Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig. The man who was officially
his father, a clerk at the police court, died when he was very
young. His mother soon married the painter Ludwig Geyer and
possibly he was Wagner's real father. When he was seven the
family moved to Dresden, where he received his first musical
education at the Dresdner Kreuzschule. Geyer died when Wagner
was only eight years old, but he had already inspired a taste
for art in the boy.
Under the influence of Goethe and
Shakespeare he wrote the tragedy "Leubald und Adelaide" at a
very young age. He started a series of diaries around the age
of twenty, already convinced of his own genius and his future
fame. After attending performances of works by Weber and Beethoven
he switched to music. In April 1829 he saw Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
as Leonore in Beethoven's "Fideleo" and he was deeply impressed.
He
went to Leipzig university in 1831 and obtained an engagement
at the Würzburg theatre. Wagner finished his first opera "Die
Feen" in 1834 and in 1836 he married the singer Minna Planer
(a marriage he would regret until their separation in 1858).
He went to Königsberg with her to become musical director at
the theatre, allthough at the time Minna was probably more wanted
than Wagner himself. Soon afterwards the theatre went bankrupt
and Wagner was left behind without payment. An engagement in
Riga followed, but in 1839 he had to flee from his creditors.
Wagner
tried to find himself a place in the world of opera in Paris
(1839-1842). Allthough he became friendly with the great Meyerbeer
he failed and almost starved to death from poverty. Even so
he finished his opera "Rienzi" and when it was performed in
Dresden on October 20th, 1842 (with Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
singing) it was an overnight success. In 1843 it was followed
by "Der Fliegende Hollander" ("The Flying Dutchman") and in
that same year he was appointed Kapellmeister in Dresden.
Allthough
Wagner had a stable income now, his debts rose to enormous heights
because he continued to live far beyond his means. In his Dresden
years he completed "Tannhauser" (first performed on 19 Oct 1845)
and "Lohengrin". The latter was rejected by the opera in Dresden
and was first staged in Weimar in 1850. In 1848 he supported
the revolution that was rising in Saxony. The revolution failed
and where people like Bakunin were captured, Wagner managed
to flee to Jena, to his friend Franz Liszt who had supported
his work from an early stage. He had first met Liszt in 1841
in Paris. Wagner initially was little interested in Liszt's
compositions, but at a certain point he realized that there
was much depth in them. From that point the men were always
eager to hear each other's compositions, even when their friendship
became clouded by the constant demands of Wagner and by his
affair with Liszt's daughter Cosima.
Wagner remained
in exile until 1860 and during this time Lohengrin turned into
a huge success. In 1850 in Zurich he wrote an anti-semitic
piece on Jewishness in music which was partly an attack on Meyerbeer.
In 1853 he first met Cosima Liszt, the young daughter of Franz
Liszt. In Zürich he was supported by Mathilde and Otto Wesendonck
and he lived in a cottage behind their villa near Lake Zürich.
Mathilde (1828-1902) became his muse and his music to her poems
resulted in the 'Wesendonck Lieder'. In 1858 his wife Minna
intercepted a love letter to Mathilde and their liaison ended.
It is unclear if they were lovers. In 1860 he was granted amnesty
in Germany except for Saxony. In 1862 a full amnesty followed.
From
1864 onwards king Ludwig II of Bavaria supported him financially.
This enabled the production of "Tristan and Isolde", "Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg", "Das Rhinegold" , and "Die Walküre". Wagner's
influence on the king was regarded as dangerous and in combination
with a personal scandal he was forced to leave Munich. This
scandal was his liaison with Liszt's daughter, who had married
his conductor and friend Hans von Bülow in 1857. Cosima bore
Wagner a daughter in 1865 (Isolde) that was accepted by Von
Bülow as his own. From 1866 onwards Wagner lived at Tribschen
(near Lucerne) with Cosima. By the time he married her in 1870
they had three children. Their daughter Eva was born in 1867
and their son Siegfried was born in 1869.
Wagner devoted
himself now to the completion of his epic work "Der Ring des
Nibelungen", about a struggle between the gods and mankind.
It consisted of four parts, "Das Rheingold", "Die Walküre",
"Siegfried" and "Die Götterdämmerung". Under his direction a
new theatre was built in Bayreuth (in Bavaria) where his complete
Ring was first performed from 13 to 17 Aug 1876. Gounod, Grieg,
Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens and Liszt, they were all there to witness
these first Bayreuther Festspiele. Judith Gautier (1845-1917)
was also present and she was the master's muse during the event,
allthough it's not clear if there affair was consummated or
not. After the Festspiele Judith an intimate correspondence
followed. Judith sent her letters to Wagner's barber Schnappauf,
but after Cosima caught him burning some of the correspondence
early in 1878, they had to put an end to the affair.
