Wilhelm Richard Wagner (/ˈvɑːɡnər/VAHG-nər;[1][2]German:[ˈʁɪçaʁtˈvaːɡnɐ]ⓘ; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for hisoperas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both thelibretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein ofCarl Maria von Weber andGiacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of theGesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), whereby he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. The drama was to be presented as a continuously sung narrative, without conventional operatic structures likearias andrecitatives. He described this vision in aseries of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the 16-hour, four-opera cycleDer Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of theNibelung, also known simply asThe Ring).
Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complextextures, richharmonies andorchestration, and the elaborate use ofleitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extremechromaticism and quickly shiftingtonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music; hisTristan und Isolde is regarded as an important precursor towardsmodern music. As he matured, he softened his ideological stance against traditional operatic forms (i.e., arias, ensembles andchoruses), reintroducing them into his last few stage works, includingDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) andParsifal.
To properly present his vision of the works, Wagner had his ownopera house built to his specifications: theBayreuth Festspielhaus, which featured many innovative design elements intended to immerse the audience in the drama. The premieres ofThe Ring andParsifal took place there, and hismost important stage works are performed at the annualBayreuth Festival. The early success of the festival was secured by the efforts of his wife,Cosima Wagner, and has since been maintained bytheir descendants, attracting audiences from around the world.
Wagner's unorthodox operas, essays, and personal dealings engendered considerable controversy during his lifetime, and continue to do so. Declared a "genius" by some and a "disease" by others, his music is widely performed, but his views on religion, politics, and social life are debated—most notably on the extent to which hisantisemitism finds expression in his stage and prose works. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century; his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts and theatre.
Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 to anethnic German family inLeipzig, then part of theConfederation of the Rhine. His family lived at No 3, theBrühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in Leipzig'sJewish quarter.[n 1] He was baptised atSt. Thomas Church. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife,Johanna Rosine (née Pätz) [de], the daughter of a baker.[3][4][n 2] Wagner's father Carl died oftyphoid fever six months after Richard's birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl's friend, the actor and playwrightLudwig Geyer.[6] In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married, although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers.[7] She and her family moved to Geyer's residence inDresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father.[8]
Geyer's love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiographyMein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel.[9] In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher.[10] He struggled to play a properscale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overturesby ear. Following Geyer's death in 1821, Richard was sent to theKreuzschule, the boarding school of theDresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer's brother.[11] At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by theGothic elements ofCarl Maria von Weber's operaDer Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct.[12] At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort, listed in theWagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (the standard listing of Wagner's works) as WWV 1, was a tragedy calledLeubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced byShakespeare andGoethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons.[13][n 3]
By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons inharmony were taken during 1828–1831 withChristian Gottlieb Müller [de].[14] In January 1828 he first heardBeethoven's7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer's9th Symphony, both at theGewandhaus. Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony.[15] He was also greatly impressed by a performance ofMozart'sRequiem.[16] Wagner's earlypiano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestralovertures date from this period.[17]
In 1829 he saw a performance bydramatic sopranoWilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. InMein Leben Wagner wrote, "When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me," and claimed that the "profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist" kindled in him an "almost demonic fire".[18][n 4]
In 1831, Wagner enrolled at theLeipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxonstudent fraternity.[20] He took composition lessons with theThomaskantorTheodor Weinlig.[21] Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner's musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil's Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner's Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed hisSymphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832[22] and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833.[23] He then began to work on an opera,Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.[24]
In 1833, Wagner's brother Albert managed to obtain for him a position as choirmaster at the theatre inWürzburg.[25] In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera,Die Feen (The Fairies). This work, which imitated the style of Weber, went unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered inMunich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.[26]
Having returned to Leipzig in 1834, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house inMagdeburg[27] during which he wroteDas Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare'sMeasure for Measure. This was staged at Magdeburg in 1836 but closed before the second performance; this, together with the financial collapse of the theatre company employing him, left the composer in bankruptcy.[28][29] Wagner had fallen for one of the leading ladies at Magdeburg, the actressChristine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer,[30] and after the disaster ofDas Liebesverbot he followed her toKönigsberg, where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre.[31] The two married inTragheim Church on 24 November 1836.[32] In May 1837, Minna left Wagner for another man,[33] and this was only the first débâcle of a tempestuous marriage. In June 1837, Wagner moved toRiga (then in theRussian Empire), where he became music director of the local opera;[34] having in this capacity engaged Minna's sister Amalie (also a singer) for the theatre, he presently resumed relations with Minna during 1838.[35]
