Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard

(born May 22, 1813, Leipzig, Ger.—died Feb. 13, 1883, Venice, Italy) German composer. His childhood was divided between Dresden and Leipzig, where he had his first composition lessons; his teacher refused payment because of his talent. His first opera, (1834), was followed by (1836); the premiere performance was so unprepared that the event was a fiasco, and he henceforth determined not to settle for modest productions. The success of (1840) led him to be more adventurous in (1843) and even more so in (1845). Caught up in the political turmoil of 1848, he was forced to flee Dresden for Zürich. During this enforced vacation, he wrote influential essays, asserting (following G.W.F. Hegel) that music had reached a limit after Ludwig van Beethoven and that the “artwork of the future” would unite music and theatre in a (“total artwork”). In 1850 he saw produced. He had begun his most ambitious work, , a four-opera cycle. The need for large-scale unity brought him to the concept of the leitmotiv. He ceased work on the 's third opera, , in the throes of an adulterous love with Mathilde Wesendonk and wrote an opera of forbidden love, (1859), which also seemed to break the bonds of tonality. He published the librettos in 1863, with a plea for financial support, and Louis II of Bavaria responded, inviting Wagner to complete the work in Munich. From the late 1860s to the early 1880s, Wagner completed work on , , , and the long-deferred , as he also oversaw the building of the great festival theatre at Bayreuth (1872–76) that would be dedicated to his operas. His astonishing works made Wagner one of the most influential and consequential figures in the history of Western music and, indeed, of Western culture. In the late 20th century his undoubted musical stature was challenged somewhat by the strongly racist and anti-Semitic views expressed in his writings, and evidence of anti-Semitism in his operas was increasingly documented.

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