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1813 |
(Wilhelm) Richard Wagner is born on May 22 in
Leipzig,
a city of about 36,000 inhabitants in the German kingdom of Saxony, as the
last of nine children of Johanna Rosine, née Pätz, and her husband Karl
Friedrich Wagner. The family lives in rather modest circumstances although
the father holds the position of police actuary with the city, according to
the contemporary definition a medium-echelon administrative job. Both
parents are amateur actors. *The cities marked in color, with numbered marks, are found on the contemporary map enclosed as they are written here. Leipzig is a thriving city of commerce with a flourishing university, and it is renowned as one of Germany’s foremost cultural centers: it has 56 bookstores and three music shops, among the latter the music publisher Breitkopf & Härtel.In November, RW’s father dies in an epidemic of typhoid fever following the hardships of the war of liberation against the French that has just ended with the Battle of the Nations in the immediate vicinity of Leipzig, on October 16-19, and with the defeat of Napoleon. Giuseppe Verdi is born in the same year in Roncole near Parina/Italy. Ludwig van Beethoven is 43 years old, Franz Liszt a mere 2. |
|
1814 |
In August, the mother marries the handsome actor, playwright and portraitist Ludwig Geyer. The family moves to Dresden where RW’s new father has been engaged as an actor at the Court Theater. | |
1817 |
Stepfather Geyer enjoys a growing reputation as the author
of dramatic plays, and this improves the family’s financial situation. The
composer Carl Maria von Weber, newly appointed director of the opera,
becomes a close friend of the family. School attendance is not yet compulsory at the time, but RW is given lessons in reading and writing, first by a court official and a little later in a boarding school that is run by a minister, outside Dresden (2). |
|
1821 |
His stepfather dies of lingering “nervous exhaustion” (according to the official record) in September, only 43 years of age. There are many insinuations in the literature, to this day, to the effect that Ludwig Geyer was Richard Wagner’s biological father, none of them supported by any evidence. | |
1822 |
Wagner is registered as a student at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, under the name of Richard Geyer, but is admitted only into a grade lower than befitting his age. Mythology fascinates him, he is moved by romantic tales and is drawn to anything fantastic. He writes poems and likes to play songs on the piano - but nothing to mark him as a Wunderkind or a youthful genius. | |
1823 |
Richard is often found in Dresden’s Royal Opera House, then the largest and grandest in Germany, gaining free access to attend rehearsals and performances through his sisters Rosalie and Klara who are both budding singers and actresses. Carl Maria von Weber’s romantic opera Der Freischütz makes a deep impression on the little boy, especially also the personality of the composer as conductor, with his command of the music and his authority over the performing cast. | |
1826 |
RW’s sister Rosalie is hired as a singer at a theater in
Prague; her good income prompts the family to move there. Richard stays
in Dresden, however, living with the family of a Dr. Böhme, goes to
school but finds the time to write a drama in hexameters based on Homer’s
Odyssey (lost).
The much revered Carl Maria von Weber dies at age 40. |
|
1827 |
Richard spends a week with his mother and sisters in Prague. In December, he follows his family to Leipzig, a move that is, again, spurred by Rosalie’s new position as a leading lady at the theater. He chooses to live under the name of Wagner from now on. | |
1828 |
The secondary school Nicolai-Gymnasium admits RW only into the 5th form; he is at least one year older than most of the students in his class. He visits several times his wealthy and knowledgeable uncle Adolf Wagner whom he later credits with having given him more of an education than the various schools he attended. He does not play the piano well but develops ever more of an interest in music and studies composition from books. | |
1829 |
Richard Wagner hears the famous coloratura soprano
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient as Beethoven’s Fidelio and is so taken
with her performance that he decides to become a composer. His first efforts
produce, a.o., a Sonata for piano in D minor (WWV 2*), a Quartet
for strings in D major (WWV 4) and a Sonata for piano in F minor
(WWV 5), all lost. *WWV = systematic index of the works of Richard Wagner; see Deathridge et al., Recommended Literature. |
|
1830 |
Richard Wagner leaves the Nicolai-Gymnasium
anticipating expulsion because of his bad marks. He enrolls in the famous
Thomas-Schule, does not improve on his work habits in the required
subjects, plays truant on most school days and instead spends his time
composing (e.g. the Drum Beat Overture, in B flat major, WWV 10,
among many other works). The overture is performed in public in December but
brings the audience to laugh out loud.
