Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German dramatic composer and theorist, theater director, conductor, and polemicist, best known for his operas, which had a revolutionary influence 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 “The Ring of the Nibelungs” (1869-1876).

Richard Wagner: brief biography and creativity

Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, into a modest family. His father died shortly after his son's birth, and within a year his mother married Ludwig Geyer. It is unknown whether the latter, a traveling actor, was the boy's actual father. Musical education Wagner's career was accidental until he turned 18, when he studied for a year with Theodor Weinlig in Leipzig. He began his career in 1833 as choral 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, his entire biography is full of financial problems of the composer. In the same year, in Königsberg, Richard Wagner married Minna Planner, a singer and actress who took an active part in 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 darkness from creditors and debt collectors, the 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 had planned, during his stay there developed a strong hatred of French musical culture, which he retained until the end of his life. It was at this time that Wagner, experiencing financial difficulties, sold the script for The Flying Dutchman to the Paris Opera for use by another composer. Later he wrote another version of this tale. Rejected by Parisian musical circles, Wagner continued to fight for recognition: he composed music based on French texts, and wrote an aria for Bellini’s opera Norma. But attempts to stage his works remained 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 his failures, returned to Germany in 1842 and settled in Dresden, where he was responsible for music for court chapel. Rienzi, a grand tragic opera in the French style, enjoyed 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 at the beginning of 1846 began writing music for it. At the same time, captivated by the Scandinavian sagas, he drew up plans for his tetralogy, The 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 Twilight of the Gods.

Richard Wagner: short biography. Years of exile

The revolution of 1848 broke out in many cities in Germany. Among them was Dresden, where Richard Wagner became an active participant in the revolutionary movement. The composer's biography and creativity are largely determined by this period of his life. He published incendiary tirades in the Republican journal, personally distributed manifestos among 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 money from friends and future father-in-law Franz Liszt, he fled Dresden and went to Switzerland through Paris. There, first in Zurich, and then near Lucerne over the next 15 years, his biography took shape. Richard Wagner lived without a permanent place of work, expelled from Germany with a ban on taking part in German theatrical life. All this time he worked on the "Ring of the Nibelungs", which dominated his creative life the next two decades.

The first production of Richard Wagner's 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 had also gained fame as a polemicist, and his fundamental theoretical work, Opera and Drama, was published in 1850-1851. It discussed the significance of a legend for the theater and how to write a libretto, and presented his thoughts on the realization of a "total work of art", which changed theatrical life Germany, if not the whole world.

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

In 1933, in the Soviet Union, A. A. Sidorov’s book “Richard Wagner” was published in the “Life of Remarkable People” series. short biography the German composer was preceded by the words of Lunacharsky that the world should not be impoverished by crossing out his work, but it also promised “woe to the one who lets this wizard into our camp.”

Productive work

Richard Wagner wrote his most famous works between 1850 and 1865 - to them he owes his reputation today. The composer deliberately shied away from his current work in order to create an epic cycle on a scale that no one had attempted before. In 1851, Wagner wrote the libretto for Young Siegfried, later titled Siegfried, to set the stage for Twilight of the Gods. He realized that to justify his work other than this he would need to write two more dramas, and by the end of 1851 Wagner had drafted the remaining text for The Ring. He completed Das Rheingold in 1852 after revising the libretto for Die Walküre.

In 1853, the composer officially began composing Das Rheingold. The orchestration was completed in 1854. The next work that Richard Wagner took seriously, “Die Walküre,” 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 its premiere took place only in 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 Meistersinger of Nuremberg, which was conceived in 1845. Wagner resumed work on Siegfried in 1865 and began sketching out 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. Die Meistersinger was 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. That same month, the opera Das Rheingold was performed for the first time. The composer wrote the music for “Twilight of the Gods” from 1869 to 1874.

The complete Ring of the Nibelungs cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods) was first performed at the Festspielhaus, the festival theater that Wagner built for himself in Bayreuth in 1876, 30 years later. after the thought of it first occurred 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 occupies a central place in Wagner's work. Here he wanted to introduce 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 negatively impacted Western civilization from ancient Greece to the present day. Wagner also considered fear to be the source of all human activity, which had to be eliminated so that a person could live a perfect life. In The Ring of the Nibelungs he tried to set out standards for superior men, beings who would dominate those less fortunate. In turn, in his opinion, mere mortals must recognize their own low status and yield to splendor ideal hero. The complications attendant on the quest for moral and racial purity are an integral part of Richard Wagner's vision.

The composer's works are filled with the belief that only complete immersion in sensory experience can free a person from the limitations imposed by rationality. No matter how valuable the intellect, Wagner views intelligent life as an obstacle to man's attainment of fullest awareness. Only when ideal man and the ideal woman come together, a transcendental heroic image can be created. Siegfried and Brünnhilde became invincible after they submitted to each other; apart they cease to be perfect.

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

Philosophy of other operas

In Tristan, Wagner completely changed the approach he had developed in The Ring of the Nibelungs. Instead, he explored the dark side of love to delve into the depths of negative experiences. Tristan and Isolde, liberated rather than doomed by the love potion they drank, willingly destroy the kingdom in order to love and live; The sensual power of love is seen here as destructive, and the musical chromatic style and overwhelming orchestral pulsation are ideal for delivering the drama's message.

Wagner's narcissism, which was not tolerant of anyone except those blind to his shortcomings, came to the fore in Die Meistersinger. The tale of a young singer-hero conquering the old order and bringing a new, more exciting style to the tradition-bound society of Nuremberg is the tale of the Ring in a slightly different guise. Wagner openly said that Tristan was the Ring in miniature. Obviously, in Die Meistersinger the composer identifies himself with the messianic figure of the young German poet and singer who wins a prize and is finally accepted as the leader of a 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 scope of Wagner's vision is as fascinating as his thoughts and metaphysics are repulsive. Without music, his dramas would still remain landmarks in the history of Western thought. Richard Wagner, whose music multiplies the significance of his work many times over, gave birth to the language that best represents his philosophy. He intended to drown out the resistance of the forces of reason musical means. Ideally, the melody should last forever, with the voice and lyrics being part of the fabric woven into the magnificent web of orchestration. Verbal language, often very unclear and syntactically painful, is only accepted through music.

For Wagner, music was in no way an addition woven into the drama after its completion, but 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, exerting its own magical effect on the audience. Wagner's musical language is intended to debunk the rational and evoke unquestioning acceptance of the composer's beliefs. In Wagner's reading of Schopenhauer, the musical ideal in dramas is not a reflection of the world, but the world in itself.

Personal qualities

This result of Wagner’s creative life says nothing about the extraordinary difficulties in his personal life, which in turn influenced his operas. He was truly a charismatic figure who overcame all odds. 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 composer's life after leaving Saxony was a constant series of intrigues, polemics, attempts to overcome the indifference of the world, the search for an ideal 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 for the perfect woman, obsequious and fanatically devoted to his well-being. 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. 30 years younger than her husband, Cosima devoted herself to the Wagnerian theater in Bayreuth until the end of her life. Died in 1930

The ideal patron was Ludwig II, who literally saved Wagner from debtor's prison and transported 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 - tears 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 escaped in his adult life. His obsession with Wagner's operas led to the construction of various fairytale castles. Neuschwanstein is probably the most famous structure inspired by the works of the German composer.