By 1839, the couple had amassed such large debts that they fled Riga on the run from creditors.[36] Debts plagued Wagner for most of his life.[37] Initially the pair took a stormy sea passage to London,[38] from which Wagner drew the inspiration for his operaDer fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), with a plot based on a sketch byHeinrich Heine.[39] The Wagners settled in Paris in September 1839[30] and stayed there until 1842. During these years, Wagner is believed to have attendedFrançois Delsarte's "Cours d'esthétique appliquée," which arguably influenced his aesthetic writings and compositional style.[40] Wagner made a scant living by writing articles and short novelettes such asA pilgrimage to Beethoven, which sketched his growing concept of "music drama", andAn end in Paris, where he depicts his own miseries as a German musician in the French metropolis.[41] He also provided arrangements of operas by other composers, largely on behalf of theSchlesinger publishing house. During this stay he completed his third and fourth operasRienzi andDer fliegende Holländer.[41]
Wagner had completedRienzi in 1840. With the strong support ofGiacomo Meyerbeer,[42] it was accepted for performance by the DresdenCourt Theatre (Hofoper) in theKingdom of Saxony, and in 1842 Wagner moved to Dresden. His relief at returning to Germany was recorded in his "Autobiographic Sketch" of 1842, where he wrote that, en route from Paris, "For the first time I saw theRhine—with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland."[43]Rienzi was staged to considerable acclaim on 20 October.[44]
Wagner lived in Dresden for the next six years, eventually being appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor.[45] During this period, he staged thereDer fliegende Holländer (2 January 1843)[46] andTannhäuser (19 October 1845),[47] the first two of his three middle-period operas. Wagner also mixed with artistic circles in Dresden, including the composerFerdinand Hiller and the architectGottfried Semper.[48][49]
Warrant for the arrest of Richard Wagner, issued on 16 May 1849
Wagner was to spend the next twelve years in exile from Germany. He had completedLohengrin, the last of his middle-period operas, before the Dresden uprising, and now wrote desperately to his friendFranz Liszt to have it staged in his absence. Liszt conducted the premiere inWeimar in August 1850.[54]
Nevertheless, Wagner was in grim personal straits, isolated from the German musical world and without any regular income. In 1850, Julie, the wife of his friend Karl Ritter, began to pay him a small pension which she maintained until 1859. With help from her friend Jessie Laussot, this was to have been augmented to an annual sum of 3,000thalers per year, but the plan was abandoned when Wagner began an affair with Mme. Laussot. Wagner even plotted an elopement with her in 1850, which her husband prevented.[55][56] Meanwhile, Wagner's wife Minna, who had disliked the operas he had written afterRienzi, was falling into a deepeningdepression. Wagner fell victim to ill health, according toErnest Newman "largely a matter of overwrought nerves", which made it difficult for him to continue writing.[57][n 6]
Wagner's primary published output during his first years in Zürich was a set of essays. In "The Artwork of the Future" (1849), he described a vision of opera asGesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), in which music, song, dance, poetry, visual arts and stagecraft were unified. "Judaism in Music" (1850)[n 7] was the first of Wagner's writings to featureantisemitic views.[59] In this polemic Wagner asserted—often with vulgar, abusive language—that Jews lived as "outsiders" amid European societies and were disconnected from the national spirit (Volksgeist) of these countries, thus capable of producing only shallow and artificial imitations of European art music, despite having achieved technical proficiency in its study. According to Wagner, Jews such as Meyerbeer commercialised music catered to the masses in order to achieve fame and financial success, rather than creating genuine works of art.[60]
In "Opera and Drama" (1851), Wagner described theaesthetics of music drama that he was using to create theRing cycle. Before leaving Dresden, Wagner had drafted a scenario that eventually becameDer Ring des Nibelungen. He initiallywrote the libretto for a single opera,Siegfrieds Tod [fr] (Siegfried's Death), in 1848. After arriving in Zürich, he expanded the story withDer junge Siegfried (Young Siegfried), which explored thehero's background. He completed the text of the cycle by writing the libretti forDie Walküre (TheValkyrie) andDas Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) and revising the other libretti to conform to his new concept, completing them in 1852.[61] The concept of opera expressed in "Opera and Drama" and in other essays effectively renounced all the operas he had previously written throughLohengrin. Partly in an attempt to explain his change of views, Wagner published in 1851 the autobiographical "A Communication to My Friends".[62] This included his first public announcement of what was to become theRing cycle:
I shall never write anOpera more. As I have no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works, I will call them Dramas ...
I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel)....
At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude,in the course of three days and a fore-evening [emphasis in original].[63]
Wagner began composing the music forDas Rheingold between November 1853 and September 1854, following it immediately withDie Walküre (written between June 1854 and March 1856).[64] He began work on the thirdRing drama, which he now called simplySiegfried, probably in September 1856, but by June 1857 he had completed only the first two acts. He decided to put the work aside to concentrate on a new idea:Tristan und Isolde,[65] based on theArthurian love storyTristan and Iseult.
One source of inspiration forTristan und Isolde was the philosophy ofArthur Schopenhauer, notably hisThe World as Will and Representation, to which Wagner had been introduced in 1854 by his poet friendGeorg Herwegh. Wagner later called this the most important event of his life.[66][n 8] His personal circumstances certainly made him an easy convert to what he understood to be Schopenhauer's philosophy, sometimes categorised as "philosophical pessimism". He remained an adherent of Schopenhauer for the rest of his life.[67]
One of Schopenhauer's doctrines was that music held a supreme role in the arts as a direct expression of the world's essence, namely, blind, impulsive will.[68] This doctrine contradicted Wagner's view, expressed in "Opera and Drama", that the music in opera had to be subservient to the drama. Wagner scholars have argued that Schopenhauer's influence caused Wagner to assign a more commanding role to music in his later operas, including the latter half of theRing cycle, which he had yet to compose.[69][n 9] Aspects of Schopenhauerian doctrine found their way into Wagner's subsequent libretti.[n 10]
A second source of inspiration was Wagner's infatuation with the poet-writerMathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the silk merchantOtto Wesendonck [de]. Wagner met the Wesendoncks, who were both great admirers of his music, in Zürich in 1852. From May 1853 onwards Wesendonck made several loans to Wagner to finance his household expenses in Zürich,[72] and in 1857 placed a cottage on his estate at Wagner's disposal,[73][74] which became known as theAsyl ("asylum" or "place of rest"). During this period, Wagner's growing passion for his patron's wife inspired him to put aside work on theRing cycle (which was not resumed for the next twelve years) and begin work onTristan.[75] While planning the opera, Wagner composed theWesendonck Lieder, five songs for voice and piano, setting poems by Mathilde. Two of these settings are explicitly subtitled by Wagner as "studies forTristan und Isolde".[76]