He is now 17 years old and earns a paltry living as a proofreader of a “History of the World” of which a new edition is published by his sister Luise’s fiancé Friedrich Brockhaus of encyclopedia fame. Through this work, he acquires a detailed knowledge of the history of the Middle Ages in particular, and some of the characters and events with which he becomes acquainted turn up later in his work (e.g. in his opera Rienzi). |
|
1831 |
He quits school in February without graduating, thus
without the desired degree permitting him to attend university, but he
manages nevertheless to matriculate in music at the University of
Leipzig. Theodor Weinlig, Cantor* at the Thomas-Schule, instructs
Richard in practical composition until about September and is satisfied with
his student’s progress. RW is very productive; his Concert-Overture in D
minor (WWV 20) receives an encouraging response at its premiere
performance. *a title without religious connotation but simply meaning “singer” or music teacher |
|
1832 |
Composition of the Symphony in C (WWV 29) that is presented, in the fall, by the orchestra of the Prague Conservatory. His Concert-Overture (WWV 20) earns him rich applause at a performance by the Gewandhaus-Orchestra in Leipzig. | |
1833 |
Wagner writes the libretto and most of the score of his first opera, Die Feen (WWV 32), a romantic fairy tale. He is very active in a student fraternity and is permanently in financial trouble from which his oldest sister Rosalie, by now a well-known actress, rescues him on several occasions. | |
1834 |
RW accepts the badly paid position as music director of a badly managed theatrical touring company in Lauchstädt near the city of Magdeburg. He falls in love with the actress Wilhelmine (Minna) Planer who is four years his senior and the mother of a daughter. He gives his début as a conductor with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. | |
1836 |
The first performance of his new opera Das Liebesverbot (WWV 38) is disastrous. The theater company goes bankrupt. He escapes his creditors and travels with Minna to Königsberg where he hopes to be appointed musical director. He marries Minna Planer in November although he is still without job or income. | |
1837 |
Wagner is offered the position of music director in the
city of Riga (on the Baltic Sea). Here, in Russia, he believes to be
safe from creditors. His wife leaves him for some salesman but returns
toward the end of the year. His beloved sister Rosalie dies in October. The initial successes in Riga turn into trouble because the musicians complain about the long rehearsals and Wagner’s constant bickering. He is not happy with the possibilities offered him in Riga, accumulates debts as usual, has marital difficulties and prepares to leave for Paris, then the music capital of the world, which he hopes to conquer with his new and grandiose opera Rienzi. |
|
1839 |
Adventurous flight across the Russian-Prussian border in
early July, with Minna and her daughter (whom she always presents as her
little sister), then voyage on a decrepit little sailing ship to Norway and
finally to London. They have hardly any money and no valid passport for
either of them. On this long trip lasting nearly a whole month, Wagner hears
the sailor’s tale of the Flying Dutchman for the first time and they are
nearly shipwrecked on the rocky coast of Norway.
After a short stay in London, the family moves on and settles in the outskirts of Paris. |
|
1840 |
Wagner puts much hope in the acquaintance with, and the recommendations from, the famous composer Giacomo Mayerbeer but none of his expectations materialize and he has to resort, as usual, to borrowing money from everyone in sight, for instance from a close friend under the pretense that he is sitting in debtor’s prison. Nevertheless, he is able to complete his opera Rienzi (WWV 49) in November. | |
1841 |
On the recommendations by Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and
Giacomo Meyerbeer, the Theater to the Royal Court of Saxony in
Dresden
accepts Rienzi, on the condition that Wagner tone down some
references that appear to be directed against the authorities of church and
state. The Grand Opéra de Paris pays Wagner an advance of 500 francs (the equivalent purchasing power in 2006 is about 2,200 € or about 3,000 US$) for a first draft of his new opera Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) that is yet to be finished. Its overture is finally completed, as the last part, in November. |
|
1842 |
Since there are no further prospects in Paris, the family moves back to Dresden in April where Rienzi’s premiere performance is a great success, in spite of its duration of more than six hours. Wagner receives only a relatively small honorarium but it keeps the family alive and the most ardent creditors at bay. | |
1843 |
The first public performance of Der fliegende Holländer
(WWV 63) in
Dresden, early January, is a middling success. Wagner calls
it a romantic opera; he writes later that he expressed in it, for the first
time, his ideas of the music drama as an art form in which poetry and music
are so closely associated as to be inseparable. The concept of the
Gesamtkunstwerk (a work embracing all genres of art), formulated around
1850, probably derives from these considerations.
