Biography
Aliases: None
Home Country: Germany
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Germany. Six months after his birth his father died leaving his mother a widow with nine children. His mother then married Ludwig Geyer who was an actor and playwright. This allowed Wagner access to stage performances.
In 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf. He received some piano instruction, but didn't like sheet music and preferred playing theater overtures by ear. In 1821 Wagner's step-father died and Wagner was sent to the Kreuz Grammar School in Dresden. He began writing plays and wanted to add his own music to them, but lacked the skills necessary, so he persuaded his family to pay for his lessons.
In 1828 he began lessons under Christian Gottlieb Müller, but it wasn't until he heard Beethoven that he was truly inspired. A year later, in 1829, he saw the work of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient which became his ideal for what drama and music should be.
In 1831 he enrolled in the University of Leipzig and studied composition under Christian Theodor Weinlig who refused payment because Wagner was so good. In 1832 he conducted his first symphony. In 1833 he was the chorusmaster in Würzburg and composed his first complete opera, Die Feen ("The Fairies") which wouldn't be produced until after his death.
In 1836 Wagner married actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer and moved to Riga of the then Russian Empire. Wagner became the music director of the local opera. His marriage was quite troubled and the two had many fight and incurred huge amounts of debts that would plague them for the rest of their lives. While fleeing to Paris, Wagner was inspired to write Der Fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman").
Wagner completed writing "Rienzi" in 1840 and by 1842 he and his wife moved to Dresden, where "Rienzi" was shown with considerable acclaim. Wagner eventually became the Royal Saxon Court Conductor. He also finished and staged Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser.
After the May Uprising of 1849, in which Wagner played a part, he spent the next twelve years in exile. He contacted his friend Franz Liszt to stage his new opera, Lohengrin in his absence, and in 1850 Liszt did. Wagner was still in financial difficulty, but continued to write operas. However, he contracted erysipelas, which made writing very difficult.
In 1852 Wagner completed some work on the four Ring operas. In 1853 he began Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in 1854. Arthur Schopenhauer's writings would become the inspiration for his next work, Tristan und Isolde, based on the Arthurian love story. Wagner's own marriage was on the rocks when his wife found out that he was secretly fawning over another woman. Wagner left alone and eventually settled in Biebrich, Prussia. In 1862, Wagner and his wife finally separated.
In 1864, the newly appointed King Ludwig II of Bavaria brought Wagner to Munich, settled his considerable debts, and made plans to have his new operas produced. There were terrible difficulties but, in 1865, Tristan und Isolde was produced and with great success.
Wagner once again had an affair, this time with Cosima von Bülow, the daughter of his friend Franz Liszt who was married to one of Wagner's conductors. She gave birth to Wagner's daughter, causing political problems which forced him to leave Munich.
In 1867 Wagner completed Die Meistersinger. Cosima also bore Wagner two more children before her husband finally divorced her so that Wagner and Cosima could be married in 1870.
After the completion of a few more pieces Wagner began touring. His health degraded along the way and on February 13, 1883, Richard Wagner died of a heart attack. His body was returned to Bayreuth and buried in the garden of the Villa Wahnfried.
Note: Since Wagner was not a videogame music composer, his gameography is in alphabetical order.
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