Richard Wagner
May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883
German composer of operas such as The Ring of the Nibelung, who transformed opera with his music dramas.
Biography
Richard Wagner was a German composer and theatre director who reshaped opera in the 19th century. After early works such as The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser, he took part in the 1849 Dresden uprising and spent years in exile in Switzerland.
In exile he developed the idea of the music drama, in which music, text and staging form one whole, and began the four-part cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Later works include Tristan und Isolde, with its harmonic language that influenced later composers, and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
With support from King Ludwig II of Bavaria he built his own festival theatre at Bayreuth, which opened with the first complete Ring in 1876. His last opera, Parsifal, premiered there in 1882. His antisemitic writings and later use by the Nazi regime make his legacy contested.