Among the conducting engagements that Wagner undertook for revenue during this period, he gave several concerts in 1855 with thePhilharmonic Society of London, including one beforeQueen Victoria.[77] The Queen enjoyed hisTannhäuser overture and spoke with Wagner after the concert, writing in her diary that Wagner was "short, very quiet, wears spectacles & has a very finely-developed forehead, a hooked nose & projecting chin."[78]
Wagner's uneasy affair with Mathilde collapsed in 1858, when Minna intercepted a letter to Mathilde from him.[79] After the resulting confrontation with Minna, Wagner left Zürich alone, bound forVenice, where he rented an apartment in thePalazzo Giustinian, while Minna returned to Germany.[80] Wagner's attitude to Minna had changed; the editor of his correspondence with her, John Burk, has said that she was to him "an invalid, to be treated with kindness and consideration, but, except at a distance, [was] a menace to his peace of mind."[81] Wagner continued his correspondence with Mathilde and his friendship with her husband Otto, who maintained his financial support of the composer. In an 1859 letter to Mathilde, Wagner wrote, half-satirically, ofTristan: "Child! This Tristan is turning into somethingterrible. This final act!!!—I fear the opera will be banned ... only mediocre performances can save me! Perfectly good ones will be bound to drive people mad."[82]
Wagner in Paris, 1861
In November 1859, Wagner once again moved to Paris to oversee production of a new revision ofTannhäuser, staged thanks to the efforts of PrincessPauline von Metternich, whose husband,Richard von Metternich, was the Austrian ambassador in Paris. The performances of the ParisTannhäuser in 1861 werea notable fiasco. This was partly a consequence of the conservative tastes of theJockey Club, which organised demonstrations in the theatre to protest at the presentation of the ballet feature in Act 1 (instead of its traditional location in the second act); but the opportunity was also exploited by those who wanted to use the occasion as a veiled political protest against the pro-Austrian policies ofNapoleon III.[83] It was during this visit that Wagner met the French poetCharles Baudelaire, who wrote an appreciative brochure, "Richard Wagner et Tannhäuser à Paris".[84] The opera was withdrawn after the third performance and Wagner left Paris soon after.[85] He had sought a reconciliation with Minna during this Paris visit, and although she joined him there, the reunion was not successful and they again parted from each other when Wagner left.[86]
The political ban that had been placed on Wagner in theNorth German Confederation after he had fled Dresden was fully lifted in 1862. The composer settled inBiebrich, on the Rhine nearWiesbaden inHesse.[87] Here Minna visited him for the last time: they parted irrevocably,[88] though Wagner continued to give financial support to her while she lived in Dresden until her death in 1866.[89]
In Biebrich, Wagner, at last, began work onDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg, his only mature comedy. Wagner wrote a first draft of the libretto in 1845,[90] and he had resolved to develop it during a visit he had made to Venice with the Wesendoncks in 1860, where he was inspired byTitian's paintingThe Assumption of the Virgin.[91] Throughout this period (1861–1864) Wagner sought to haveTristan und Isolde produced in Vienna.[92] Despite many rehearsals, the opera remained unperformed, and gained a reputation as being "impossible" to sing, which added to Wagner's financial problems.[93]
Wagner's fortunes took a dramatic upturn in 1864, whenKing Ludwig II succeeded to the throne ofBavaria at the age of 18. The young king, an ardent admirer of Wagner's operas, had the composer brought to Munich.[94] The King, who was homosexual, expressed in his correspondence a passionate personal adoration for the composer,[n 11] and Wagner in his responses had no scruples about feigning reciprocal feelings.[96][97][n 12] Ludwig settled Wagner's considerable debts[99] and proposed to stageTristan,Die Meistersinger, theRing, and the other operas Wagner planned.[100] Wagner also began to dictate his autobiography,Mein Leben, at the King's request.[101] Wagner noted that his rescue by Ludwig coincided with news of the death of his earlier mentor (but later supposed enemy)Giacomo Meyerbeer, and regretted that "this operatic master, who had done me so much harm, should not have lived to see this day."[102]
After grave difficulties in rehearsal,Tristan und Isolde premiered at theNational Theatre Munich on 10 June 1865, the first Wagner opera premiere in almost 15 years. (The premiere had been scheduled for 15 May, but was delayed by bailiffs acting for Wagner's creditors,[103] and also because the Isolde,Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld, was hoarse and needed time to recover.) The conductor of this premiere wasHans von Bülow, whose wife,Cosima, had given birth in April that year to a daughter, namedIsolde, a child not of Bülow but of Wagner.[104]
Cosima was 24 years younger than Wagner and was herself illegitimate, the daughter of the CountessMarie d'Agoult, who had left her husband forFranz Liszt.[105] Liszt initially disapproved of his daughter's involvement with Wagner, though nevertheless the two men were friends.[106] The indiscreet affair scandalised Munich, and Wagner also fell into disfavour with many leading members of the court, who were suspicious of his influence on the King.[107] In December 1865, Ludwig was finally forced to ask the composer to leave Munich.[108] He apparently also toyed with the idea of abdicating to follow his hero into exile, but Wagner quickly dissuaded him.[109]
Richard and Cosima Wagner, photographed in 1872
Ludwig installed Wagner at theVilla Tribschen, beside Switzerland'sLake Lucerne.[110]Die Meistersinger was completed at Tribschen in 1867, and premiered in Munich on 21 June the following year.[90] At Ludwig's insistence, "special previews" of the first two works of theRing,Das Rheingold andDie Walküre, were performed at Munich in 1869 and 1870,[111] but Wagner retained his dream, first expressed in "A Communication to My Friends", to present the first complete cycle at a special festival with a new, dedicated,opera house.[112]
Minna died of a heart attack on 25 January 1866 in Dresden. Wagner did not attend the funeral.[113][n 13] Following Minna's death Cosima wrote to Hans von Bülow several times asking him to grant her a divorce, but Bülow refused to concede this. He consented only after she had two more children with Wagner: another daughter, namedEva, after the heroine ofMeistersinger, and a sonSiegfried, named after the hero of theRing. The divorce was finally sanctioned, after delays in the legal process, by a Berlin court on 18 July 1870.[115] Richard and Cosima's wedding took place on 25 August 1870.[116] On Christmas Day of that year, Wagner arranged a surprise performance (its premiere) of theSiegfried Idyll for Cosima's birthday.[117][n 14] The marriage to Cosima lasted to the end of Wagner's life.
