankrupt.

Failure in France and return to Germany

In 1837 Wagner became the first musical director of the theater in Riga. Two years later, having learned that his contract would not be renewed, hiding under the cover of night from creditors and collectors, married couple went to Paris, hoping to make a fortune there. Richard Wagner, whose biography and work in France did not develop at all as he planned, during his stay there developed a strong hatred for the French musical culture which remained with him until the end of his life. It was during this time that Wagner, experiencing financial difficulties, sold the script for The Flying Dutchman to the Paris Opera for use by another composer. He later wrote another version of this tale. Rejected by Parisian musical circles, Wagner continued the struggle for recognition: he composed music to French texts, wrote an aria for Bellini's opera Norma. But attempts to stage their works were in vain. In the end, the King of Saxony allowed Wagner to work in the Dresden court theater, which ended his Parisian biography.

Richard Wagner, disappointed by the failures, returned to Germany in 1842 and settled in Dresden, where he was responsible for music for the court chapel. Rienzi, a great tragic opera in the French style, was a modest success. The overture from it is still popular today. In 1845, the premiere of Tannhäuser took place in Dresden. This was the first undoubted success in Wagner's career. In November of the same year, he completed writing the libretto for the opera Lohengrin and in early 1846 began writing music for it. At the same time, captivated by the Scandinavian sagas, he drew up plans for his tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungs". In 1845 he prepared the script for the first drama of the tetralogy, The Death of Siegfried, which was later renamed The Twilight of the Gods.

Richard Wagner: a short biography. Years of exile

The revolution of 1848 broke out in many German cities. Among them was Dresden, in which Richard Wagner became an active participant in the revolutionary movement. The biography and work of the composer is largely due to this period of his life. He typed incendiary tirades in a republican journal, personally distributed manifestos to the Saxon troops, and even survived a fire in the tower from which he monitored the movements of the military. On May 16, 1849, a warrant was issued for his arrest. With the money of friends and the future father-in-law Franz Liszt, he fled from Dresden and went to Switzerland through Paris. There, first in Zurich, and then not far from Lucerne for the next 15 years, his biography took shape. Richard Wagner lived without permanent place work, expelled from Germany with a ban on taking part in German theatrical life. All this time he worked on the "Ring of the Nibelungen", which dominated his creative life for the next two decades.

The first production of Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin took place in Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt in 1850 (the author did not see his work until 1861). By this time, the German composer also gained fame as a polemist, and his fundamental theoretical work Opera and Drama was published in 1850-1851. It discussed the significance of the legend for the theater and how to write a libretto, and presented his thoughts on the realization of a "total work of art" that changed theater life Germany, if not the whole world.

In 1850, Wagner's Judaism in Music was published, in which he questioned the very possibility of the existence of a Jewish composer and musician, especially in German society. Anti-Semitism remained hallmark his philosophy for the rest of his life.

In 1933, in the Soviet Union, in the series "The Life of Remarkable People", A. A. Sidorov's book "Richard Wagner" was published. A brief biography of the German composer was preceded by the words of Lunacharsky that one should not impoverish the world by crossing out his work, but it also promised "woe to the one who will let this magician into our camp."

Productive work

Richard Wagner most famous works wrote between 1850 and 1865 to which he owes his reputation today. The composer deliberately shied away from the current work in order to create an epic cycle of such a scale that no one had encroached on before him. In 1851, Wagner wrote the libretto for The Young Siegfried, later called Siegfried, to set the stage for The Twilight of the Gods. He realized that in order to justify his other work, in addition to this one, he would need to write two more dramas, and by the end of 1851 Wagner sketched out the remaining text for The Ring. He completed The Rhine Gold in 1852 after revising the libretto for The Valkyrie.

In 1853, the composer officially began composing The Rhine Gold. The orchestration was completed in 1854. The next work that Richard Wagner took seriously, Valkyrie, was completed in 1856. At this time, he began to think about writing Tristan and Isolde. In 1857, the second act of "Siegfried" was completed and the composer completely immersed himself in the composition of "Tristan". This work was completed in 1859, but it did not premiere until 1865 in Munich.

Last years

In 1860, Wilhelm Richard Wagner received permission to return to Germany, excluding Saxony. A full amnesty awaited him in two years. In the same year, he began composing music for the opera Die Meistersingers of Nuremberg, which was conceived in 1845. Wagner resumed work on Siegfried in 1865 and began to sketch the future Parsifal, for which he had hoped since the mid-1840s. The composer began the opera at the insistence of his patron, the Bavarian monarch Ludwig II. The Meistersingers were completed in 1867 and premiered in Munich the following year. Only after this was he able to resume work on the third act of Siegfried, which was completed in September 1869. In the same month, the opera "Rheingold Gold" was performed for the first time. The composer wrote music for The Twilight of the Gods from 1869 to 1874.

