Richard Wagner is a German composer who changed the history of music in opera. His work and his scientific works on the aesthetics of music led to the end of the era of romanticism, the establishment of a stable connection between art and life. He made the language of music richer and filled the orchestral composition with new colors.
Childhood and youth
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, the ninth child in the family. His father died a few months after the birth of his son, and his mother - Johan Rozin - six months later, again married the artist and actor Ludwig Geiger. Richard loved and respected his stepfather, and sought to be like him. Geiger, in turn, strongly supported the craving of foster children for art. At age 15, Richard, inspired by the works of Shakespeare and Goethe, wrote a great tragedy - "Loybald and Adelaide." Relatives did not like the tragedy, and he decided to write music for the play, but soon realized that he lacked a musical education for this. Wagner begins to study harmony and music theory at the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas, where he was once baptized, where he went to the humanitarian school, and where in the 18th century Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor for 25 years.
A year later, Richard Wagner wrote the first opera "The Vagaries of Lovers" with a libretto based on Goethe's play of the same name. Neither the words nor the music of this work were preserved, but the fact that young Wagner began his career as a composer with the writing of an opera is not accidental. The history of music divides the genre of opera into the pre-Wagner and post-Wagner periods. Wagner brought into this genre an end-to-end dramatic composition, subordinating to it both music and libretto and stage performances.
The beginning of a musical career
In the years 1829-1830, Richard wrote several small works: a piano sonata, a string quartet, but even they do not find support from relatives. The beginning composer still lacks theoretical knowledge.
In 1831, Richard Wagner continued his education by entering the University of Leipzig.
In 1832, he creates a libretto and begins to write music for his opera The Wedding. However, she does not finish the work under the influence of criticism of her older sister, who by that time was already a popular actress. Only three fragments of the first act of the opera have reached us.
In 1833, Richard Wagner received the position of choirmaster at the Wurzburg Opera House.
In 1833, Richard's friend, music critic and librettist Heinrich Laube, offered him his libretto for an opera called Kosciuszko. Wagner read the text and stated that Henry misunderstands the principle of reproduction of heroic events in a musical work. From now on, he decides that he will only write the libretto for his operas. Richard radically remodels the idea of Laube, replacing the heroic Polish lords and characters from Carlo Gozzi's fairy tale "Woman-Snake". He calls his opera Fairy. This is Wagner’s first completed large work that has survived to this day. True, its first performance occurred after the death of the composer.
Shortly after the writing of the opera Fairies, the young musician moved to Magdeburg, where he was offered the position of conductor in the opera house. The following years were difficult for Wagner. He works in various theaters: in Koenigsberg, in Riga, in Paris, in Dresden, but nowhere is he paid enough to not feel the need. He is even forced to earn extra money by rewriting notes, but he still can not pay off his debts. Then he, in order to earn even a little more, went to sing in the choir. However, it quickly became clear that the composer had no singing abilities, and this side job had to be left. All this time he continues to compose. During these years he wrote and staged the opera The Prohibition of Love and Rienzi, the Last Stand.
First recognition as a composer
In Paris, in 1840, Wagner writes a concert overture of Faust. The work was conceived as an opera, but, subsequently, the composer decided to arrange it in the form of a small finished work. The overture was favorably received by critics. P.I. Tchaikovsky, who was generally skeptical of Wagner, gave Faust extremely high marks.
In 1841, Wagner wrote the opera The Flying Dutchman. This was his first work, in which his new approach to opera as an integral and complete dramatic work was finally formed, in contrast to the construction of the opera adopted so far in the form of independent, often unrelated, musical fragments. Returning from Paris to Germany, he staged the Rienzi and the Flying Dutchman on the stage of the Dresden opera house and finally received recognition. Here he enters the position of the Saxon royal court dropper.
In Dresden, Richard Wagner writes the operas "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin" based on plots of romantic Germanic legends. The period of a successful existence in the capital of the Saxon kingdom ends for him in 1849, when a republican uprising took place in Dresden. Wagner took part in it and even met with Mikhail Bakunin, who was one of the leaders of the public safety committee. The uprising was crushed with many casualties. An arrest warrant was issued for Wagner and he had to emigrate to Switzerland.
The next twelve years he lived in exile. He wrote theoretical works in which he outlined his views on musical aesthetics and on the connection of art with real life, conducted orchestras in Brussels, Paris and London. During these years, he became interested in the philosophy of Schopenhauer. In the late 1850s, Wagner created the opera Tristan and Isolde, the anthem of love and death, one of his most famous works.
Friendship with Friedrich Nietzsche
In 1862, when Wagner was already amnestied and returned to Germany, the clavier of Tristan and Isolde came to Friedrich Nietzsche. The future famous philosopher was then only 18, he already taught at the University of Greek Philology and still dreamed of becoming a musician. Wagner's opera shocked him so much that until the end of his life he considered him the most outstanding piece of music. Nietzsche once wrote to his friend: "I am not able to treat this music with cold criticism, all the fibers of my soul, all my nerves shudder, and I have not experienced such a long admiration for a long time." In 1866, in the house of his friends, whose mistress was Wagner’s sister, Nietzsche was introduced to the famous composer and got the opportunity to talk with him. During the conversation, it turned out that both the young philologist and the 53-year-old venerable composer are passionate about Schopenhauer, that both are interested in the history and literature of ancient Greece, and that both dream of a revival of the spirit of the German nation and a great reconstruction of the world. Nietzsche wrote after this meeting: "Wagner is a genius, in the sense that Schopenhauer understood him."
Three years later, this acquaintance of a brilliant philosopher and a brilliant composer continued and grew into a friendship. Nietzsche not only admires and is inspired by Wagner, but, under the influence of his innovative views on music and no less innovative works, he embarks on the path of a sincere, uncompromising and unlimited expression of his thoughts. According to Stefan Zweig, "An academic philosopher dies in him in one night."
A few years later this friendship ended. Nietzsche accuses Wagner of not complying with the requirements of the beautiful, and he speaks of Nietzsche’s books as a sad manifestation of mental illness. However, these years of friendship and close communication have had a huge impact on both.