Wagner, settled into his new-found domesticity, turned his energies towards completing theRing cycle. He had not abandoned polemics: he republished his 1850 pamphlet "Judaism in Music", originally issued under a pseudonym, under his own name in 1869, extending the introduction and adding a lengthy final section. The publication led to several public protests at early performances ofDie Meistersinger in Vienna and Mannheim.[118]
In 1871, Wagner decided to move toBayreuth, which was to be the location of his new opera house.[119] The town council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—as a site for the theatre. The Wagners moved to the town the following year, and the foundation stone for theBayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theatre") was laid. Wagner initially announced the first Bayreuth Festival, at which for the first time theRing cycle was presented complete, for 1873,[120] but since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building was delayed and the proposed date for the festival was deferred. To raise funds for the construction, "Wagner societies" were formed in several cities,[121] and Wagner began touring Germany conducting concerts.[122] By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig were initially ignored, but early in 1874, with the project on the verge of collapse, the King relented and provided a loan.[123][124][n 15] The full building programme included the family home, "Wahnfried", into which Wagner, with Cosima and the children, moved from their temporary accommodation on 18 April 1874.[126][127] The theatre was completed in 1875, and the festival was scheduled for the following year. Commenting on the struggle to finish the building, Wagner remarked to Cosima: "Each stone is red with my blood and yours."[128]
For the design of the Festspielhaus, Wagner appropriated some of the ideas of his former colleague, Gottfried Semper, which he had previously solicited for a proposed new opera house in Munich.[120] Wagner was responsible for several theatrical innovations at Bayreuth; these include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience.[129]
The Festspielhaus finally opened on 13 August 1876 withDas Rheingold, at last taking its place as the first evening of the completeRing cycle; the 1876Bayreuth Festival therefore saw the premiere of the complete cycle, performed as a sequence as the composer had intended.[130] The 1876 Festival consisted of three fullRing cycles (under the baton ofHans Richter).[131] At the end, critical reactions ranged between that of the Norwegian composerEdvard Grieg, who thought the work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaperLe Figaro, which called the music "the dream of a lunatic".[132] The disillusioned included Wagner's (then) friendFriedrich Nietzsche, who, having published his eulogistic essay "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" before the festival as part of hisUntimely Meditations, was bitterly disappointed by what he saw as Wagner's pandering to increasingly exclusivist German nationalism; his breach with Wagner began at this time.[133] The festival firmly established Wagner as an artist of European, and indeed world, importance: attendees includedKaiser Wilhelm I, the EmperorPedro II of Brazil,Anton Bruckner,Camille Saint-Saëns andPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.[134]
Wagner was far from satisfied with the Festival; Cosima recorded that months later his attitude towards the productions was "Never again, never again!"[135] Moreover, the festival finished with a deficit of about 150,000 marks.[136] The expenses of Bayreuth and of Wahnfried meant that Wagner still sought further sources of income by conducting or taking on commissions such as theCentennial March for America, for which he received $5,000.[137][138]
Following the first Bayreuth Festival, Wagner began work onParsifal, his final opera. The composition took four years, much of which Wagner spent in Italy for health reasons.[139] From 1876 to 1878 Wagner also embarked on the last of his documented emotional liaisons, this time withJudith Gautier, whom he had met at the 1876 Festival.[140] Wagner was also much troubled by problems of financingParsifal, and by the prospect of the work being performed by other theatres than Bayreuth. He was once again assisted by the liberality of King Ludwig, but was still forced by his personal financial situation in 1877 to sell the rights of several of his unpublished works (including theSiegfried Idyll) to the publisherSchott.[141]
The Wagner grave in the Wahnfried garden; in 1977 Cosima's ashes were placed alongside Wagner's body.
Wagner wrote several articles in his later years, often on political topics, and oftenreactionary in tone, repudiating some of his earlier, more liberal, views. These include"Religion and Art" [de] (1880) and "Heroism and Christianity" (1881), which were printed in the journalBayreuther Blätter, published by his supporterHans von Wolzogen.[142] Wagner's sudden interest in Christianity at this period, which infusesParsifal, was contemporary with his increasing alignment withGerman nationalism, and required on his part, and the part of his associates, "the rewriting of some recent Wagnerian history", so as to represent, for example, theRing as a work reflecting Christian ideals.[143] Many of these later articles, including "What is German?" (1878, but based on a draft written in the 1860s),[144] repeated Wagner's antisemitic preoccupations.
Wagner completedParsifal in January 1882, and a second Bayreuth Festival was held for the new opera, which premiered on 26 May.[145] Wagner was by this time extremely ill, having suffered a series of increasingly severeangina attacks.[146] During the sixteenth and final performance ofParsifal on 29 August, he entered the pit unseen during act 3, took the baton from conductorHermann Levi, and led the performance to its conclusion.[147]
After the festival, the Wagner family journeyed toVenice for the winter. Wagner died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on 13 February 1883 atCa' Vendramin Calergi, a 16th-centurypalazzo on theGrand Canal.[148] The legend that the attack was prompted by an argument with Cosima over Wagner's supposedly amorous interest in the singerCarrie Pringle, who had been a Flower-maiden inParsifal at Bayreuth, is without credible evidence.[149] After a funerarygondola bore Wagner's remains over the Grand Canal, his body was taken to Germany where it was buried in the garden of the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth.[150]
Wagner's musical output is listed by theWagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (WWV) as comprising 113 works, including fragments and projects.[151] The first complete scholarly edition of his musical works in print was commenced in 1970 under the aegis of theBavarian Academy of Fine Arts and theAkademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur ofMainz, and is presently under the editorship ofEgon Voss. It will consist of 21 volumes (57 books) of music and 10 volumes (13 books) of relevant documents and texts. As at October 2017, three volumes remain to be published. The publisher isSchott Music.[152]
Leitmotif associated with the horn-call of the hero of Wagner's operaSiegfried
Wagner's operatic works are his primary artistic legacy. Unlike most opera composers, who generally left the task of writing thelibretto (the text and lyrics) to others, Wagner wrote his own libretti, which he referred to as "poems".[153]
From 1849 onwards, he urged a new concept of opera often referred to as "music drama" (although he later rejected this term),[154][n 16] in which all musical, poetic and dramatic elements were to be fused together—theGesamtkunstwerk. Wagner developed a compositional style in which the importance of the orchestra is equal to that of the singers. The orchestra's dramatic role in the later operas includes the use ofleitmotifs, musical phrases that can be interpreted as announcing specific characters, locales, and plot elements; their complex interweaving and evolution illuminate the progression of the drama.[156] These operas are still, despite Wagner's reservations, referred to by many writers[157] as "music dramas".[158]