First full cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (Rhine Gold, Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods) was performed at the Festspielhaus, the festival theater that Wagner built for himself in Bayreuth in 1876, 30 years after how the thought of it first came to him. He completed Parsifal, his last drama, in 1882. On February 13, 1883, Richard Wagner died in Venice and was buried in Bayreuth.

Philosophy of tetralogy

The Ring of the Nibelungs is central to Wagner's work. Here he wanted to present new ideas of morality and human action that would completely change the course of history. He envisioned a world free from the worship of supernatural slavery, which he believed had a negative impact on Western civilization from Ancient Greece to the present day. Wagner also believed that the source of all human activity was fear, which had to be got rid of in order for a person to live a perfect life. In Ring of the Nibelungen, he attempted to set out norms for superior people, beings who would dominate those less fortunate. In turn, in his opinion, mere mortals should recognize their own low status and succumb to the splendor the perfect hero. The complications that accompany the search for moral and racial purity are an integral part of the plan that Richard Wagner hatched.

The composer's works are filled with the belief that only complete immersion in sensory experience can free a person from the restrictions imposed by rationality. As valuable as the intellect is, intelligent life is seen by Wagner as an obstacle to man's attainment of the fullest awareness. Only when the ideal man and the ideal woman come together can the transcendental heroic image. Siegfried and Brunnhilde became invincible after they submitted to each other; apart, they cease to be perfect.

In the mythical world of Wagner there is no place for mercy and idealism. The perfect rejoice only in each other. All people must acknowledge the superiority of certain beings and then bow to their will. A person can seek his destiny, but he must submit to the will of the higher ones if their paths intersect. In Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner wanted to turn his back on the civilization inherited from the Hellenic-Jewish-Christian world. He would like to see a world dominated by strength and savagery, glorified in Scandinavian sagas. The consequences of such a philosophy for the future of Germany were catastrophic.

Philosophy of other operas

In Tristan, Wagner reversed the approach he had developed in Der Ring des Nibelungen. Instead, he explored dark side love to plunge into the depths of negative experiences. Tristan and Isolde, liberated rather than doomed by the love potion they have drunk, willingly destroy the kingdom in order to love and live; the sensuous power of love is seen here as destructive, and the style of musical chromaticity and overwhelming orchestral pulsation are perfect for delivering the drama's message.

The narcissism of Wagner, who was not tolerant of all but those blind to his faults, came to the fore in Dieistersinger. The tale of a young hero-singer who conquers the old order and brings a new, more exciting style to Nuremberg's tradition-bound society is a tale of The Ring in a slightly different guise. Wagner was open about the fact that "Tristan" is the "Ring" in miniature. Obviously, in "Meistersinger" the composer identifies himself with the messianic figure of the young German poet and the singer who won the prize and, finally, was accepted as the leader of the new society - here the author's fiction and his biography are closely intertwined. Richard Wagner in Parsifal identifies himself even more intensely with the hero-savior, the redeemer of the world. The sacraments sung in the opera are prepared for the glory of the author himself, and not for any god.

musical language

The scale of Wagner's vision is as captivating as his thoughts and metaphysics are repulsive. Without music, his dramas would still have remained milestones in the history of Western thought. Richard Wagner, whose music multiplies the significance of his work many times over, gave rise to a language that best represents his philosophy. He intended to silence the resistance of the forces of reason musical means. Ideally, the melody should last forever, and the voice and lyrics are part of a fabric intertwined with a magnificent web of orchestration. Verbal language, often very obscure and syntactically agonizing, is only accepted through music.

For Wagner, music was by no means an add-on woven into the drama after its completion, and was more than an exercise in formal rhetoric, "art for art's sake." She linked life, art, reality and illusion into a single symbiotic union that had its own magical effect on the audience. Wagner's musical language is designed to debunk the rational and evoke unquestioning acceptance of the composer's beliefs. In the Wagnerian reading of Schopenhauer, the musical ideal in dramas is not a reflection of the world, but the world itself.

Personal qualities

Such a summary of Wagner's creative life says nothing about the extraordinary difficulties in his personal life, which, in turn, influenced his operas. He was a truly charismatic figure who overcame all adversity. In Switzerland, the composer lived on donations, which he received with the help of amazing cunning and the ability to manipulate people. In particular, the Wesendonck family contributed to his well-being, and Mathilde Wesendonck, one of Wagner's many mistresses, inspired him to write Tristan.