Wagner
continued his writings on musical and political themes, among
them 'racial purity'. In 1882 he completed his final opera "Parsifal"
in Palermo. It was performed on 25 Jun 1882 in Bayreuth during
the second Festspiele. The work had put a serious strain on
Wagner and he died of a heart attack on 13 Feb 1883 in Venice.
On the morning of his death he had an argument with Cosima after
the announcement of a visit by Carrie Pringle, one of the 'flowermaidens'
at the festival of 1882. Wagner withdrew to his study and the
excitement probably caused the heart attack. Two days before
his death he had dreamt of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and
told Cosima that the women of his life had passed before his
eyes.
Wagner was buried in the garden of his villa
Wahnfried in Bayreuth. Cosima became the guardian of his work
and managed the 'Festspiele' in Bayreuth. She survived him until
1930. His son Siegfried tried hard as a composer, but his opera's
were little succesful. Siegfried preferred men above women,
but pressed by Cosima he married the young Winnifred Williams,
who bore him four children. A few months after his mother's
passing away Siegfried died from a heart heart attack, like
his father.
During his life Richard Wagner had several
mistresses. Apart from Judith Gautier and Mathilde Wesendonck
he was involved with Jessie Laussot (1829-1905), Mathilde Maier
(1833-1910) and Friederike Meyer. He also had a short liaison
with Cosima's older sister Blandine and only after her death
in 1862 he started his affair with Cosima.
Family
• Mother: Wagner, Johanna Rosina
• Son: Wagner, Siegfried
• Wife: Liszt, Cosima
• Wife: Wagner-Planer, Minna
• Sister: Marbach, Johanna Rosalie
Related persons
• cooperated with Bülow, Hans von
• was written about by Chamberlain, Houston Stewart
• was admired by Fantin-Latour, Ignace Henri Jean Théodore
• was criticized by Hanslick, Eduard
• employed Humperdinck, Engelbert
• was a friend of Klindworth, Karl
• was written about by Kolb, Annette
• cooperated with Lehmann, Lilli
• was painted by Lenbach, Franz von
• was admired by Liszt, Franz
• was influenced by Liszt, Franz
• had work performed by Lorenz, Max
• knew Makart, Hans
• is brother/sister of Marbach, Johanna Rosalie
• was influenced by Meyerbeer, Giacomo
• cooperated with Mottl, Felix
• was supported by Porges, Heinrich
• was a friend of Pusinelli, Anton
• was a friend of Richter, Hans
• admired Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Ludwig
• was influenced by Schopenhauer, Arthur
• admired Schröder-Devrient, Wilhelmine
• created works that weren't liked by Schumann, Clara Josephine
• knew Spyri, Johanna
• knew Tausig, Karl
• visited Viardot-Garcia, Pauline
• was influenced by Weber, Carl Maria von
• had a relationship with Wesendonck, Mathilde
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Events
1829/4/0: Wagner sees Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient in Beethoven's Fidelio
She played the part of Leonore and the sixteen years old Wagner was deeply impressed.
1849/2/16: Liszt conducts the premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser in Weimar
An earlier version was first performed in Dresden in 1845. In 1849 Wagner was in exile in Switzerland.
1863/11/28: Richard Wagner and Cosima Liszt become lovers
Wagner was staying in Berlin because Cosima's husband Hans von Bülow had asked him to attend a concert. When Von Bülow was busy with the repititions Wagner and Cosima made a coach ride during which they confessed to each other that they belonged together. That night Wagner was staying in Von Bülow's house.
1867/10/24: Wagner completes his opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"
1869/9/22: Premiere of Richard Wagner's "Das Rheingold" in Munich
1871/2/5: Wagner completes his opera Siegfried
1877/4/19: Wagner completes the textbook of Parsifal
1923/8/30: Hitler speaks at the Villa Schönberg in Zürich
The villa Schönberg was built on the spot where his idol Richard Wagner once lived.
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Sources
• Gutman, Robert, Richard Wagner, Der Mensch, sein Werk, seine Zeit, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München, 1989
• Richard Wagner: Biography
• Richard Wagner
• Eger, Manfred, Richard-Wagner-Museum Bayreuth, 1995
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