After his rescue, however, Wagner behaved so insultingly towards the young monarch who blindly adored him that after 2 years he was forced to flee. Ludwig, despite his disappointment, remained a loyal supporter of the composer. Thanks to his generosity, the first Ring of the Nibelung performance festival in Bayreuth became possible in 1876.

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 for Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger.

When the young philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche first met Wagner, he thought he had found his path to God, so radiant and powerful did it seem to him. Nietzsche later realized that the composer was much less than the perfect incarnation of the superman he had imagined him to be, and he turned away in disgust. Wagner never forgave Nietzsche for his flight.

Place in history

In retrospect, Wagner's accomplishments outweigh both his behavior 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, that the beginning modern music often dates back to the time of the appearance 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 of ideas, not an arena of escapism and entertainment. And he showed that a composer could rightfully take his place among the great revolutionary thinkers of Western civilization by 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's biography and creative work in music deserve to take their rightful place in the cultural history of the 19th century.

Richard Wagner ( full name Wilhelm Richard Wagner, German. Wilhelm Richard Wagner). Born May 22, 1813 in Leipzig - died February 13, 1883 in Venice. German composer and art theorist. A major reformer of opera, Wagner had a significant influence on European musical culture, especially German.

Wagner's mysticism and ideologically charged anti-Semitism influenced German nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century, and later National Socialism, which surrounded his work with a cult, which in some countries (especially Israel) caused an “anti-Wagner” reaction after World War II.

Wagner was born into the family of an official, Karl Friedrich Wagner (1770-1813). Under the influence of his stepfather, actor Ludwig Geyer, Wagner, being educated at the Leipzig school of St. Thomas, in 1828 began studying music with the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas Theodor Weinlig, and in 1831 began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig. In 1833-1842 he led hectic 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 Faust overture and the opera The Flying Dutchman. In 1842, the triumphant premiere of the opera “Rienzi, 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 he stepsister Cicily had a son, Richard, the future philosopher Richard Avenarius. Wagner became his godfather. In 1849, Wagner took part in the Dresden May Uprising (where he met) 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 (“Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre”) and the opera "Tristan and Isolde". In 1858 - Wagner visited Venice, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris and Berlin for a short time.

From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; highest form art - musical drama, understood as an organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where the opera house for the first time began to be treated as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form “musical drama” created by Wagner. It was its creation that became the goal of Wagner’s creative life. Some of its elements were embodied in the composer’s early operas 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”, “Artwork of the Future”), and in practice - in his later operas: “Tristan and Isolde” ", the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung" and the mystery "Parsifal".

According to Wagner, musical drama is a work in which the romantic idea of a synthesis of arts (music and drama) is realized, an expression of programming in opera. To implement this plan, Wagner abandoned the traditions of the operatic forms that existed at that time - primarily Italian and French. He criticized the first for its excesses, the second for its pomp. He fiercely criticized the works of the leading representatives of classical opera (Rossini, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Aubert), calling their music “candied boredom.”

Trying to bring opera closer to life, he came up with the idea of end-to-end 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 Ring of the Nibelung cycle). In the classical opera of Verdi and Rossini, individual numbers (arias, duets, ensembles with choirs) share a single musical movement into fragments. Wagner completely abandoned them in favor of large through vocal-symphonic scenes flowing into one another, and replaced arias and duets with dramatic monologues and dialogues. Wagner replaced overtures with preludes - short musical introductions to each act, inextricably linked with the action at a semantic level. Moreover, starting from the opera Lohengrin, these preludes were performed not before the curtain opened, but already with the stage open.

External action in Wagner's later operas (especially in Tristan and Isolde) it is reduced to a minimum, it is transferred to the psychological side, to the area of the characters' feelings. Wagner believed that the word is not capable of expressing the full depth and meaning of internal experiences, therefore, it is the orchestra, and not the vocal part, that plays the leading role in the musical drama. The latter is entirely subordinate to orchestration and is considered by Wagner as one of the instruments symphony orchestra. At the same time, the vocal part in musical drama represents the equivalent of theatrical dramatic speech. There is almost no songfulness or ariosity in it. Due to the specificity of vocals in Wagner's operatic music (exceptional length, mandatory requirement of dramatic skill, merciless exploitation of the extreme registers of voice tessitura), new stereotypes of singing voices were established in solo performing practice - Wagnerian tenor, Wagnerian soprano, etc.

Wagner attached exceptional importance to orchestration and, more broadly, to symphonism. Wagner's orchestra is compared to an ancient choir, which commented on what was happening and conveyed the “hidden” meaning. Reforming the orchestra, the composer created a tuba quartet, introduced a bass tuba, a contrabass trombone, expanded the string group, and used six harps. In the entire history of opera before Wagner, not a single composer used an orchestra of such a scale (for example, “The Ring of the Nibelung” is performed by a four-piece orchestra with eight horns).

Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries

Richard Wagner - The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla

Wagner's innovation in the field of harmony is also generally recognized. the tonality he inherited from Viennese classics and the early romantics, he expanded enormously by intensifying chromaticism and modal alterations. By weakening (straightforward among the classics) the unambiguous connections between the center (tonic) and the periphery, deliberately avoiding the direct resolution of dissonance into consonance, he imparted tension, dynamism and continuity to the modulation development. The hallmark of Wagnerian harmony is considered to be the “Tristan chord” (from the prelude to the opera “Tristan and Isolde”) and the leitmotif of fate from “The Ring of the Nibelungs”.

Wagner introduced a developed system of leitmotifs. Each such leitmotif (short musical characteristic) is a designation of something: a specific character or living creature (for example, the leitmotif of the Rhine in Das Rheingold), objects that often act as character symbols (a ring, a sword and gold in the Ring, a love potion in Tristan and Isolde"), the scene (the leitmotifs of the Grail in Lohengrin and Valhalla in Das Rheingold) and even abstract ideas (numerous leitmotifs of fate and fate in the Ring of the Nibelung cycle, longing, a loving gaze in Tristan and Isolde). Wagner’s system of leitmotifs received the most complete development 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 unite and interact in the complex musical texture of the final opera “Twilight of the Gods”.

Understanding music as the personification of continuous movement and 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 lack of tonic support (throughout the entire opera “Tristan and Isolde”), the incompleteness of each theme (in the entire cycle “Ring of the Nibelung”, with the exception of the climactic funeral march in the opera “Twilight of the Gods”) contribute to a continuous increase in emotions that does not receive resolution, which allows keep the listener in constant suspense (as in the preludes to the operas “Tristan and Isolde” and “Lohengrin”).