The life of the composer after leaving Saxony was a constant series of intrigues, polemics, attempts to overcome the indifference of the world, searches perfect woman worthy of his love, and an ideal patron, a worthy recipient of whose funds he could become. Cosima von Bülow Liszt was the answer to his search perfect woman obsequious and fanatically devoted to his welfare. Although Wagner and Minna lived separately for some time, he did not marry Cosima until 1870, almost ten years after the death of his first wife. Thirty years younger than her husband, Cosima dedicated herself to the Wagner theater in Bayreuth for the rest of her life. Died in 1930

The ideal patron turned out to be Ludwig II, who literally saved Wagner from a debtor's prison and moved the composer to Munich with almost carte blanche for life and creativity. Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria attended the premiere of Lohengrin at the age of fifteen. He really liked Richard Wagner - a tear of delight more than once welled up in the eyes of a high-ranking admirer of the composer's talent during his performance. The opera became the basis of the fantasy world of the King of Bavaria, to which he often fled in his adult life. His obsession with Wagner operas led to the construction of various fairy tale castles. "Neuschwanstein" is probably the most famous building inspired by the works of the German composer.

After his rescue, however, Wagner behaved so insultingly with the blindly adoring young monarch that he was forced to flee after 2 years. Ludwig, despite his disappointment, remained a loyal supporter of the composer. Thanks to his generosity in 1876, the first festival of performances of the "Ring of the Nibelungen" in Bayreuth became possible.

The intractable Wagner was convinced of his superiority, and with age this became his manic idea. He was intolerant of any doubt, any refusal to accept him and his creations. Everything in his house revolved only around him, and his demands on wives, mistresses, friends, musicians and philanthropists were exorbitant. For example, Hanslick, an outstanding Viennese music critic, became the prototype of Beckmesser in The Meistersingers.

When the young philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche first met Wagner, he thought he had found his way to God, so radiant and powerful he seemed to him. Later, Nietzsche realized that the composer was far less than the perfect incarnation of the superman he imagined, and turned away in disgust. Wagner never forgave Nietzsche for his flight.

Place in history

In retrospect, Wagner's accomplishments outweigh both his conduct and his legacy. He managed to survive the predictable rejection of subsequent generations of composers. Wagner created such an effective, unique musical language, especially in "Tristan" and "Parsifal", which began contemporary music often dates back to the time of these operas.

Richard Wagner, whose famous works are not limited to pure formalism and abstract theoretical development, showed that music is a living force that can change people's lives. Moreover, he proved that Theatre of Drama is a forum for ideas, not an arena for escapism and entertainment. And he showed that the composer can rightfully take his place among the great revolutionary thinkers of Western civilization, questioning and attacking what seemed unacceptable in the traditional manner of behavior, experience, learning and art. Together with Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, Richard Wagner, biography, creativity in the music of the composer deserve to take their rightful place in history culture XIX century.

outlined in this article.

Richard Wagner short biography

Richard Wagner- German composer and art theorist. The largest opera reformer

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born May 22, 1813 in Leipzig in the family of a police officer. After his father's death, his stepfather Ludwig Geyer sent Richard to study music.

Composing musical works began at the age of 16, the year before he had written his first play. In 1831 he began studying at the University of Leipzig, from which he did not graduate. From 1833 he performed as a choir conductor, and then an orchestra at the opera houses of Würzburg, Magdeburg, Riga and other cities.

In the years 1833-1842 he led a restless life, often in great need in Würzburg, where he worked as a theater choirmaster, Magdeburg, then in Königsberg and Riga, where he was a conductor of musical theaters, then in Norway, London and Paris, where he wrote the overture "Faust and the opera The Flying Dutchman. In 1842, the triumphal premiere of the opera "Rienzi, the last of the tribunes" in Dresden laid the foundation for his fame.

In the following works by Wagner "Tannhäuser", "Lohengrin" the main musical content is carried by the orchestra, the scenes are characterized by a smooth transition.

After the defeat of the Dresden uprising, in which Wagner took part, he flees to Switzerland. Due to being declared a German criminal, Wagner did not return to his homeland for 13 years. At that time, operas by Richard Wagner based on the epic of the Middle Ages were begun. In 1853, the cycle "Ring of the Nibelungen" was completed. Another famous work for Wagner was the drama Tristan and Isolde.

In 1862, Wagner, taking advantage of an amnesty, returned to Germany, but only three years later, the patronage of the King of Bavaria, Leopold II, gave him the opportunity to focus exclusively on music.

