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."
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 headed 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 concert hall Gewandhaus.
Years of need.
A month later, thanks to the assistance of his brother (singer Karl Albert), Wagner received the position of tutor (choirmaster) at the Würzburg Opera House. 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 the story of 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 great success in Magdeburg (although she performed there famous singer Wilhelmina Schröder-Devrient highly appreciated Wagner's conducting skills) 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 debt 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 opera libretto. He set to work in the hope of gaining the approval of the famous Parisian master J. Meyerbeer, because Rienzi was written in the genre of the 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 ordeal, which Wagner eloquently talks about 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: classical philologist 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.
Creatively, 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, ideas 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 revolutionary events in the city - Wagner spoke publicly in defense 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 live 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), Piece of art of the future (Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, inspired by and dedicated to the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach), Opera and Drama (Oper und Drama), and the completely inappropriate pamphlet The 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 of another quarrel with Minna, who again declared her firm intention to never 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 account in it only goes up to 1864) appeared at the insistence of Cosima, who, after her divorce from von Bulow, 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, support from well-wishers and financial aid king to begin construction of a 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.
The late period of Wagner's philosophical quest found expression in such literary works like Do we have hope? (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 come two fundamental ideas: art must 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 theater is treated as a temple, and not as an entertainment venue; the embodiment of the second idea is the musical drama created by Wagner.
German composer Richard Wagner is a controversial personality. On the one hand, his political views contradict the principles of humanism (and this is putting it mildly). His work (not only music, but also philosophical articles) was inspired by the ideologists of Nazi Germany, who turned Wagner into a symbol of the nation. On the other hand, the composer’s contribution to the development of music is enormous.
He changed the principles of operatic art, introducing end-to-end dramatic action and endless melody into opera. His legacy inspires modern composers and lives on in rock music, heavy metal and literature.
Childhood and youth
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, a city that at that time belonged to the Rhineland. Mother Johanna Rosina gave birth to nine children. Father Karl Friedrich Wagner, a police clerk, died of typhus on November 23, 1813. Already from this moment, disputes between the composer’s biographers begin: some of them believe that Richard’s father was his stepfather, Ludwig Geyer.
The widow with many children married actor Geyer three months after the death of her husband. Be that as it may, this talented person influenced my stepson's career choice. The second most important role in the fate of his brother was played by his older sister, Johanna Rosalia. The popular actress supported Richard in his intention to become a musician.
Until the age of 13, Richard studied at St. Thomas School, the oldest liberal arts school in the city. At the age of 15, the young man realized that his knowledge was not enough to write music (and the urge had already arisen), and in 1828 he began to study music theory with Theodor Weinlig, cantor of the Church of St. Thomas. In 1831 he continued his studies at the University of Leipzig.
Music
Like many celebrities, Wagner is often credited with other people's works. For example, “Requiem for a Dream” is mentioned online in conjunction with his name. In fact, the soundtrack to the film of the same name was composed by Clint Mansell in 2000. Although it is possible that Mansell was inspired by Wagner’s composition “The Path to Valhalla” from the opera “Twilight of the Gods”
The ominous “Tango of Death” is also associated with the name of the classic. According to legend, Wagner's music was played during the mass extermination of Jews in Nazi camps. In fact, it is not known for certain what the camp orchestras played. But it is unlikely that these were his compositions. Wagner created on a grand scale and a large symphony orchestra is needed to perform his works.
In the 19th century, Wagner's music was so revolutionary that the Bayreuth Opera House was built according to the composer's design for the production of The Ring of the Nibelung. The acoustic effects of the concert hall were carefully thought out. For example, the orchestra pit was covered with a canopy so that the music would not drown out the voices of the singers.
Wagner wrote 13 operas, 8 of which became classics, as well as several smaller musical works, including librettos for operas, as well as 16 volumes of articles, letters and memoirs. Wagner's operas are distinguished by their length, pathos and epic quality.
