RomanticRichard Wagner
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany.
Richard Wagner’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1813👶 Birth
Born in Leipzig on 22 May
- 1816🌍 Meanwhile
Maelzel patents the metronome (1815–16)
- 1831📚 Trainingage 18
Studies music at Leipzig University
- 1836❤️ Private lifeage 23
Marries the actress Minna Planer
- 1839🧳 Journeyage 26
Flees creditors in Riga; a stormy sea crossing inspires The Flying Dutchman
- 1840🌍 Meanwhile
Adolphe Sax invents the saxophone (c. 1840)
- 1842🎼 Workage 29
Success of Rienzi in Dresden
- 1843🎩 Careerage 30
Saxon court Kapellmeister; The Flying Dutchman
- 1845🎼 Workage 32
Tannhäuser
- 1850🎼 Workage 37
Liszt premieres Lohengrin in Weimar
- 1864🎩 Careerage 51
Young King Ludwig II of Bavaria becomes his patron
- 1869🌍 Meanwhile
The Suez Canal opens
- 1875🌍 Meanwhile
The Palais Garnier opera house opens in Paris
- 1883🕯️ Deathage 70
Dies in Venice on 13 February
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany. He grew up in a family of actors and loved the theatre. It was by listening to Beethoven that he decided to become a composer.
He often had debts and even had to escape by boat. During the voyage a terrible storm gave him the idea for an opera about a ghost ship condemned to sail the seas for ever!
Wagner invented enormous operas based on old legends: gods, giants, dragons, knights and a magic ring. Each character has its own little tune that comes back when it appears, like film music. His “Ring” lasts about fifteen hours over four evenings!
He even had a special theatre built at Bayreuth, with the orchestra hidden under the stage.
Richard Wagner’s instruments
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