Biography of richard wagner life and music
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Richard Wagner
German composer (1813–1883)
"Wagner" redirects here. For other uses, see Wagner (disambiguation) and Richard Wagner (disambiguation).
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (VAHG-nər;[1][2]German:[ˈʁɪçaʁtˈvaːɡnɐ]ⓘ; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, författare av essäer, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), whereby he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to skådespel. The drama was to be presented as a continuously sung narrative, without conventional oper
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The Man: Richard Wagner
Early years
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, at No. 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions), in the Jewish quarter. He was however an ethnic German, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker. Wagner's father Carl died of typhus six months after Richard's birth, after which Johanna began living with Carl's friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer's residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father.
Geyer's love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiograph
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Biography
A Richard Wagner biography is that of a true radical. His work sent shock waves across nineteenth century Europe. Each of his mature operas expresses deep insights into the nature of the human condition, influencing fields as diverse as philosophy, politics and psychiatry. They have also spurred emulation and reaction among musicians, writers and many other artists. A charismatic and often capricious figure, Wagner was – and remains – one of the most controversial and influential composers in musical history. He was born into a family that was devoted to theatre. Wagner himself was a lively child with boundless enthusiasm for the music of Beethoven. Hearing the great diva Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient sparked his ambition to become a composer of opera. He gained experience as a conductor in provincial theatres, and married an actress. His first operas, Die Feen (‘The Faries’) and Das Liebesverbot (‘The Ban on Love’), date from these early years. Wagner went to Paris with t