Wagner's earliest attempts at opera were often uncompleted. Abandoned works includea pastoral opera based onGoethe'sDie Laune des Verliebten (The Infatuated Lover's Caprice), written at the age of 17,[24]Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), on which Wagner worked in 1832,[24] and thesingspielMännerlist größer als Frauenlist (Men are More Cunning than Women, 1837–1838).Die Feen (The Fairies, 1833) was not performed in the composer's lifetime,[26] andDas Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love, 1836) was withdrawn after its first performance.[28]Rienzi (1842) was Wagner's first opera to be successfully staged.[159] The compositional style of these early works was conventional—the relatively more sophisticatedRienzi showing the clear influence ofGrand Operaà laSpontini and Meyerbeer—and did not exhibit the innovations that would mark Wagner's place in musical history. Later in life, Wagner said that he did not consider these works to be part of hisoeuvre,[160] and they have been performed only rarely in the last hundred years, although the overture toRienzi is an occasional concert-hall piece.Die Feen,Das Liebesverbot, andRienzi were performed at both Leipzig and Bayreuth in 2013 to mark the composer's bicentenary.[161]
Opening of overture toDer fliegende Holländer in Wagner's hand and with his notes to the publisher
Wagner's middle stage output began withDer fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman, 1843), followed byTannhäuser (1845) andLohengrin (1850). These three operas are sometimes referred to as Wagner's "romantic operas".[162] They reinforced the reputation, among the public in Germany and beyond, that Wagner had begun to establish withRienzi. Although distancing himself from the style of these operas from 1849 onwards, he nevertheless reworked bothDer fliegende Holländer andTannhäuser on several occasions.[n 17] These three operas are considered to represent a significant developmental stage in Wagner's musical and operatic maturity as regards thematic handling, portrayal of emotions and orchestration.[164] They are the earliest works included in theBayreuth canon, the mature operas that Cosima staged at the Bayreuth Festival after Wagner's death in accordance with his wishes.[165] All three (including the differing versions ofDer fliegende Holländer andTannhäuser) continue to be regularly performed throughout the world and have been frequently recorded.[n 18] They were also the operas by which his fame spread during his lifetime.[n 19]
Wagner's late dramas are considered his masterpieces.Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly referred to as theRing or "Ring cycle", is a set of four operas based loosely on figures and elements ofGermanic mythology—particularly from the laterNorse mythology—notably theOld NorsePoetic Edda andVolsunga Saga, and theMiddle High GermanNibelungenlied.[167] Wagner specifically developed the libretti for these operas according to his interpretation ofStabreim, highly alliterative rhyming verse-pairs used in old Germanic poetry.[168] They were also influenced by Wagner's concepts ofancient Greek drama, in whichtetralogies were a component ofAthenian festivals, and which he had amply discussed in his essay "Oper und Drama".[169]
The first two components of theRing cycle wereDas Rheingold (The Rhinegold), which was completed in 1854, andDie Walküre (The Valkyrie), which was finished in 1856. InDas Rheingold, with its "relentlessly talky 'realism' [and] the absence of lyrical 'numbers'",[170] Wagner came very close to the musical ideals of his 1849–1851 essays.Die Walküre, which contains what is virtually a traditionalaria (Siegmund'sWinterstürme in the first act), and the quasi-choral appearance of theValkyries themselves, shows more "operatic" traits, but has been assessed by Barry Millington as "the music drama that most satisfactorily embodies the theoretical principles of 'Oper und Drama'... A thoroughgoing synthesis of poetry and music is achieved without any notable sacrifice in musical expression."[171]
While composing the operaSiegfried, the third part of theRing cycle, Wagner interrupted work on it and between 1857 and 1864 wrote the tragic love storyTristan und Isolde and his only mature comedyDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), two works that are also part of the regular operatic canon.[172]
Franz Betz (byFritz Luckhardt [de]), who created the role of Hans Sachs inDie Meistersinger, and sang Wotan in the first completeRing cycle
Tristan is often granted a special place in musical history; many see it as the beginning of the move away from conventionalharmony andtonality and consider that it lays the groundwork for the direction of classical music in the 20th century.[90][173][174] Wagner felt that his musico-dramatical theories were most perfectly realised in this work with its use of "the art of transition" between dramatic elements and the balance achieved between vocal and orchestral lines.[175] Completed in 1859, the work was given its first performance in Munich, conducted by Bülow, in June 1865.[176]
Die Meistersinger was originally conceived by Wagner in 1845 as a sort of comic pendant toTannhäuser.[177] LikeTristan, it was premiered in Munich under the baton of Bülow, on 21 June 1868, and became an immediate success.[178] Millington describesMeistersinger as "a rich, perceptive music drama widely admired for its warm humanity",[179] but its strong Germannationalist overtones have led some to cite it as an example of Wagner's reactionary politics and antisemitism.[180]
When Wagner returned to writing the music for the last act ofSiegfried and forGötterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) as the final part of theRing, his style had changed once more to something more recognisable as "operatic" than the aural world ofRheingold andWalküre, though it was still thoroughly stamped with his own originality as a composer and suffused with leitmotifs.[181] This was in part because the libretti of the fourRing operas had been written in reverse order, so that the book forGötterdämmerung was conceived more "traditionally" than that ofRheingold;[182] still, the self-imposed strictures of theGesamtkunstwerk had become relaxed. The differences also result from Wagner's development as a composer during the period in which he wroteTristan,Meistersinger and the Paris version ofTannhäuser.[183] From Act 3 ofSiegfried onwards, theRing becomes morechromatic melodically, more complex harmonically and more developmental in its treatment of leitmotifs.[184]
Wagner took 26 years from writing the first draft of a libretto in 1848 until he completedGötterdämmerung in 1874. TheRing takes about 15 hours to perform[185] and is the only undertaking of such size to be regularly presented on the world's stages.
Wagner's final opera,Parsifal (1882), which was his only work written especially for his Bayreuth Festspielhaus and which is described in the score as a "Bühnenweihfestspiel" ("festival play for the consecration of the stage"), has a storyline suggested by elements of the legend of theHoly Grail. It also carries elements ofBuddhist renunciation suggested by Wagner's readings of Schopenhauer.[186] Wagner described it to Cosima as his "last card".[187] It remains controversial because of its treatment of Christianity, its eroticism, and its expression, as perceived by some commentators, of German nationalism and antisemitism.[188] Despite the composer's own description of the opera to King Ludwig as "this most Christian of works",[189] Ulrike Kienzle has commented that "Wagner's turn to Christian mythology, upon which the imagery and spiritual contents ofParsifal rest, is idiosyncratic and contradicts Christiandogma in many ways."[190] Musically the opera has been held to represent a continuing development of the composer's style, and Millington describes it as "a diaphanous score of unearthly beauty and refinement".[30]
André Gill suggesting that Wagner's music was ear-splitting. Cover ofL'Éclipse 18 April 1869.
Apart from his operas, Wagner composed relatively few pieces of music. These include hisSymphony in C major (written at the age of 19), theFaust Overture (the only completed part of an intended symphony on the subject), someconcert overtures, and choral and piano pieces.[191] His most commonly performed work that is not an extract from an opera is theSiegfried Idyll for chamber orchestra, which has several motifs in common with theRing cycle.[192] TheWesendonck Lieder are also often performed, either in the original piano version or with orchestral accompaniment.[n 20] More rarely performed are theAmerican Centennial March (1876), andDas Liebesmahl der Apostel (The Love Feast of the Apostles), a piece for male choruses and orchestra composed in 1843 for the city of Dresden.[193]
After completingParsifal, Wagner expressed his intention to turn to the writing of symphonies,[194] and several sketches dating from the late 1870s and early 1880s have been identified as work towards this end.[195] The overtures and certain orchestral passages from Wagner's middle- and late-stage operas are commonly played as concert pieces. For most of these, Wagner wrote or rewrote short passages to ensure musical coherence. The "Bridal Chorus" fromLohengrin is frequently played as the bride's processionalwedding march in English-speaking countries.[196]
Wagner was an extremely prolific writer, authoring many books, poems, and articles, as well as voluminous correspondence. His writings covered a wide range of topics, including autobiography, politics, philosophy, and detailed analyses of his own operas.
Wagner planned for a collected edition of his publications as early as 1865;[197] he believed that such an edition would help the world understand his intellectual development and artistic aims.[198] The first such edition was published between 1871 and 1883, but was doctored to suppress or alter articles that were an embarrassment to him (e.g. those praising Meyerbeer), or by altering dates on some articles to reinforce Wagner's own account of his progress.[199] Wagner's autobiographyMein Leben was originally published for close friends only in a very small edition (15–18 copies per volume) in four volumes between 1870 and 1880. The first public edition (with many passages suppressed by Cosima) appeared in 1911; the first attempt at a full edition (in German) appeared in 1963.[200]
There have been modern complete or partial editions of Wagner's writings,[201] including a centennial edition in German edited byDieter Borchmeyer (which, however, omitted the essay "Das Judenthum in der Musik" andMein Leben).[202] The English translations of Wagner's prose in eight volumes byWilliam Ashton Ellis (1892–1899) are still in print and commonly used, despite their deficiencies.[203] The first complete historical and critical edition of Wagner's prose works was launched in 2013 at the Institute for Music Research at theUniversity of Würzburg; this will result in at least eight volumes of text and several volumes of commentary, totalling over 5,000 pages. It was originally anticipated that the project will be completed by 2030.[204]
A complete edition of Wagner's correspondence, estimated to amount to between 10,000 and 12,000 items, is underway under the supervision of the University of Würzburg. As of January 2021, 25 volumes have appeared, covering the period to 1873.[205]
Wagner's later musical style introduced new ideas in harmony, melodic process (leitmotif) and operatic structure. Notably fromTristan und Isolde onwards, he explored the limits of the traditional tonal system, which gave keys and chords their identity, pointing the way toatonality in the 20th century. Some music historians date the beginning ofmodern classical music to the first notes ofTristan, which include the so-calledTristan chord.[206][207]
Wagner made a major contribution to the principles and practice of conducting. His essay "About Conducting" (1869)[215] advancedHector Berlioz's technique of conducting and claimed that conducting was a means by which a musical work could be re-interpreted, rather than simply a mechanism for achieving orchestral unison. He exemplified this approach in his own conducting, which was significantly more flexible than the disciplined approach ofFelix Mendelssohn; in his view, this also justified practices that were later frowned upon, such as the rewriting of scores.[216][n 21]Wilhelm Furtwängler felt that Wagner and Bülow, through their interpretative approach, inspired a whole new generation of conductors (including Furtwängler himself).[218]
Wagner's influence on literature and philosophy is significant. Millington has commented:
[Wagner's] protean abundance meant that he could inspire the use of literary motif in many a novel employing interiormonologue; ... theSymbolists saw him as a mystic hierophant; theDecadents found many a frisson in his work.[224]
Friedrich Nietzsche was a member of Wagner's inner circle during the early 1870s. Nietzsche's first published work,The Birth of Tragedy, proposed Wagner's music as theDionysian "rebirth" of European culture in opposition toApollonian rationalist "decadence". Nietzsche broke with Wagner following the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, believing that Wagner's final phase represented a pandering to Christian pieties and a surrender to the newGerman Reich.[225] Nevertheless, inThus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche alluded to Wagner as the "old sorcerer", a reference to the captivating power of Wagner's music.[226] Nietzsche expressed his displeasure with the later Wagner inThe Case of Wagner andNietzsche contra Wagner.[225]
Many of Wagner's concepts, including his speculation about dreams, predated their investigation bySigmund Freud.[235] Wagner had publicly analysed the Oedipus myth before Freud was born in terms of its psychological significance, insisting that incestuous desires are natural and normal, and perceptively exhibiting the relationship between sexuality and anxiety.[236]Georg Groddeck considered theRing as the first manual of psychoanalysis.[237]
Not all reaction to Wagner was positive. For a time, German musical life divided into two factions, supporters of Wagner and supporters ofJohannes Brahms; the latter, with the support of the powerful criticEduard Hanslick (of whom Beckmesser inMeistersinger is in part a caricature), championed traditional forms and led the conservative front against Wagnerian innovations.[243] They were supported by the conservative leanings of some German music schools, including theconservatories atLeipzig underIgnaz Moscheles and atCologne under the direction of Ferdinand Hiller.[244] Another Wagner detractor was the French composerCharles-Valentin Alkan, who wrote to Hiller after attending Wagner's Paris concert on 25 January 1860, at which Wagner conducted the overtures toDer fliegende Holländer andTannhäuser, the preludes toLohengrin andTristan und Isolde, and six other extracts fromTannhäuser andLohengrin: "I had imagined that I was going to meet music of an innovative kind but was astonished to find a pale imitation of Berlioz ... I do not like all the music of Berlioz while appreciating his marvellous understanding of certain instrumental effects ... but here he was imitated and caricatured ... Wagner is not a musician, he is a disease."[245]
Even those who, like Debussy, opposed Wagner ("this old poisoner")[246] could not deny his influence. Indeed, Debussy was one of many composers, including Tchaikovsky, who felt the need to break with Wagner precisely because his influence was so unmistakable and overwhelming. "Golliwogg's Cakewalk" from Debussy'sChildren's Corner piano suite contains a deliberately tongue-in-cheek quotation from the opening bars ofTristan.[247] Others who proved resistant to Wagner's operas includedGioachino Rossini, who said "Wagner has wonderful moments, and dreadful quarters of an hour."[248] In the 20th century Wagner's music was parodied byPaul Hindemith[n 22] andHanns Eisler, among others.[249]
Wagner's followers (known as Wagnerians or Wagnerites)[250] have formed many societies dedicated to Wagner's life and work.[251]
Jonathan Harvey's operaWagner Dream (2007) intertwines the events surrounding Wagner's death with the story of Wagner's uncompleted opera outlineDie Sieger (The Victors).[254]
Since Wagner's death, the Bayreuth Festival, which has become an annual event, has been successively directed by his widow, his son Siegfried, the latter's widowWinifred Wagner, their two sonsWieland andWolfgang Wagner, and, presently, two of the composer's great-granddaughters,Eva Wagner-Pasquier andKatharina Wagner.[255] Since 1973, the festival has been overseen by theRichard-Wagner-Stiftung (Richard Wagner Foundation), the members of which include some of Wagner's descendants.[256]
Wagner's operas, writings, politics, beliefs and unorthodox lifestyle made him a controversial figure during his lifetime.[257] Following his death, debate about his ideas and their interpretation, particularly in Germany during the 20th century, has continued.