Arriving in Munich, he meets Liszt's daughter Cosima Bülow there and soon marries her. In 1871 Wagner came to Bayreuth for the first time. He takes the initiative to build a large opera house in this city, on the stage of which German operas. Since 1874, Wagner and his family settled in Bayreuth at the Villa Wanfried.

German composer and art theorist Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig (Germany). His father Carl Friedrich Wagner died of typhus on November 23, 1813. Soon, Wagner's mother Johanna Rosina remarried the actor and painter Ludwig Geyer, who actually replaced Richard's father.

Richard Wagner with early age felt attracted to music, especially highlighting the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. He attended school in Dresden, then in Leipzig. At the age of fifteen he wrote his first theatrical play, and at the age of sixteen he began composing music. In 1831, Wagner entered the University of Leipzig and at the same time began to study music theory under Theodor Weinlig, cantor of the Church of St. Thomas. A year later, the symphony created by Wagner was successfully performed in the main concert hall of Leipzig, the Gewandhaus. In 1833, Wagner got a job as a theater choirmaster in Würzburg and composed the opera The Fairies (based on Carlo Gozzi's play The Snake Woman), which was not staged during the composer's lifetime.

In 1835, Wagner wrote his second opera, Love Forbidden (based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure), which premiered in Magdeburg in 1836. By that time, Wagner had already made his debut as a conductor (he performed with a small opera troupe). In 1836, Wagner settled in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad), where he was given the position of musical director of the city theater. In 1837, he took a similar position in Riga and began writing his third opera, Rienzi (based on the novel by the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton). In Riga, Wagner developed an active conductor's activity, performing mainly the music of Beethoven. Wagner made a real revolution in the art of conducting. In order to achieve fuller contact with the orchestra, he abandoned the custom of conducting while standing facing the audience, and turned to face the orchestra.

In 1839, Wagner and his wife, fleeing creditors, moved from Riga to London, and from there to Paris. Here Wagner became close to Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz. The source of his earnings was work for publishing houses and theaters; in parallel, he composed the words and music for the opera The Flying Dutchman. In 1842 Wagner returned to Germany. The production of his opera "Rienzi" in Dresden brought him great success. At the same time, the opera The Flying Dutchman, staged in 1843, was received with more restraint. On April 13, 1845, Wagner completed work on the opera Tannhäuser, and on October 19 of the same year, the premiere of the work took place in Dresden.

From 1845 to 1848, Richard Wagner devoted a lot of time to the study of Scandinavian mythology and the German epic, which was reflected in the opera Lohengrin, as well as in work on sketches for the texts of the operas Der Ring des Nibelungen and The Nuremberg Mastersingers.

In 1849, Wagner took part in the Dresden anti-government rebellion and, after its defeat, fled first to Weimar, and then, through Paris, to Switzerland. Being declared a state criminal, he did not cross the borders of Germany for 13 years. During his stay in Zurich, Wagner took up aesthetic treatises, which he began to publish from 1850. In his works "Art and Revolution", "Artwork of the Future", "Opera and Drama" he expressed deeply philosophical views on art, the theory of musical drama.

In 1858 Wagner left Switzerland, and in 1861 his opera Tannhäuser was staged at the Paris Opera. Despite the fact that Wagner revised the opera in accordance with the tastes of the French public (in particular, he added a large ballet bacchanal scene at the beginning of the first act), the work was severely booed.

In 1862, Wagner received a full amnesty and the right to unimpeded entry into Germany. In 1863, the composer visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he introduced the audience to excerpts from his operas. In addition, Wagner conducted many of Beethoven's symphonies.

In 1865, the opera "Tristan and Isolde" was staged in Munich, then, three years later, "The Nuremberg Mastersingers", "Gold of the Rhine", "Valkyrie". The appearance of these two latest operas on the Munich stage was the first attempt to perform the huge cycle "Ring of the Nibelungen", which Wagner was bringing to an end.

This tetralogy with a mythological plot, according to Wagner, required a theater with a stage equipped with all sorts of innovations. Friends and admirers of Wagner, headed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, financially contributed to the implementation of this idea and a Wagner theater was erected in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. The opening of the Bayreuth Festival Theater took place in the summer of 1876 with a production of the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen directed by Hans Richter. The whole tetralogy lasts about 18 hours (the longest piece of music in history). "Rhine Gold" is not divided into acts and serves as an "opening evening", while the other three operas - "The Valkyrie", "Siegfried" and "The Death of the Gods" - contain three acts each (the "Death of the Gods" also has a prologue , which likens the structure of this opera to the structure of the tetralogy as a whole).

The completion of the composer's career was the opera ("solemn stage mystery") "Parsifal" based on the epic novel by the German medieval poet-knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, which premiered in 1882.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources