Wilhelm Richard Wagner: Biography. Richard Wagner and his famous works

Wilhelm Richard Wagner - German dramatic composer and theorist, theater director, conductor, polemicist, who became famous for his operas, which had a revolutionary influence on Western music. Among his main works were The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhauser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), Tristan and Isolde (1865), Parsifal (1882) .) And the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" (1869-1876 gg.).

Richard Wagner: a brief biography and creativity

Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, in a modest family. His father died shortly after the birth of his son, and within a year his mother married Ludwig Geyer. It is not known whether the last, wandering actor was the actual father of the boy. Wagner's musical education was random until he was 18, when he studied for a year with Theodor Weinlig in Leipzig. He began his career in 1833 as a choral conductor in Würzburg and wrote his early works, imitated by German romantic compositions. At that time Beethoven was his main idol.

Wagner wrote his first opera The Fairies in 1833, but it was staged only after the death of the composer. He was the musical director of the theater in Magdeburg from 1834 to 1836, where his next work, "Forbidden Love" based on Shakespeare's "Measures for Measure," was staged in 1836. The opera suffered a complete fiasco and made the theater bankrupt. However, the financial problems of the composer is full of his entire biography. Richard Wagner in the same year in Koenigsberg married Minna Planner, singer and actress, who took an active part in the provincial theater life. A few months later he took the post of music 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 prolonged, under cover of night hiding from creditors and collectors, the couple went to Paris, hoping to earn there a fortune. Richard Wagner, whose biography and work in France did not develop as he had planned, during his time there developed a strong hatred for the French musical culture, which he retained for the rest of his life. It was at this time that Wagner, experiencing financial difficulties, sold the opera to the opera "Flying Dutchman" for use by another composer. Later he wrote another version of this tale. Rejected by the Parisian musical circles, Wagner continued the struggle for recognition: he composed music for French texts, wrote an aria for Bellini's opera Norma. But attempts to put their works were in vain. In the end, the King of Saxony allowed Wagner to work in the Dresden court theater, which ended his Paris biography.

Richard Wagner, disappointed with failures, returned to Germany in 1842 and settled in Dresden, where he was in charge of music for the court chapel. "Rienzi", a large tragic opera in the French style, enjoyed a modest success. Overture from it is popular so far. In 1845, the premiere of the Tannhäuser took place in Dresden. This was the first undoubted success in Wagner's career. In November of the same year, he completed the writing of the libretto for the opera Lohengrin and in the beginning of 1846 began to write music to her. At the same time, captivated by Scandinavian sagas, he made plans for his tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungs." In 1845, he prepared a script for the first drama of the tetralogy "The Death of Siegfried," which was later renamed "Twilight of the Gods."

Richard Wagner: a brief biography. Years of Exile

The revolution of 1848 broke out in many cities in Germany. Among them was Dresden, an active participant in the revolutionary movement in which Richard Wagner became. The biography and work of the composer are largely due to this period of his life. He printed incendiary tirades in a republican magazine, personally distributed manifestoes among Saxon troops and even survived a fire in the tower, with which he followed the movements of the military. On May 16, 1849, an arrest warrant was issued. With the money of friends and the future father-in-law of Franz Liszt, he fled Dresden and traveled to Switzerland via Paris. There, first in Zurich, and then not far from Lucerne for the next 15 years, and his biography developed. Richard Wagner lived without a permanent place of work, expelled from Germany with a ban to take part in the German theater life. All this time he worked on the "Ring of the Nibelungen", which dominated his creative life for the next two decades.

The first production of Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" was held in Weimar under Franz Liszt in 1850 (the author did not see his work until 1861). By this time the German composer also gained fame as a polemicist, and his fundamental theoretical work "Opera and Drama" was released in 1850-1851. It discussed the significance of the legend for the theater and how to write the libretto, and his thoughts were presented on the realization of the "total work of art" that changed the theatrical life of Germany, if not the whole world.

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

In 1933 in the Soviet Union, in the series "The Life of Remarkable People", a book by A. A. Sidorov "Richard Wagner" was published. A brief biography of the German composer was preceded by Lunacharsky's words that it is not necessary to impoverish the world by negating its creativity, but it also promised "woe to the one who will let this wizard into our camp."

Productive work

Richard Wagner wrote the most famous works between 1850 and 1865 - he owes them his reputation today. The composer deliberately shied away from the current work to create an epic cycle of such magnitude that no one had encroached on before. In 1851, Wagner wrote a libretto for The Young Siegfried, later called Siegfried, to prepare the ground for The Twilight of the Gods. He realized that to justify his other work, in addition to this, he would need to write two more dramas, and by the end of 1851 Wagner sketched out the remaining text for the "Ring". He finished the "Gold of the Rhine" in 1852 after revising the libretto for the "Valkyrie".

In 1853, the composer officially started writing "The Gold of the Rhine". The orchestration was completed in 1854. The next work, for which Richard Wagner, the Valkyrie, took seriously, 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 The Nuremberg Meistersinger, which was conceived in 1845. Wagner resumed work on "Siegfried" in 1865 and began to compose the outline of the future "Parsifal", the hope for which he had kept since the middle of 1840. The composer began the opera at the insistence of his patron of the Bavarian monarch Ludwig II. The Meistersingers were completed in 1867. The premiere took place in Munich in the following year. Only after that he was able to resume work on the third act of Siegfried, which was completed in September 1869. In the same month, the opera "Rhine Gold" was performed for the first time. The composer wrote the music for "The Twilight of the Gods" from 1869 to 1874.

For the first time, the full cycle "The Ring of the Nibelungs" ("Gold of the Rhine", "Valkyrie", "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods") was performed in the Festspielhaus, a festival theater that Wagner built for himself in Bayreuth in 1876, 30 years later After the thought of it first visited him. He completed work on Parsifal, his last drama, in 1882. February 13, 1883 in Venice, Richard Wagner died and was buried in Bayreuth.

Philosophy of tetralogy

"The Ring of the Nibelungen" occupies a central place in Wagner's work. Here he wanted to present new ideas of morality and human activity that would completely change the course of history. He represented the world free from the worship of supernatural slavery, which, he believed, had a negative impact on Western civilization from ancient Greece to the present day. Wagner also considered the source of all human activity a fear, which should be eliminated, so that man could live a perfect life. In the "Ring of the Nibelungen," he attempted to set forth standards for higher men, beings who would dominate those who were less fortunate. In his turn, in his opinion, ordinary mortals must recognize their own low status and give way to the magnificence of the ideal hero. Complications accompanying the search for moral and racial purity are an integral part of the idea that Richard Wagner was nurturing.

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

In the mythical world of Wagner there is no place for mercy and idealism. Perfect people rejoice only in each other. All people must recognize the superiority of some beings, and then bow to their will. A person can seek his destiny, but he must submit to the will of the higher, if their paths intersect. In the "Ring of the Nibelungen" 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, sung in the Scandinavian sagas. The consequences of such a philosophy for the future of Germany have become catastrophic.

Philosophy of other operas

In Tristan, Wagner completely changed his approach, developed by him in the Ring of the Nibelungen. Instead, he explored the dark side of love to plunge into the depths of negative experience. Tristan and Isolde, liberated, not doomed by the love potion that they drank, willingly destroy the kingdom in order to love and live; The sensual power of love is seen here as destructive, and the style of musical chromaticity and the overwhelming orchestral pulsation are ideal for delivering a drama send.

Wagner's narcissism, which was not tolerated by all but the blind to his shortcomings, came to the fore in the Meistersinger. The story of a young hero-singer who conquers the old order and brings a new, more exciting style to the traditionally connected society of Nuremberg - is a tale of the "Ring" in a slightly different guise. Wagner openly said that "Tristan" is a "Ring" in miniature. Obviously, in Meistersinger, the composer identifies himself with the messianic figure of the young German poet and singer who won the prize and, finally, accepted by the leader of the new society - here the author's fiction and his biography were closely intertwined. Richard Wagner in "Parsifal" even more intensely identifies himself 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.

Music language

The scope of Wagner's vision is as captivating as his thoughts and metaphysics repel. Without music, his dramas would have remained milestones in the history of Western thought. Richard Wagner, whose music multiplies the meaning of his work many times, gave birth to a language that best represents his philosophy. He intended to drown out the resistance of the forces of the mind with musical means. Ideally, the melody should last forever, and the voice and text are part of the fabric intertwined with the magnificent web of orchestration. Verbal language, often very unclear and syntactically painful, is accepted only through music.

For Wagner, music was by no means an addition, woven into drama after its completion, and 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 that exerts its own magical effect on the audience. The musical language of Wagner is designed to discredit the rational and cause unquestioning acceptance of the composer's convictions. In Wagner's reading of Schopenhauer, the musical ideal in drams is not a reflection of the world, but the world itself.

Personal qualities

Such a result of Wagner's creative life does not say anything about the unusual difficulties in his personal life, which, in turn, influenced his operas. He was a truly charismatic figure who overcame all adversity. In Switzerland, the composer lived on donations, which he received with the help of amazing cunning and the ability to manipulate people. In particular, his well-being was promoted by the family of Wesendonks, and Matilda Wesendonck, one of Wagner's many mistresses, inspired him to write Tristan.

The life of the composer after his departure from Saxony was a constant series of intrigues, controversies, attempts to overcome the indifference of the world, the search for an ideal woman worthy of his love, and the ideal patron, worthy recipient of means which he could become. Cosima von Bulow List became the answer to his search for a perfect woman, obsequious and fanatically devoted to his well-being. Although Wagner and Minna lived separately for a while, he did not marry Cosima until 1870, almost ten years after the death of his first wife. For 30 years younger than her husband, Cosima devoted herself to the Wagner Theater in Bayreuth for the rest of her life. She died in 1930.

The ideal patron was Ludwig II, who literally saved Wagner from the debt prison and moved the composer to Munich with almost a 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 - the tear of ecstasy was more than once attracted to the eyes of a high-ranking admirer of the composer's talent during the performance. Opera became the basis of the fantasy world of the King of Bavaria, in which he often fled in his adult life. His obsession with the operas of Wagner led to the construction of various fairy-tale castles. "Neuschwanstein" is probably the most famous building, inspired by the works of the German composer.

After his salvation, however, Wagner behaved so insultingly with the blindly adoring young monarch that in 2 years he was forced to flee. Ludwig, despite his disappointment, remained a loyal supporter of the composer. Thanks to his generosity, in 1876 the first festival of performances of the "Nibelungen Rings" in Bayreuth became possible.

The intractable Wagner was convinced of his superiority, and with age he became his maniacal idea. He was intolerant of any doubts, any refusal to accept him and his creations. Everything in his house revolved only around him, and his demands for wives, mistresses, friends, musicians and benefactors were exorbitant. For example, Hanslick, an outstanding Viennese music critic, became the prototype of Beckmesser in The Meistersinger.

When the young philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche first met Wagner, he thought that he had found his way to the god, so radiant and powerful he seemed to him. Later, Nietzsche realized that the composer was much less than the perfect incarnation of the superman as he saw himself, and turned away in disgust. Wagner never forgave Nietzsche for his flight.

Place in history

In retrospect, Wagner's achievements outweigh both his behavior and his legacy. He was able 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 of modern music is often dated by 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 the lives of people. In addition, he proved that the drama theater is a forum of ideas, and not an arena for escape from reality and entertainment. And he showed that the composer can rightfully take his place among the great revolutionary thinkers of Western civilization, 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, the biography, creativity in the music of the composer are worthy to take a proper place in the history of culture of the XIX century.