A. F. Losev defines the philosophical and aesthetic basis of Wagner’s work as “mystical symbolism.” The key to understanding Wagner’s ontological concept is the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” and the opera “Tristan and Isolde”. Firstly, Wagner’s dream of musical universalism was fully realized in The Ring.

“In The Ring, this theory was embodied through the use of leitmotifs, when every idea and every poetic image immediately specifically organized with the help of a musical motif,” writes Losev. In addition, “The Ring” fully reflected his passion for Schopenhauer’s ideas. However, we must remember that we became acquainted with them when the text of the tetralogy was ready and work on the music began. Like Schopenhauer, Wagner senses the dysfunction and even meaninglessness of the 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, believes that a world is possible and even predetermined in which people will no longer live in the name of the constant pursuit of gold, which in Wagner’s mythology symbolizes the world’s will. Nothing is known for sure about this world, but there is no doubt about its coming after a global catastrophe. The theme of 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 social order, but a cosmological action that changes the very essence of the universe.

As for “Tristan and Isolde,” the ideas contained in it were significantly influenced by a short-lived passion for Buddhism and at the same time a dramatic love story for Mathilde Wesendonck. Here the fusion of divided human nature that Wagner had been looking for for so long 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, in Losev’s opinion, 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 man, completely subjugating him, 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 predestination - this is what the love potion 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. Direct or indirect assimilation of Wagnerian operatic aesthetics (especially the innovative “cross-cutting” musical dramaturgy) marked a significant part of subsequent operatic works. The use of the leitmotif system in operas after Wagner became trivial and universal. No less significant was the influence of innovative musical language Wagner, especially his harmony, in which the composer revised the “old” (previously considered unshakable) canons of tonality.

Among Russian musicians, Wagner’s friend A. N. Serov was an expert and promoter of Wagner. N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who publicly criticized Wagner, nevertheless experienced (especially in late creativity) Wagner's influence in harmony, orchestral writing, musical dramaturgy. Valuable articles about Wagner were left by the prominent Russian music critic G. A. Laroche. In general, the “Wagnerian” is more directly felt in the works of “pro-Western” composers Russia XIX century (for example, A.G. Rubinstein) than among representatives of the national school. Wagner's influence (musical and aesthetic) is noted in Russia and in the first decades of the 20th century, in the works of A. N. Scriabin.

In the West, the center of the Wagner cult became the so-called Weimar school (self-named New German School), which developed around F. Liszt in Weimar. Its representatives (P. Cornelius, G. von Bülow, I. Raff, etc.) supported Wagner, first of all, in his desire to expand the scope musical expressiveness(harmony, orchestral writing, operatic dramaturgy). Western composers influenced by Wagner include Anton Bruckner, Hugo Wolf, Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Béla Bartok, Karol Szymanowski, Arnold Schoenberg (c. early work) and many others.

The reaction to the cult of Wagner was the “anti-Wagner” tendency, which opposed itself to him, the largest representatives of which were the composer Johannes Brahms and the musical esthetician E. Hanslick, who defended the immanence and self-sufficiency of music, its disconnection from external, extra-musical “stimuli” (see Absolute music). In Russia, anti-Wagner sentiments are characteristic of the national wing of composers, primarily M. P. Mussorgsky and A. P. Borodin.

The attitude towards Wagner among non-musicians (who assessed not so much Wagner’s music as his controversial statements and his “aestheticizing” publications) is ambiguous. Thus, in the article “The Case of Wagner” he wrote: “Was Wagner even a musician? In any case, he was more than something else... His place is in some other area, and not in the history of music: he should not be confused with its great true representatives. Wagner and Beethoven are blasphemy...” According to Thomas Mann, Wagner “saw in art a sacred mystery, a panacea against all the ills of society...”.

Wagner's musical creations in the XX-XXI centuries continue to live on the most prestigious opera scenes, not only Germany, but the whole world (with the exception of Israel).

Wagner wrote The Ring of the Nibelung with little hope that a theater would be found capable of staging the entire epic and conveying its ideas to the listener. However, contemporaries were able to appreciate its spiritual necessity, and the epic found its way to the viewer. The role of the “Ring” in the formation of the German national spirit cannot be overestimated. IN mid-19th century century, when The Ring of the Nibelung was written, the nation remained divided; The Germans remembered the humiliations of Napoleonic campaigns and the Vienna treaties; Recently a revolution thundered, shaking the thrones of the appanage kings - when Wagner left the world, Germany was already united, became an empire, the bearer and focus of all German culture. "The Ring of the Nibelung" and Wagner's work as a whole, although not only it, appeared for German people and for the German idea with that mobilizing impulse that forced politicians, intellectuals, military men and the whole society to unite.

The Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia noted that Judeophobia was an integral part of Wagner's worldview, and Wagner himself was characterized as one of the forerunners of anti-Semitism in the 20th century.

Wagner's anti-Semitic speeches caused protests during his lifetime; Thus, back in 1850, the publication of his article “Jewishness in Music” by Wagner under the pseudonym “Freethinker” in the journal “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” caused protests from the professors of the Leipzig Conservatory; they demanded the removal of the then editor of the magazine, Mr. F. Brendel, from the leadership of the magazine. In 2012, Wagner’s article “Jewishness in Music” (based on the decision of the Velsky District Court Arkhangelsk region dated March 28, 2012) was included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (No. 1204) and, accordingly, its printing or distribution in the Russian Federation is punishable by law.

Wagner was categorically against having the Jew Hermann Levi conduct the premiere of Parsifal, and since it was the king's choice (Levi was considered one of the best conductors of his time and, along with Hans von Bülow, the best Wagnerian conductor), Wagner did not last moment demanded that Levi be baptized. Levi refused.

In 1864, having achieved the favor of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who paid his debts and continued to support him, he moved to Munich, where he wrote the comic opera Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg and the last two parts of the Ring of the Nibelungs: Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. In 1872, the foundation stone for the Festival House was laid in Bayreuth, which opened in 1876. Where the premiere of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung took place on August 13-17, 1876. In 1882, the mystery opera Parsifal was staged in Bayreuth. That same year, Wagner went to Venice for health reasons, where he died in 1883 of a heart attack. Wagner is buried in Bayreuth.

WAGNER, RICHARD (Wagner, Richard) (1813–1883), great German composer. Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, the son of an official, Karl Friedrich Wagner, and Johanna Rosina Wagner (née Pez), the daughter of a miller from Weißenfels.

Wagner’s childhood was not prosperous: he was sick a lot, his family moved often, and as a result, the boy studied in fits and starts at schools in different cities. However, already in early years Wagner took in much of what was later useful to him: he was well read in classical and modern literature, fell in love with the operas of K.M. Weber (who was a member of the Wagner house), attended concerts, and mastered the basics of composing technique. He also showed a desire for self-expression in theatrical and dramatic form, and was keenly interested in politics and philosophy. In February 1831 he entered the University of Leipzig, and shortly before that one of his first works was performed - the Overture in B-flat major.

