Wagner (including CDs)

Author: Liu Xuefeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Richard Wagner (1813–1883), a great German composer and conductor, was born into a minor official family in Leipzig. In 1831, he entered Leipzig University to study harmony and counterpoint with Weigl. By the age of twenty, he had already composed several orchestral works. Later, he served as a conductor at opera houses in Würzburg, Magdeburg, K?nigsberg, and Riga. He went to Paris hoping to achieve success but ended up in poverty and hardship. In 1842, the success of his opera "Lienzi" (1840) made him the conductor of the Royal Opera in Dresden. However, the subsequent failures of his operas "Der fliegende Holl?nder" (1841) and "Tannh?user" (1845) pushed him into another. In 1849, after participating in the May Uprising and failing, he fled to Zurich for refuge. Later, he was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy. From 1854 onwards, he began to the tetralogy of operas "The Ring of the Nibelung" and completed the opera "Tristan and Isolde." In 1860, he returned to Germany after receiving a pardon. In 1864, invited by King Ludwig of Bavaria, he went to Munich to perform "Tristan and Isolde." In 1876, he founded the Bayreuth Opera House to stage his own music dramas. In 1877, he began composing "Parsifal," which was delayed due to illness and completed in 1882. The following year, he passed away in Venice due to heart disease. Throughout his life, he wrote eleven operas, nine overtures, one symphony, four piano sonatas, and a large number of choral works and art songs, as well as several works on opera reform, such as "Art and Revolution" and "Opera and Drama."