Caricature of Wagner by Karl Clic in the Viennese satirical magazineHumoristische Blätter (1873). The exaggerated features refer to rumours of Wagner's Jewish ancestry.
Wagner's hostile writings on Jews, includingJewishness in Music, correspond to some existing trends of thought in Germany during the 19th century.[258] Despite his very public views on this topic, throughout his life Wagner had Jewish friends, colleagues and supporters.[259][260] There have been frequent suggestions thatantisemitic stereotypes are represented in Wagner's operas. The characters ofAlberich and Mime in theRing, Sixtus Beckmesser inDie Meistersinger, and Klingsor inParsifal are sometimes claimed as Jewish representations, though they are not identified as such in the librettos of these operas.[261][n 23] The topic is further complicated by claims, which may have been credited by Wagner, that he himself was of Jewish ancestry, via his supposed father Geyer; however, there is no evidence that Geyer had Jewish ancestors.[262][263]
Some biographers have noted that Wagner in his final years developed an interest in theracialist philosophy ofArthur de Gobineau, notably Gobineau's belief that Western society was doomed because ofmiscegenation between "superior" and "inferior" races.[264] According to Robert Gutman, this theme is reflected in the operaParsifal.[265] Other biographers (such as Lucy Beckett) believe that this is not true, as the original drafts of the story date back to 1857 and Wagner had completed the libretto forParsifal by 1877,[266] but he displayed no significant public interest in Gobineau until 1880.[267]
Wagner's ideas are amenable to socialist interpretations; many of his ideas on art were being formulated at the time of his revolutionary inclinations in the 1840s. Thus, for example,George Bernard Shaw wrote inThe Perfect Wagnerite (1883):
[Wagner's] picture of Niblunghome[n 24] under the reign of Alberic is a poetic vision of unregulated industrial capitalism as it was made known in Germany in the middle of the 19th century byEngels's bookThe Condition of the Working Class in England.[268]
Left-wing interpretations of Wagner also inform the writings ofTheodor Adorno among other Wagner critics.[n 25]Walter Benjamin gave Wagner as an example of "bourgeois false consciousness", alienating art from its social context.[269]György Lukács contended that the ideas of the early Wagner represented the ideology of the "true socialists" (wahre Sozialisten), a movement referenced inKarl Marx'sCommunist Manifesto as belonging to the left wing of Germanbourgeois radicalism and associated withFeuerbachianism andKarl Theodor Ferdinand Grün,[270] whileAnatoly Lunacharsky said about the later Wagner: "The circle is complete. The revolutionary has become a reactionary. The rebellious petty bourgeois now kisses the slipper of the Pope, the keeper of order."[271]
The writerRobert Donington has produced a detailed, if controversial,Jungian interpretation of theRing cycle, described as "an approach to Wagner by way of his symbols", which, for example, sees the character of the goddess Fricka as part of her husband Wotan's "inner femininity".[272] Millington notes thatJean-Jacques Nattiez has also appliedpsychoanalytical techniques in an evaluation of Wagner's life and works.[273][274]
Adolf Hitler was an admirer of Wagner's music and saw in his operas an embodiment of his own vision of the German nation; in a 1922 speech he claimed that Wagner's works glorified "the heroic Teutonic nature ... Greatness lies in the heroic."[275] Hitler visited Bayreuth frequently from 1923 onwards and attended the productions at the theatre.[276] There continues to be debate about the extent to which Wagner's views might have influencedNazi thinking.[n 26]Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), who married Wagner's daughter Eva in 1908 but never met Wagner, was the author ofThe Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, approved by the Nazi movement.[278][n 27] Chamberlain met Hitler several times between 1923 and 1927 in Bayreuth, but cannot credibly be regarded as a conduit of Wagner's own views.[281] The Nazis used those parts of Wagner's thought that were useful for propaganda and ignored or suppressed the rest.[282]
While Bayreuth presented a useful front for Nazi culture, and Wagner's music was used at many Nazi events,[283] the Nazi hierarchy as a whole did not share Hitler's enthusiasm for Wagner's operas and resented attending these lengthy epics at Hitler's insistence.[284] Some Nazi ideologists, most notablyAlfred Rosenberg, rejectedParsifal as excessively Christian and pacifist.[285]
Guido Fackler [de] has researched evidence that indicates that it is possible that Wagner's music was used at theDachau concentration camp in 1933–1934 to "reeducate"political prisoners by exposure to "national music".[286] There has been no evidence to support claims, sometimes made,[287] that his music was played atNazi death camps during theSecond World War, and Pamela Potter has noted that Wagner's music was explicitly off-limits in the camps.[n 28]
^Of their children, two (Carl Gustave and Maria Theresia) died as infants. The others were Wagner's brothers Albert and Carl Julius, and his sistersRosalie Wagner [de],Luise Brockhaus [de], Clara and Ottilie. Except for Carl Julius becoming a goldsmith, all his siblings developed careers connected with the stage. Wagner also had a younger half-sister, Caecilie, born in 1815 to his mother and her second husband Geyer.[5] See alsoWagner family tree.
^This sketch is referred to alternatively asLeubald und Adelaide.
^Wagner claimed to have seen Schröder-Devrient in the title role ofFidelio, but it seems more likely that he saw her performance as Romeo inBellini'sI Capuleti e i Montecchi.[19]
^Röckel and Bakunin failed to escape and endured long terms of imprisonment.