At the university, Wagner attended lectures on philosophy and aesthetics, studied music with T. Weinlig, cantor of the school of St. Thomas. At the same time, he met people associated with exiled Polish revolutionaries, and in 1832 he accompanied Count Tyszkiewicz on his journey to Moravia, and from there he went to Vienna. In Prague, his just completed symphony in C major was played at the conservatory at an orchestral rehearsal, and on January 10, 1833 it was publicly performed in Leipzig in the Gewandhaus concert hall.

Years of need.

A month later, thanks to the assistance of his brother (singer Karl Albert), Wagner received the position of tutor (choirmaster) in opera house Wurzburg. He energetically set to work, while continuing his composition studies. In the Leipzig "Newspaper of Elegant Light" Wagner published an article " German opera”, which essentially anticipated his later theories, and began composing the opera Fairies (Die Feen, based on a story by C. Gozzi), the composer’s first work in this genre. However, the opera was not accepted for production in Leipzig.

In 1834 he took the place of conductor at the Magdeburg Theater, and at the same time something happened in his life an important event: he met actress Minna Planer, became seriously interested in her, and after two years of courtship got married. The young musician did not achieve much success in Magdeburg (although the famous singer Wilhelmina Schröder-Devrient, who performed there, highly appreciated Wagner’s conducting art) and was not averse to looking for another place. He worked in Königsberg and Riga, but did not stay in these cities. Minna had already begun to regret her choice and left her husband for a while. In addition, Wagner was plagued by debts and disappointment in his abilities after the failures of two new works - the overture Rule, Britannia! (Rule, Britannia) and the opera The Forbidden Love (Das Liebesverbot, based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure). After Minna's departure, Wagner fled from debts and other troubles to his sister Ottilie, who was married to the book publisher F. Brockhaus. In their house, he first read E. Bulwer-Lytton's novel Cola Rienzi - The Last Tribune (Cola Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen), which seemed to him suitable material for an opera libretto. He set to work in the hope of receiving the approval of the famous Parisian master J. Meyerbeer, because Rienzi was written in the genre of French “grand opera”, and Meyerbeer was its unsurpassed master.

In the fall of 1838, Richard reunited with Minna in Riga, but theatrical intrigues forced him to soon leave the theater. The couple went to Paris by sea, visiting London along the way. The sea voyage turned out to be a difficult ordeal, as Wagner eloquently recounts in his autobiography, My Life (Mein Leben). During the voyage, he heard from the sailors a legend that formed the basis of his new opera The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Hollander). The Wagner couple spent two and a half years in France (from August 20, 1839 to April 7, 1842). Despite all sorts of difficulties and the lack of constant income, Richard developed his life in Paris in full force. Charm and brilliance of intellect secured him the respect and friendship of a number of outstanding people. Thus, F. Habeneck, conductor of the Paris Grand Opera, authoritatively testified to Wagner’s outstanding talent as a composer (who, in turn, was deeply impressed by Habeneck’s interpretation of Beethoven’s works); publisher M. Schlesinger gave Wagner a job in the Musical Newspaper he published. Among the composer's supporters were German emigrants: specialist in classical philology Z. Leers, artist E. Kitz, poet G. Heine. Meyerbeer treated the German musician favorably, and the culmination of his Parisian years was Wagner’s acquaintance with G. Berlioz.

In terms of creativity, the Parisian period also brought considerable fruit: the symphonic overture Faust was written here, Rienzi’s score was completed, the libretto of The Flying Dutchman was completed, plans for new operas arose - Tannhauser, the result of reading a collection of ancient German legends by the Brothers Grimm) and Lohengrin ( Lohengrin). In June 1841, Wagner learned that Rienzi had been accepted for production in Dresden.

Dresden, 1842–1849.

Inspired by the news they received, the Wagners decided to return to their homeland. In Leipzig (where the Brockhaus family helped them), Munich and Berlin, Wagner encountered a number of obstacles, and when he arrived in Dresden, he found dissatisfied orchestra members for whom Rienzi’s score posed unusual tasks, directors for whom the opera’s libretto seemed too long and confusing, and artists not at all inclined to spend money on costumes for an unknown opera. However, Wagner did not give up, and his efforts were crowned with the triumphant premiere of Rienzi on October 20, 1842. The result of success was, in particular, a rapprochement between Wagner and F. Liszt, as well as invitations to conduct concerts in Leipzig and Berlin.

Following Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman was staged in Dresden at the beginning of 1843. Although this opera lasted only four performances, Wagner's name became so famous that in February 1843 he was appointed to the post of court conductor (head of the court opera). This news attracted the attention of numerous creditors of the composer from different cities in Germany. Wagner, who had a genius for resolving conflicts caused by living beyond one's means, dealt with the onslaught of creditors as well as previous and subsequent incidents of this kind.

Wagner had wonderful ideas (he later developed them in his literary works): he wanted to transform the court orchestra so that it could properly perform the scores of Beethoven, the idol of the young Wagner; At the same time, he showed concern for improving the living conditions of the orchestra members. He sought to free the theater from the tutelage of the court with its endless intrigues, and sought to expand the repertoire of church music by introducing into it the works of the great Palestrina.

Naturally, such reforms could not but cause resistance, and although many Dresdeners supported Wagner (at least in principle), they still remained in the minority, and when on June 15, 1848 - shortly after the revolutionary events in the city - Wagner publicly defended republican ideas, he was removed from his post.

Meanwhile, Wagner's fame as a composer grew and strengthened. The Flying Dutchman earned the approval of the venerable L. Spohr, who performed the opera in Kassel; it also ran in Riga and Berlin. Rienzi was staged in Hamburg and Berlin; Tannhäuser premiered on October 19, 1845 in Dresden. In the last years of the Dresden period, Wagner studied the epic Song of the Nibelungs and often appeared in print. Thanks to the participation of Liszt, a passionate propagandist new music– in Weimar, a concert performance of the third act of the just completed Lohengrin and a production of Tannhäuser in its complete (the so-called Dresden) edition were carried out.

In May 1849, while in Weimar at the Tannhäuser rehearsals, Wagner learned that his house had been searched and a warrant had already been signed for his arrest in connection with his participation in the Dresden uprising. Leaving his wife and numerous creditors in Weimar, he hastily left for Zurich, where he spent the next 10 years.

Exile.

One of the first in Zurich to support him was Jessie Losso, an Englishwoman, the wife of a French merchant; she did not remain indifferent to the advances of the German musician. This scandal was followed by another, which gained greater publicity: we're talking about about Wagner’s connection with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a philanthropist who gave Wagner the opportunity to settle in a comfortable house on the shores of Lake Zurich.

In Zurich, Wagner created all of his major literary works, including Art and Revolution (Die Kunst und die Revolution), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, inspired by and dedicated to the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach, Opera and Drama (Oper und Drama), and also the completely inappropriate pamphlet Jews in Music (Das Judenthum in Musik). Here Wagner attacks Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, the poets Heine and Börne; As for Heine, Wagner even expressed doubts about his mental abilities. In addition to his literary work, Wagner performed as a conductor - in Zurich (concert series were held by subscription) and in the 1855 season at the Philharmonic Society in London. His main task was the development of a grandiose musical and dramatic concept, which, after a quarter of a century of hard work, took the form of the opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen.