The operas “Fairies”, “The Ban of Love”, “Rienzi” belong to early period composer's creativity. The first mature work was The Flying Dutchman, an epic story about a ghost ship. "Tannhäuser" tells sad story the love of a minstrel and a pagan goddess. "Lohengrin" is an opera about a swan knight and a foolish girl. Here the genius already declares himself loudly.
"Tristan and Isolde" is the record holder for the duration of individual numbers. The love duet of the heroes in the second act lasts 40 minutes, the monologue of the wounded Tristan in the third act lasts 45 minutes. To perform Wagnerian compositions, opera singers had to be retrained. This is how a new opera school was born.
Wagner composed the story of the Ring of Power a hundred years before J.R.R. Tolkien. Das Rheingold opens the Ring of the Nibelung series. The second opera of the cycle, “Die Walküre,” contains Wagner’s “calling card” - the “Ride of the Valkyries” scene. “Siegfried” is the most positive opera in the cycle: the hero kills the dragon and finds love.
Everything ends with “The Death of the Gods,” which consists of leitmotifs from previous operas in the cycle and includes the famous “Funeral March for the Death of Siegfried,” which was subsequently performed at the composer’s funeral.
Personal life
Despite the fact that Richard was short (166 cm) and ugly, poor for most of his life, and did not have titles or titles, he always attracted women. Many love affairs with artists and fans remained unknown to anyone, but three women are forever inscribed in the biography of the genius.
Minna Planer, first wife. The behind-the-scenes hobby of a twenty-year-old conductor beautiful artist married in November 1836. The young wife was four years older than her husband, more experienced in everyday affairs and more pragmatic. The family moved from Konigsberg to Riga, and from there to St. Petersburg, Mitava and Paris. In the new place, Minna managed to quickly twist cozy nest and provide my husband with a reliable base for creativity.
Over the years, this became more difficult for her. After the collapse of the revolution in 1849, the Wagners fled to Weimar, and from there to Switzerland. In Zurich Richard met new muse: Mathilde Wesendonck. The twenty-year-old beauty and her husband Otto were ardent admirers of the composer's work. The wealthy businessman Wesendonk organized Wagner's concerts and gave him a “quiet refuge” - a house next to his own villa.
In this "refuge" "Siegfried" and "Tristan" are written. Matilda was the object of this passionate love song and appreciated it. The composer's muse also composed music and wrote poetry and prose. Descendants were left with letters from Wagner to Matilda, published after her death. It is not known for certain whether Richard and his patroness were lovers, but most biographers think so.
Wagner's love for Cosima von Bülow overtook him in 1864, during a period of sudden prosperity. The young King of Bavaria, Ludwig II, in love with Wagner’s work (and, according to some historians, with Richard himself), invited him to court, in brilliant Munich. And he not only paid off creditors, but also generously opened the treasury to finance Wagner’s projects.
Wagner invites conductor Hans von Bulow, a happily married father of two children, to join the orchestra. His wife Cosima, illegitimate daughter Franz Liszt, an old friend of Wagner, becomes the composer's personal secretary. And, of course, a muse and lover. The passion that flared up between Richard and Cosima does not remain a secret for long for the deceived husband.
But instead of Hans, the king staged a scene of jealousy for the court bandmaster, and the matter smelled of scandal. The situation was aggravated by the fact that colossal funds from the state treasury were spent on Wagner, and Catholic morality dominated in Bavaria. The adulterers were banished to Switzerland in disgrace.
Divorce in those days was such a difficult matter that the von Bülow couple were able to obtain it only seven years later. Over the years, Cosima gave birth to daughters Isolde and Eva and a son, Siegfried, from Richard (the birth of the boy coincided with the completion of the opera of the same name). Mina Wagner died of heart disease, and Ludwig suddenly changed his anger to mercy and asked Wagner to return to court.
In 1870, Cosima and Richard got married. From this moment on, the life of the muse consists of serving the idol. The couple are building a theater together in Bayreuth and working on the first production of The Ring of the Nibelung. The premiere took place in 1876 from August 13 to 17, forever changing the Europeans' understanding of the art of opera.
Death
In 1882, at the insistence of doctors, Wagner moved to Venice, where he died in 1883 from a heart attack. Ex with husband before last breath Cosima takes care of transporting the body to Bayreuth and the funeral. She organized and headed the annual festival in Bayreuth, dedicating it to the memory of her husband.
In addition to the annual Wagner Festival, which has become a cult event in the world of music, there is one more interesting monument genius. This is Neuschwanstein - a fairytale castle in the mountains of Bavaria, the “Swan Castle”, built by Ludwig II of Bavaria in memory of his brilliant friend. The interior of the premises reflects the king's admiration for Wagner's operas.
Works
- 1834 – “Fairies”
- 1836 – “The Ban of Love”
- 1840 – “Rienzi, the last of the tribunes”
- 1840 – “Faust” (overture)
- 1841 – “The Flying Dutchman”
- 1845 – “Tannhäuser”
- 1848 – “Lohengrin”
- 1854-1874 - “The Ring of the Nibelung”
- 1859 – “Tristan and Isolde”
- 1868 – “Nurembern Meistensingers”
- 1882 – “Parsifal”
German composer and art theorist Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig (Germany). His father Karl Friedrich Wagner died of typhus on November 23, 1813. Soon, Wagner's mother Johanna Rosina remarried the actor and painter Ludwig Geyer, who actually replaced Richard's father.
Richard Wagner felt an attraction to music from an early age, especially highlighting the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. He attended school in Dresden, then in Leipzig. At the age of fifteen he wrote his first theater play, and at the age of sixteen he began composing music. In 1831, Wagner entered the University of Leipzig and at the same time began studying music theory under the guidance of Theodor Weinlig, cantor of the Church of St. Thomas. A year later, the symphony created by Wagner was successfully performed in Leipzig's main concert hall, the Gewandhaus. In 1833, Wagner received a position as theater choirmaster in Würzburg and composed the opera “Fairies” (based on Carlo Gozzi’s play “The Snake Woman”), which was not staged during the composer’s lifetime.
In 1835, Wagner wrote his second opera, The Forbidden Love (based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure), which premiered in Magdeburg in 1836. By that time, Wagner had already made his debut as a conductor (he performed with a small opera troupe). In 1836, Wagner settled in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), where he was given the position of musical director of the city theater. In 1837, he took a similar position in Riga and began writing his third opera, Rienzi (based on the novel by the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton). In Riga, Wagner began active conducting activities, performing mainly the music of Beethoven. Wagner made a genuine revolution in the art of conducting. To achieve more complete contact with the orchestra, he abandoned the custom of conducting while facing the audience and turned to face the orchestra.
In 1839, Wagner and his wife, fleeing creditors, moved from Riga to London, and from there to Paris. Here Wagner became close to Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz. His source of income was work for publishing houses and theaters; At the same time, he composed the words and music for the opera The Flying Dutchman. In 1842, Wagner returned to Germany. The production of his opera "Rienzi" in Dresden brought him big success. At the same time, the opera "The Flying Dutchman", staged in 1843, was received more restrainedly. On April 13, 1845, Wagner completed work on the opera Tannhäuser, and on October 19 of the same year the work premiered in Dresden.
From 1845 to 1848, Richard Wagner devoted a large amount of time to the study of Scandinavian mythology and German epic, which was reflected in the opera Lohengrin, as well as in his work on sketches for the texts of the operas The Ring of the Nibelung and Die Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
In 1849, Wagner took part in the Dresden anti-government revolt and, after its defeat, fled first to Weimar and then, through Paris, to Switzerland. Having been declared a state criminal, he did not cross the borders of Germany for 13 years. During his stay in Zurich, Wagner began writing aesthetic treatises, which he began publishing in 1850. In his works “Art and Revolution”, “Artwork of the Future”, “Opera and Drama”, he expressed deeply philosophical views on art, theory of musical drama.
In 1858, Wagner left Switzerland, and in 1861 his opera Tannhäuser was staged at the Paris Opera. Despite the fact that Wagner reworked the opera in accordance with the tastes of the French public (in particular, he added a large ballet bacchanalia scene at the beginning of the first act), the work was brutally booed.
In 1862, Wagner received a full amnesty and the right to unhindered entry into Germany. In 1863, the composer visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he introduced the public to excerpts from his operas. In addition, Wagner conducted many of Beethoven's symphonies.
In 1865, the opera Tristan and Isolde was staged in Munich, then, three years later, Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg, Das Rheingold, and Die Walküre. The appearance of these last two operas on the Munich stage was the first attempt at performing the enormous cycle “The Ring of the Nibelung”, which Wagner was bringing to an end.
This tetralogy with a mythological plot, according to Wagner, required a theater with a stage equipped with all kinds of innovations. Friends and admirers of Wagner, led by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, financially helped to implement this idea and a Wagner theater was erected in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. The Bayreuth Festival Theater opened in the summer of 1876 with a production of the entire “Ring of the Nibelung” under the direction of Hans Richter. The entire tetralogy lasts about 18 hours (the longest musical composition in history). "Das Rheingold" is not divided into acts and serves as an "opening evening", while the other three operas - "Die Walküre", "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods" - contain three acts each ("Twilight of the Gods" also has a prologue , which likens the structure of this opera to the structure of the tetralogy as a whole).
The completion of the composer's career was the opera ("solemn stage mystery") "Parsifal" based on the epic novel by the German medieval poet-knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, which premiered in 1882.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
There are many significant names in the history of opera, but one of them serves as a milestone or, better said, a watershed. Richard Wagner divided the entire history of world opera - before and after him. The work of this German composer brought revolutionary changes to the art of opera. The opera genre after Wagner will never be the same as it was before him.
“Not many musicians have received such contradictory, polar assessments as Richard Wagner,” stated writer and musicologist Édouard Schuré, who knew the composer. “He suffered the fate of all major reformers. Opponents and enemies who recognized the indomitable fighter mainly by those blows which they received from him portrayed him as a man of extremes, exorbitant pride and boundless egoism, taking into account people and objects only to the extent that he needed them, and indifferent to everything else.”
“What Nietzsche wrote about Wagner cannot give us a correct assessment of Wagner as a poet and thinker; what Nordau said about him in his “Degeneration”, we consider vulgar and frivolous. “Who,” as the newest historian of German literature says Kuno-Franke, “German literature owes the first energetic proclamation of the artistic ideals of the future, the ideals of collectivist pantheism,” and in Rus' “it is worthy of a more objective and more correct assessment,” Henri Lishtanberger emphasized in December 1904 in the preface to the Russian translation of the book. Richard Wagner as a poet and thinker" S. Soloviev. Perhaps it was the poet Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov, nephew of the philosopher and poet Vladimir Solovyov, second cousin Alexandra Blok. He complained about how few books about Wagner there are in Russia.
And now, on the eve of Wagner’s anniversary, a Russian biography of the composer was published, which will fill many gaps in Wagner’s life. Its author, Marina Zalesskaya, writes: “The controversy around Wagner’s work still continues, which causes fanatical delight among some, and persistent rejection among others. Needless to say, the personality of the composer himself is equally contradictory and ambiguous? On the one hand, this a radiant knight in shining armor praising beauty eternal love. On the other hand, there is a person who tramples on the sacred bonds of friendship and is deprived of an elementary feeling of gratitude. Wagner - genius composer, reformer, philosopher, “poet and thinker,” according to the apt expression of a deep researcher of his work, Henri Lishtanberger. And he is a petty miser, greedy for money and always fleeing from his creditors."