^Others agree on the profound importance of this work to Wagner – seeMagee 2000, pp. 133–34
^The influence was noted by Nietzsche in his "On the Genealogy of Morality": "[the] fascinating position of Schopenhauer on art ... was apparently the reason Richard Wagner first moved over to Schopenhauer ... That shift was so great that it opened up a complete theoretical contrast between his earlier and his later aesthetic beliefs."[70]
^For example, the self-renouncing cobbler-poetHans Sachs inDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a "Schopenhauerian" creation; Schopenhauer asserted that goodness and salvation result from renunciation of the world, and turning against and denying one's own will.[71]
^E.g. "My dearest Beloved!", "My beloved, my most glorious Friend" and "O Holy One, I worship you".[95]
^Wagner excused himself in 1878, when discussing this correspondence with Cosima, by saying "The tone wasn't good, but I didn't set it."[98]
^Wagner claimed to be unable to travel to the funeral due to an "inflamed finger".[114]
^Cosima's birthday was 24 December, but she usually celebrated it on Christmas Day.
^In his 1872 essay "On the Designation 'Music Drama'", he criticises the term "music drama" suggesting instead the phrase "deeds of music made visible".[155]
^For the reworking ofDer fliegende Holländer, seeDeathridge 1982, pp. 13, 25; for that ofTannhäuser, seeMillington 2001a, pp. 280–282 which further cites Wagner's comment to Cosima three weeks before his death that he "still owes the worldTannhäuser."[163] See also the articles on these operas in Wikipedia.
^For example,Der fliegende Holländer (Dutchman) was first performed in London in 1870 and in the US (Philadelphia) in 1876;Tannhäuser in New York in 1859 and in London in 1876;Lohengrin in New York in 1871 and London in 1875.[166] For detailed performance histories including other countries, seeStanford University Wagner site, under each opera.
^Normally the orchestration byFelix Mottl is used (score available atIMSLP website), although Wagner arranged one of the songs for chamber orchestra.[76]
^See for example Wagner's proposals for the rescoring of Beethoven'sNinth Symphony in his essay on that work.[217]
^Weiner 1997 gives very detailed allegations of antisemitism in Wagner's music and characterisations.
^Shaw's anglicization ofNibelheim, the empire of Alberich in theRing cycle.
^SeeŽižek 2009, p. viii: "[In this book] for the first time the Marxist reading of a musical work of art ... was combined with the highest musicological analysis."
^The claim that Hitler, in his maturity, commented that "it [i.e. his political career] all began" after seeing a performance ofRienzi in his youth, has been disproved.[277]
^See e.g.John (2004) for a detailed essay on music in the Nazi death camps, which nowhere mentions Wagner. See alsoPotter (2008), p. 244: "We know from testimonies that concentration camp orchestras played [all sorts of] music ... but that Wagner was explicitly off-limits. However, after the war, unsubstantiated claims that Wagner's music accompanied Jews to their death took on momentum."
^Penrose, James F. (September 2020)."The "old sorcerer"".The New Criterion. Vol. 39, no. 1. New York: Foundation for Cultural Review. p. 63. Retrieved16 June 2023.
^Lukacs, György (1937)."Richard Wagner as a "True Socialist"".Литературные теории XIX века и марксизм" (Nineteenth Century Literary Theories and Marxism). Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: State Publishing House of the USSR.
Wagner, Richard (1983).Borchmeyer, Dieter (ed.).Richard Wagner Dichtungen und Schriften [Richard Wagner Seals and Writings] (10 vols.). Berlin:Insel Verlag.
Wagner, Richard (1987). Spencer, Stewart; Millington, Barry (eds.).Selected Letters of Richard Wagner. Translated by Spencer, Stewart; Millington, Barry. London:Dent.ISBN978-0-393-02500-2.
Deathridge, John (1982). "An Introduction toThe Flying Dutchman". In John, Nicholas (ed.).English National Opera/The Royal Opera House Opera Guide 12: Der Fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman. London:John Calder. pp. 13–26.ISBN978-0-7145-3920-1.
John, Eckhardt (2004). "La musique dans la système concentrationnaire nazi" [Music in the Nazi Concentration Camp System]. In Huynh, Pascal (ed.).Le troisième Reich et la musique [The Third Reich and Music] (in French). Paris:Fayard. pp. 219–228.ISBN978-2-213-62135-7.
Millington, Barry (2001a) [1992].The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music (Revised ed.). London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.ISBN978-0-50-028274-8.
Naumann, Emil (1876).Italienische Tondichter, von Palestrina bis auf die Gegenwart [Italian Composers, From Palestrina to the Present Day] (in German). Berlin: R. Oppenheim.OCLC12378618.
Potter, Pamela R. (2008).Wagner and the Third Reich: myths and realities. (InGrey 2008).
Puffett, Derrick (1984). "Siegfried in the Context of Wagner's Operatic Writing". In John, Nicholas (ed.).Siegfried: Opera Guide 28. London:Calder Publishing.ISBN978-0-7145-4040-5.
Rose, John Luke (1981). "A Landmark in Musical History". In John, Nicholas (ed.).Tristan and Isolde: English National Opera Guide 6. London:Calder Publishing.ISBN978-0-7145-3849-5.
Bruen, Hanan (Spring 1993). "Wagner in Israel: A conflict among Aesthetic, Historical, Psychological and Social Considerations".Journal of Aesthetic Education.27 (1).University of Illinois Press:99–103.doi:10.2307/3333345.JSTOR3333345.
Coleman, Jeremy (2017). "The Body in the Library".The Wagner Journal.11 (1):86–92.
Cormack, David (Spring 2005). "'Wir welken und sterben dahinnen': Carrie Pringle and the Solo Flowermaidens of 1882".The Musical Times.146 (1890). Musical Times Publications Ltd.:16–31.doi:10.2307/30044066.JSTOR30044066.
Karlsson, Jonas (2012). "'In that hour it began'? Hitler,Rienzi, and the Trustworthiness of August Kubizek'sThe Young Hitler I Knew".The Wagner Journal.6 (2):33–47.ISSN1755-0173.
Overvold, Liselotte Z. (1976). "Wagner's American Centennial March: Genesis and Reception".Monatshefte.68 (2).University of Wisconsin:179–187.JSTOR30156682.
Richard Wagner Museum in the country manor Triebschen near Lucerne, Switzerland, where Wagner and Cosima lived and worked from 1866 to 1872. (In German).
"Wagner", BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Deathridge, Lucy Beckett and Michael Tanner (In Our Time, 20 June 2002)
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