In 1851, the Weimar court, at the insistence of Liszt, offered Wagner 500 thalers so that part of the future tetralogy - The Death of Siegfried (later the finale of the cycle - Death of the Gods, Gtterdmmerung) was ready for execution in July 1852. However, Wagner's plan clearly exceeded the capabilities of the Weimar theater. As the composer wrote to his friend T. Uhlig, at that time he already imagined The Ring of the Nibelung as “three dramas with a three-act introduction.”

In 1857–1859, Wagner interrupted work on the Nibelungen Saga, captivated by the story of Tristan and Isolde. The new opera arose from Mathilde Wesendonck and was inspired by Wagner's love for her. While composing Tristan, Wagner met the composer and conductor G. von Bülow, who was married to Liszt's daughter Cosima (who later became Wagner's wife). Tristan was almost finished when in the summer of 1858 its author hastily left Zurich and went to Venice: this happened as a result another quarrel with Minna, who again declared her firm intention never to live with her husband again. Expelled from Venice by the Austrian police, the composer went to Lucerne, where he completed work on the opera.

Wagner did not meet his wife for about a year, but in September 1859 they met again in Paris. Wagner made another attempt to conquer the French capital - and again failed. His three concerts, given in 1860, were met with hostility by the press and brought nothing but losses. A year later, the premiere of Tannhäuser at the Grand Opera - in a new version made especially for Paris - was booed by raging members of the Jockey Club. Just at this time, Wagner learned from the Saxon ambassador that he had the right to return to Germany, to any region except Saxony (this ban was lifted in 1862). The composer used the permission he received to search for a theater that would stage his new operas. He managed to convert the music publisher Schott, who gave him generous advances.

In 1862–1863, Wagner made a series of concert trips that made him famous as a conductor: he performed in Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg, Budapest and Karlsruhe. However, uncertainty about the future weighed heavily on him, and in 1864, in the face of the threat of arrest for debt, he made another escape - this time with his Zurich acquaintance Elisa Wille - to Marienfeld. This was truly the last refuge: as Ernest Newman writes in his book, “most of the composer’s friends, especially those who had the means, were tired of his requests and even began to fear them; they came to the conclusion that Wagner was absolutely incapable of observing elementary decency, and were no longer going to allow him to encroach on their wallets.”

Munich. Second exile.

At this moment, unexpected help came - from Ludwig II, who had just ascended the royal throne in Bavaria. More than anything else, the young king loved Wagner's operas - and they were performed in Germany more and more often - and invited their author to Munich. In the summer of 1865, the royal troupe premiered Tristan (four performances). Shortly before that, Cosima von Bülow, with whom Wagner connected his life from the end of 1863, gave birth to his daughter. This circumstance gave Wagner's political opponents in Bavaria a reason to insist on the composer's removal from Munich. Once again Wagner became an exile: this time he settled in Tribschen on the shores of Lake Lucerne, where he spent the next six years.

At Triebschen he completed Die Meistersinger, Siegfried and most of The Twilight of the Gods (the other two parts of the tetralogy were completed a decade earlier), and created a number of literary works, the most important of which are On Conducting (ber das Dirigieren, 1869) and Beethoven (1870). He also completed his autobiography: the book My Life (the presentation in it was completed only up to 1864) appeared at the insistence of Cosima, who, after her divorce from von Bülow, became Wagner’s wife. This happened in 1870, a year after the birth of the composer’s only son, Siegfried. By that time, Minna Wagner was no longer alive (she died in 1866).

Ludwig of Bavaria, disillusioned with Wagner as a person, always remained a passionate admirer of his art. Despite serious obstacles and his own prejudices, he achieved the production in Munich of Die Meistersinger (1868), Das Rheingold (1869) and Die Valkre (1870), and the capital of Bavaria became a mecca for European musicians. In those years, Wagner became the undisputed leader in European music. Election to the Prussian Royal Academy of Arts was a turning point in Wagner's biography. Now his operas were staged throughout Europe and often met with a warm reception from the public. The new copyright law strengthened his financial position. E. Fritsch published a collection of his literary works. All that remained was to realize the dream of a new theater, where his musical dramas could be ideally embodied, and Wagner now interpreted them as a source of the revival of German national identity and German culture. It took a lot of work, the support of well-wishers and financial assistance from the king to begin construction of the theater in Bayreuth: it was opened in August 1876 with the premiere of the Ring of the Nibelung. The king was present at the performances, and this was his first meeting with Wagner after an eight-year separation.

Last years.

After the celebrations in Bayreuth, Wagner and his family traveled to Italy; he met with Count A. Gobineau in Naples and Nietzsche in Sorrento. Once Wagner and Nietzsche were like-minded people, but in 1876 Nietzsche noticed a change in the composer: he had in mind the idea of Parsifal, in which Wagner, after the “pagan” Ring of the Nibelung, returns to Christian symbols and values. Nietzsche and Wagner never met again.

Wagner's late period of philosophical exploration found expression in such literary works as Is There Hope For Us? (Wollen wir hoffen, 1879), Religion and Art (Religion und Kunst, 1889), Heroism and Christianity (Heldentum und Christentum, 1881), and mainly in the opera Parsifal. This last opera by Wagner, in accordance with the royal decree, could only be performed in Bayreuth, and this situation remained until December 1903, when Parsifal was staged at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In September 1882, Wagner went to Italy again. He was tormented by heart attacks, and one of them, on February 13, 1883, became fatal. Wagner's body was transported to Bayreuth and buried with state honors in the garden of his villa Wahnfried. Cosima outlived her husband by half a century (she died in 1930). In the same year, Siegfried Wagner, who played a significant role in preserving the legacy of his father and the traditions of performing his works, died with her.

To a much greater extent than all European composers since the end of the 16th century. (the time of the Florentine Camerata), Wagner viewed his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from a work of art of the future: “Just as a person will not be freed until he joyfully accepts the bonds that unite him with Nature, so art will not become free until he no longer has any reason to be ashamed of his connection with life." From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; The highest form of art is musical drama, understood as the organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where the theater is treated as a temple, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the musical drama created by Wagner.

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

Wagner’s mysticism and ideologically charged 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-Wagner” 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, actor Ludwig Geyer, Wagner, being educated at the Leipzig school of St. Thomas, in 1828 began studying music with the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas Theodor Weinlig, and in 1831 began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig. In 1833-1842 he led a hectic 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 Faust overture "and the opera "The Flying Dutchman".

In 1842, the triumphant premiere of the opera “Rienzi, 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 took part 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 Nibelung”, the music of its first two parts (“Das Rheingold” and “Ring of the Nibelung”). Valkyrie") and the opera "Tristan and Isolde". In 1858, Wagner visited Venice, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris and Berlin for short periods.