Born on May 22, 1813, the youngest child in the Wagner family was baptized in the Leipzig Church of St. Thomas, where the great Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor for more than a quarter of a century. Wilhelm Richard Wagner's father died of typhus exactly six months after the birth of his fourth son. In August 1814, his mother remarried an old family friend, actor and painter Ludwig Heinrich Christian Geyer, who actually replaced Wagner's father. On next year the actor received an invitation to Dresden royal theater and the family left Leipzig. The boy was sent to school under his stepfather's name. “Thus,” Wagner wrote in his autobiography, “my Dresden childhood comrades knew me until the age of fourteen under the name of Richard Geyer.” And only six years after the death of his stepfather, returning to his hometown, Richard from “Korshun” (surname Geyer homophone of the word "kite" - Geier) again turned into a “carriage maker” (Wagner).
The famous German literary critic, in almost the official biography of the composer, suggested that Geyer was not a stepfather, but Richard’s own father. The founder and director of the Wagner Society in Riga, Karl Friedrich Glasenapp, made his conclusion based on one episode from the composer’s life, when Richard, looking at the portrait of Geyer hanging in his office, suddenly caught a similarity between his son Siegfried and the probable “grandfather”. The composer really had a spiritual closeness with his stepfather and Richard subconsciously strived to be like Geyer.
Another person who had a huge impact on the future musical genius was Pastor Wetzel, who mentored Richard (then Geyer) for a year. As for creativity, the young composer was influenced, first of all, by Beethoven, K. M. Weber, Mozart, and then G. A. Marshner. And, of course, we must not forget how close the writer and musician Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann turned out to be for the young Wagner. If we use Goethe’s expression, “Ah, two souls live in my sick breast,” then in Richard’s healthy breast lived passions that were not alien to each other. To music and literary creativity. As a 15-year-old teenager, Wagner, who received a classical education, wrote the great tragedy Leubald und Adelaide. In it, researchers see the influence of Shakespeare and Goethe, especially his “Goetz von Berlichingen”. The heroine's name is borrowed from Beethoven's "Adelaide".
Richard's family did not like his play, and he decided to write music for it. But necessary knowledge He didn’t have one yet, and his mother didn’t allow him to take systematic music lessons. My first piano sonata d-moll(D minor) Wagner wrote in 1829, followed by a string quartet D major(D major), not yet having a clear understanding of the laws of composition. The failure of another overture forced him to put an end to amateurism in music. Richard began taking music theory lessons from Theodor Weinlich, the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas, in which he was baptized. Having mastered music, Richard began writing librettos for his own operas. The first time this happened was when musical critic, librettist and later friend of the composer, Heinrich Rudolf Constanz Laube, offered Wagner his finished opera text - the heroic opera Kosciuszko. But the composer, as he admitted, “immediately felt that Laube was mistaken regarding the nature of the reproduction of historical events.” After several squabbles with Laube, Richard decided that from now on he would write all the librettos for his operas himself. At that time, Wagner replaced the patriotic gentlemen with the plot of Carlo Gozzi's fairy tale "The Snake Woman". He will call his opera “Fairies” (Die Feen).
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. The greatest 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 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) 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 “Die Walküre”) and the opera "Tristan and Isolde". In 1858 - Wagner visited a short time Venice, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris and Berlin.
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 free until he joyfully accepts the bonds that unite him with Nature, so art will not become free until the reasons to be ashamed of connection with life.”
From this concept flow 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 creative life Wagner. 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 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) 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, inextricably linked with the action at a semantic level. Moreover, starting with 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 subordinated 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 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. 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. Business card 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") 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 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 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 dramatic story love to 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 merging with the eternal and imperishable world, it resolves, in Losev’s opinion, the contradiction between the subject and the object on which it is based European culture. 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 drink is, so brilliantly depicted by Wagner,” writes Losev.
Wagner's operatic reform had a significant impact on European and Russian music, marking the highest stage of musical romanticism and at the same time laying the foundations for future modernist movements. 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. Serov was an expert and promoter of Wagner. N. A. 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 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 cult of Wagner became the so-called Weimar school (self-name - 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 (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” (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 the mid-19th 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, was for the German people and for the German idea 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 Federal list extremist materials (No. 1204) and, accordingly, its printing or distribution in Russian Federation prosecuted 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 demanded until the last moment for Levi to 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.