In 1864, having achieved the favor of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who paid his debts and continued to support him, he moved to Munich, where he wrote the comic opera Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg and the last two parts of the Ring of the Nibelung: Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. . In 1872, the foundation stone for the Festival House was laid in Bayreuth, which opened in 1876. Where the premiere of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung took place on August 13-17, 1876. In 1882, the mystery opera Parsifal was staged in Bayreuth. That same year, Wagner went to Venice for health reasons, where he died in 1883 of a heart attack. Wagner is buried in Bayreuth.

Wagner opera composer

Works of R. Wagner

To a much greater extent than all European composers of the 19th century, Wagner saw his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Wagner’s article “The Work of Art of the Future”: “Just as a person will not be freed until he joyfully accepts the bonds connecting him with Nature, so art will not become free until the reasons to be ashamed of connection with life.” From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; The highest form of art is musical drama, understood as the organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where the opera house for the first time began to be treated as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form “musical drama” created by Wagner.

It was its creation that became the goal of Wagner’s creative life. Some of its elements were embodied in the composer’s early operas 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", "Artwork of the Future"), and in practice - in his later operas: "Tristan and Isolde”, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” and the mystery “Parsifal”.

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

External action in Wagner's later operas (especially in Tristan and Isolde) is reduced to a minimum; it is transferred to the psychological side, to the area of the characters' feelings. Wagner believed that the word is not capable of expressing the full depth and meaning of internal experiences, therefore, it is the orchestra, and not the vocal part, that plays the leading role in the musical drama. The latter is entirely subordinate to orchestration and is considered by Wagner as one of the instruments of the symphony orchestra. At the same time, the vocal part in musical drama represents the equivalent of theatrical dramatic speech. There is almost no songfulness or ariosity in it. Due to the specificity of vocals in Wagner's operatic music (exceptional length, mandatory requirement of dramatic skill, merciless exploitation of the extreme registers of voice tessitura), new stereotypes of singing voices were established in solo performing practice - Wagnerian tenor, Wagnerian soprano, etc.

Wagner's innovation in the field of harmony is also generally recognized. He greatly expanded the tonality he inherited from the Viennese classics and early romantics by intensifying chromaticism and modal alterations. By weakening (straightforward among the classics) the unambiguous connections between the center (tonic) and the periphery, deliberately avoiding the direct resolution of dissonance into consonance, he imparted tension, dynamism and continuity to the modulation development. The hallmark of Wagnerian harmony is considered to be the “Tristan chord” (from the prelude to the opera “Tristan and Isolde”) and the leitmotif of fate from “The Ring of the Nibelungs”.

Wagner introduced a developed system of leitmotifs. Each such leitmotif (short musical characteristic) is a designation of something: a specific character or living creature (for example, the Rhine leitmotif in “Das Rheingold”), objects that often act as symbolic characters (ring, sword and gold in “The Ring” , a love drink in "Tristan and Isolde", places of action (leitmotifs of the Grail in "Lohengrin" and Valhalla in "Das Rheingold") and even abstract ideas (numerous leitmotifs of fate and fate in the cycle "The Ring of the Nibelung", longing, a loving gaze in "Tristan and Isolde") The Wagnerian system of leitmotifs received the most complete development 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 unite and interact in the most complex and extremely difficult to perceive musical texture of the final the opera “Death of the Gods” (where there are already more than a hundred of them).

The literary heritage of Richard Wagner is enormous. Of greatest interest are his works on the theory and history of art, as well as music-critical articles. Wagner's extensive epistolary and his diaries have been preserved. As for the influences of the various philosophers that Wagner experienced, Feuerbach is traditionally named 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 thoughts was the need to abandon all philosophy, which, according to Losev, indicates a fundamental rejection of any philosophical borrowing in the process 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 provisions of the great philosopher. However, it can hardly be said that Schopenhauer became the source of his philosophical ideas. Losev believes that Wagner interprets the philosopher’s ideas in such a unique way that it is only with great reserve that one can talk about following them.

The philosophical and aesthetic basis of Wagner’s work by A.F. Losev defines it as “mystical symbolism”. The key to understanding Wagner’s ontological concept is the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” and the opera “Tristan and Isolde”. Firstly, Wagner’s dream of musical universalism was fully realized 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 a musical motif,” writes Losev. In addition, “The Ring” fully reflected his passion for Schopenhauer’s ideas. However, we must remember that we became acquainted with them when the text of the tetralogy was ready and work on the music began. Like Schopenhauer, Wagner senses the dysfunction and even meaninglessness of the 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, believes that a world is possible and even predetermined in which people will no longer live in the name of the constant pursuit of gold, which in Wagner’s mythology symbolizes the world’s will. Nothing is known for sure about this world, but there is no doubt about its coming after a global catastrophe. The theme of 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 contained in it were significantly influenced by a short-lived passion for Buddhism and at the same time a dramatic love story for Mathilde Wesendonck. Here the fusion of divided human nature that Wagner had been searching for for so long 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, in Losev’s opinion, 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 man, completely subjugating him, 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 predestination—that is what the love potion 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. Direct or indirect assimilation of Wagnerian operatic aesthetics (especially the innovative “cross-cutting” musical dramaturgy) marked a significant part of 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, Wagner’s friend A.N. was an expert and promoter of Wagner. Serov. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov, who publicly criticized Wagner, nevertheless experienced (especially in his late work) the influence of Wagner in harmony, orchestral writing, and musical dramaturgy. Valuable articles about Wagner were left by the prominent Russian music critic G.A. Laroche. In general, the “Wagnerian” is more directly felt in the works of “pro-Western” composers of Russia in the 19th century (for example, A.G. Rubinstein) than in the works of representatives of the national school. Wagner's influence (musical and aesthetic) is noted in Russia and in the first decades of the 20th century, in the works and affairs of A.N. Scriabin.

In the West, the center of the Wagner cult became the so-called Weimar school (self-named New German School), which developed around F. Liszt in Weimar. Its representatives (P. Cornelius, G. von Bülow, I. Raff, etc.) supported Wagner, first of all, in his desire to expand the scope of musical expressiveness (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 his early work) and many others.

The reaction to the cult of Wagner was the “anti-Wagner” tendency, which opposed itself to him, the largest representatives of which were the composer Johannes Brahms and the musical esthetician E. Hanslick, who defended the immanence and self-sufficiency of music, its disconnection from external, extra-musical “stimuli.” In Russia, anti-Wagner sentiments are characteristic of the national wing of composers, primarily M.P. Mussorgsky and A.P. Borodin.

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Wilhelm Richard Wagner

"Wilhelm Richard Wagner"

German opera composer. Author of the operas "The Flying Dutchman" (1840-1841), "Tannhäuser and the Wartburg Singing Competition" (1843-1845), "Lohengrin" (1848), "The Ring of the Nibelung" (1848-1874), "Tristan and Isolde" (1857 -1859), "Parsifal" (1877-1882), etc. Founded the Festspielhaus opera house. The tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” (1876) is recognized as a world masterpiece. He directed the Dresden Opera House (1842-1848).

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813. There were nine children in the family, but two died at an early age. The father died in the year of Richard's birth. At the request of her father, a passionate theatergoer, the eldest daughter Rosalia became an actress: at the age of 16 she made her debut at the Leipzig Theater; another daughter, Louise, performed on stage from the age of ten and also devoted herself to the theater; the third daughter, Clara, developed early as an excellent singer and at the age of 16 successfully performed the role of Cinderella in Rossini's opera of the same name at the Italian Opera Theater in Dresden. The eldest son Albert was preparing to devote himself to medicine, but his love for the theater prevailed, and he became a singer and director. His stepfather, actor, playwright and artist Ludwig Geyer, who replaced Richard’s father, was also associated with the theater.

Geyer took over the care of the family of his deceased friend. He married Richard's mother - a simple, poorly educated, but cheerful and courageous Johanna-Rosina, née Bestz - and took the family from Leipzig to Dresden. Richard loved Geyer very much and considered him his father. All his life he remembered him with gratitude. On Wagner’s desk there was a portrait of Geyer, the wall was decorated with another portrait of him along with a portrait of his beloved mother, and above the door hung a coat of arms invented by Wagner himself and depicting a kite (“Geier” in German - “kite”).

Geyer was the first to guess about the path that Richard's life would take. On the eve of his death, he asked the boy to play him the chorus from Weber's opera Free Shooter on the piano; While listening to 8-year-old Richard play, Geyer suddenly said to his wife: “Perhaps he has a talent for music?..”

Wagner decided to devote himself to music and firmly followed this path. He independently, without the help of teachers, studied the theory of composition. In 1831 he entered the University of Leipzig as a student of music. At the end of January 1833, Wagner went to seek his fortune in Würzburg, and a year later he moved to Leipzig.

Wagner spent the musical season of 1834-1835 in Magdeburg, where he conducted in a small opera house. The theater was doing poorly, despite the energy of the new conductor, whom both the public and the artists loved. Wagner decided not to return to Magdeburg. But a meeting with Wilhelmina (Minna) Planer, a charming actress of this theater, forced him to work in Magdeburg for another season. Wagner made attempts to replenish the troupe and update the repertoire, but the box office continued to fall, and many artists began to look for new places. Among them was Minna, who left for Berlin. In a letter full of despair, Wagner begged Minna to return and become his wife: otherwise, “I decided to indulge in drunkenness, give up all further activities and go to hell as soon as possible.”

In 1836, Minna became Wagner's wife. Later it turned out that the hasty marriage did not bring happiness. A young, indigent composer, obsessed with new grandiose ideas, who believed in his great calling, and a beautiful, practical woman (4 years older than him), who did not love either theater or art, were complete strangers.

In addition, the director of the Magdeburg Theater declared himself bankrupt. Before the theater closed, Wagner hastily staged his opera The Ban of Love. The artists undertook to perform the new work only out of respect for him. However, there were only 10 days left for rehearsal, the parts were learned hastily, and all hopes were pinned on the prompter. At the premiere, held on March 29, 1836, the public could hardly understand anything. Wagner wanted to distribute printed librettos to the audience, but the police demanded that the title of the opera be changed, which seemed too loose. Wagner hoped for the success of the second performance, but it did not take place: there were 3 people in the hall, and behind the scenes the prima donna’s husband staged a scene of jealousy, which ended in a fight. Thus ended the stage life of Wagner’s second opera - “The Ban of Love” never appeared on stage again.

From 1837 to 1839 Wagner lived in Riga. He worked in theaters and took French lessons.

Wagner did not lose faith in himself, he was full of ambitious hopes, he dreamed of conquering Paris, achieving success, fame, money. “It was the audacity of an artist,” one of his friends later wrote. “With his wife, half an opera, a small wallet and a terribly large, terribly voracious Newfoundland dog, go across the sea and storms from the Dvina straight to the Seine to become famous in Paris !..” The years spent in Paris were for Wagner, as for the young heroes of many of Balzac’s novels, a time of “lost illusions.”

Wagner's situation was catastrophic. Everything valuable was pawned at the pawnshop and sold. He often ran around the city all day - in the cold, in the fog - to get creditors to defer the payment of debts; One day, returning from such a campaign, without even getting five francs for lunch, he found Minna in tears: there was not a piece of bread left in the house. Wagner tried not to lose courage, his friends were amazed at his inexhaustible humor, but when Minna fell ill and he had no money to buy medicine, Wagner was overcome by despair: “God help me, I can no longer help myself.

"Wilhelm Richard Wagner"

I used everything, everything - the last sources of the starving... And I cursed my life; What else can I do?" Without getting the money, Wagner ended up in debtor's prison and came out of it only a month later...

In Paris, Wagner became very homesick and returned to Germany in 1942. "Triumph! Triumph!.. The day has come! Let it shine on you all!" - this is what Wagner wrote to his friends about the premiere of Rienzi in Dresden on October 20, 1842. An unknown musician, dying in poverty in Paris, suddenly became a fashionable composer, a celebrity; the newspaper published his autobiography with a portrait. The resounding success of the luxurious Rienzi came as a surprise to Wagner. He received a place in one of the best theaters in Germany, the Dresden Theater. But he devotes his main energy to creativity. After staging the operas "Rienzi" and "The Flying Dutchman", he wrote two more - "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin".

Wagner's outfits were also luxurious and sophisticated: he preferred lace shirts, satin trousers and satin silk robes. Because of his love of luxury and financial irresponsibility, Wagner once spent a night in debtor's prison.

In March 1848, a revolution began in Germany. Wagner welcomed her, but the uprising was soon defeated. The composer was forced to flee from Germany to Switzerland, where he lived for nine years.

Wagner's personal life was not improving. Minna developed heart disease. She tried her best to run the household economically, but Wagner spent a lot and unscrupulously. Not finding satisfaction for his artistic needs, far from his homeland, cut off from his usual hectic activity, deprived of the opportunity to see his operas staged, not receiving impulses for creativity from the outside and at the same time continuing to persistently create, Wagner needed peace and home comfort. He increasingly strove for luxury that did not correspond to his meager means - he furnished the apartment luxuriously, went to travel to the Alps, then to Italy, went to have fun in Paris, where he enjoyed the favor of the famous courtesan Pavia. He met Jessie Lossoth, a beautiful 21-year-old Englishwoman, whose husband provided the composer with free financial assistance. Jessie amazed the composer with her beauty and intelligence. They were even planning to go to Greece together. However, her husband found out about this and threatened to kill Wagner. Mr. Lossoth took his wife with him. Wagner tried to pursue them, but Jesse's husband turned to the police for help, after which the composer had to retreat. However, Richard continued to enjoy life. According to the composer, his friends and fans had to provide the opportunity to lead such a life.

A circle of devoted friends formed around Wagner. Over the years, they became more and more numerous. Liszt often visited Zurich, the architect Semper settled here, who fled to England after the defeat of the Dresden uprising (where Wagner found him during a trip to London), the poet Herwegh was also a political exile.

In August 1857, Liszt's youngest daughter, Cosima, became Bülow's wife. Soon the young couple went to stay with Wagner. The composer then lived in the “Shelter on Green Hill” - in a house built especially for Wagner by the wealthy merchant Otto Wesendonck next to his villa, in a picturesque area near Zurich. Cosima, very similar in appearance to Liszt, aroused the universal admiration of Wagner's friends; Herwegh dedicated poems to her. And Wagner remembered that four years ago, while accompanying Liszt to Paris, he met there at a family evening with his children - two daughters and a son. He retained a vague memory of Cosima, who was not yet 16 years old at the time: Liszt’s daughters impressed Wagner as very shy teenagers, and he, it seems, did not even remember their names. But now Wagner wrote in admiration: “If you know Cosima, then you will agree with me that the young couple is created for every possible happiness. With great intelligence and real genius, these little people have so much lightness, so much impulse that you can feel with them I'm just doing very well." Cosima really brought “all the happiness possible,” but not to Bülow, but to Wagner...

However, in 1857, the composer had not yet foreseen that this woman, 24 years younger than him, was destined to become his last and true love. In those years, Wagner was consumed by an ardent passion for Mathilde Wesendonck. Their acquaintance took place at the beginning of 1852 in Zurich. Otto Wesendonck, knowing the composer's cramped financial situation, offered him his hospitality. Wagner immediately fell in love with his wife: 24-year-old Matilda was distinguished by her rare beauty, charm, and poetic soul. She wrote poetry, had a keen sense of music and admired the genius of Wagner. “The best thing I knew,” Matilda later recalled, “I received from Wagner.” In turn, Richard wrote to her:

“Is my dear muse still far away? I silently waited for her visit; I didn’t want to disturb her with requests. The muse, like love, makes happy freely. Woe to the fool, woe to the beggar of love, if he wants to take by force what is not given to him voluntarily. They cannot be forced, right? How could love be a muse if it allowed itself to be forced?

Is my sweet muse still far from me?

He shared with her artistic ideas, read his articles, wrote a piano sonata for her album and created wonderful romances based on her texts - “Five Poems for a Female Voice.”

Wagner sent Matilda the first sketches of musical themes that arose in his mind - from "Die Walküre", "Siegfried", "Tristan and Isolde", "Die Meistersinger" and even "Parsifal". She was his first listener: what Wagner composed in the morning, he played to Matilda in the evenings. One of Wagner's most original operas, Tristan and Isolde, was also inspired by his love for Mathilde Wesendonck. This opera, according to the composer, is a monument to the deepest unrequited love: “Although I was never given the opportunity to experience the true happiness of love, I still want to erect a monument to this most beautiful utopia - such a monument in which everything, from the first to the last stroke, will be saturated love. The thought of “Tristan and Isolde” wanders in my head: a simple but full of inspiration musical concept! With the black flag that flies in the last act, I will cover myself and die! Mathilde Wesendonck managed to subordinate her feelings for Wagner to her duty to her husband and family (by that time she was the mother of three children). Otto Wesendonck remained a friend of the composer and continued to provide him with financial assistance.

Minna Wagner did not believe that the relationship between Matilda and her husband was purely platonic. Her fears were confirmed when she intercepted the love letter. Beside herself with rage, Minna made a scene first for Richard and then for Matilda. Wesendonk openly told her husband about everything, so she was surprised that Wagner did not tell Minna the details of their relationship. She broke up with the composer and returned to her husband. Minna also left Wagner's house. After this scandal, they almost did not live together.

The composer's life was spent in eternal wanderings: Paris, Vienna, Leipzig, St. Petersburg, Moscow. In Munich he became a favorite of King Ludwig II, known for his unconventional sexual orientation. The monarch paid all the composer's debts and current expenses.

At Wagner’s request, his friend and student Hans Bülow was invited to Munich to provide musical direction for his operas, and the premiere of “Tristan” took place under his direction. Bülow settled here at the end of June 1864 with his wife, Cosima, and two daughters. Fifty-year-old Wagner became the lover of Mrs. von Bülow. Five years earlier, Richard was infatuated with Cosima's older sister Blandine. Cosima, living in Wagner's house as his secretary, tried to create for the composer the family comfort that he had been deprived of for so long. Her marriage to Bülow turned out to be unhappy, and her love for Wagner had been ripening in her soul for a long time. A woman of calm disposition, she could not stand Hans’s harsh antics. Nevertheless, at first she lived with both her husband and Wagner, but then preferred a lover.

Bülow had a hard time experiencing the betrayal of his wife and friend, to whom he was so devoted. Having learned about what had happened from Wagner’s accidentally opened letter to Cosima, he deeply hid his grief and did not say anything even to his closest friends.

And under these conditions, Bülow continued to faithfully serve Wagner’s cause until the composer left Munich.

Wagner's behavior deeply offended not only Bülow, but also his other true friend- Liszt, father of Cosima.

Having left the capital of Bavaria in 1865, Wagner settled in Switzerland for a long time. Until the spring of 1866, he lived in a villa near Geneva, and in April he settled near Lucerne, in Tribschen.

But how different life in Triebschen was from Wagner’s first “Swiss exile”! The six years spent here (1866-1872) were the calmest and happiest in his hectic life. The need and oppressive loneliness are over. Next to him was Cosima, a faithful and devoted friend, a person of strong will, perseverance, energy and ambition no less than Wagner. In his declining years, he learned the happiness of fatherhood - children were born one after another, to whom the composer gave the names of his loved ones opera heroes. Back in Munich, during the rehearsals of Tristan, Isolde was born, followed by blue-eyed, golden-haired Eva, named after the Duchess of the Meistersinger, and, finally, the desired son, named Siegfried. His birth coincided with the completion of the opera “Siegfried”: “On the day when I, the happiest, had a beautiful son, I finished the composition of “Siegfried”, interrupted eleven years ago. An unheard of event! No one would have believed that I would accomplish this. .. Only now I have to live in joy. A beautiful, strong son with a high forehead and clear eyes, Siegfried Richard will inherit the name of his father and preserve his creations to the world,” Wagner wrote to a friend. He captured his moods of these days in the light and serene music “Siegfried Idylls” for a small symphony orchestra, which was preceded by a poetic dedication to Cosima:

Let the one who appreciates the Siegfrieds

The world born for sounds tastes

Wagner achieved everything - recognition, fame, secure position, happiness and love. Death overtook him at work. The composer died suddenly, from a broken heart. His funeral was accompanied by truly royal honors.

Cosima, as proof of her love and devotion to her husband, cut off her hair, which her husband admired so much, and placed it on a red pillow in the coffin under his head. She survived Wagner by almost half a century and continued his work with great energy; she died in 1930, ninety-three years old.

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