One month later he is appointed Kapellmeister (conductor) to the Royal Court of Saxony in Dresden, a position that pays him 1,500 Thaler a year; for comparison, the poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe has an annual salary of 3,000 Thaler in his position of Minister of Finance at the Court of Duke Carl August of neighboring Saxe-Weimar. Finally, Wagner has a safe and regular income, but the creditors from near and far now insist on payment and he gets out of this predicament by borrowing, again, the respectable amount of 1,000 Thaler from his prima donna, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, a quarter of her annual income. His productions of Carl Maria von Weber’s operas Euryanthe and Der Freischütz are very well received. Wagner’s profligate spending is seen from the amount of money he borrows: e.g., 5,000 Thaler in August, to furnish their new lodgings in the style he deems appropriate for his standing. He completes the libretto for the opera Tannhäuser. |
|
1844 |
Wagner’s Rienzi and Der fliegende Holländer
are perfomed on stages in Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden, partly
under his direction. In spite of all his frantic traveling, he makes good
progress in writing the score of Tannhäuser. He instigates and
organizes the transfer of the composer Carl Maria von Weber’s remains
(deceased 1826) from London to Dresden.
His interpretation of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (op. 68) earns him great applause. |
|
1845 |
The romantic opera Tannhäuser (WWV 70) is completed.
Outlines of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and of Lohengrin
are written between April and August.
Première of Tannhäuser in October, in Dresden, under Wagner’s baton. The opera is not well received. The composer is aware of its weak points as he writes in his autobiography, and will try to correct them in several versions to the end of his days. The libretto for Lohengrin is finished in November. |
|
1846 |
Wagner’s performance of the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig
van Beethoven (op. 125) brings the audience to raves.
Schröder-Devrient insists that he pay back the 1,000 Thaler she has lent him in 1843. He is granted a loan of 5,000 Thaler from the musicians’ pension fund; the monthly re-imbursements eat up more than a quarter of his salary, even before he can think of returning any of the amounts he owes others. He is now 33 years old, already a respected conductor and prolific composer with a steady income. His recurrent money problems are probably linked to his wish for recognition commensurate with his self-esteem. |
|
1848 |
Richard Wagner commits the imprudence to address the
Patriotic Club in
Dresden with a speech entitled Where do we with our
republican aspirations stand toward the monarchy? He openly sympathizes
with the revolutionaries in Vienna and sends them a poem praising their
initiative. Unfortunately, the poem is published in an Austrian newspaper at
the very moment in which insurrections occur also in Dresden. As a
consequence, his responsibilities at the theater are pared, but that leaves
him more time to work on his compositions.
He accomplishes an incredible amount of work in the course of this year: – completion of the score of the opera Lohengrin (WWV 75), of a verse draft of a scene (Siegfrieds Tod) that he later uses in Der Ring des Nibelungen; – recitals and concert performances of works by Beethoven, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and Mendelssohn (who has died the year before); – the writing of a lengthy and well thought-out letter to the deputy representing Saxony at the newly constituted National Assembly in Froncfort, in which he demands specific political and territorial reforms. RW makes the acquaintance of Michael Bakunin, a Russian anarchist who is sought by the police of several countries because he advocates open war and acts of individual terrorism against all governmental and religious institutions. |
|
1849 |
Franz Liszt, composer and piano virtuoso, music director in
Weimar, performs Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
Wagner is caught up in the revolutionary unrests in Dresden that lead to fire fights between army and insurgents and end with the flight of the King. When Prussian troops lay siege to Dresden and the defeat of the uprising is imminent, he escapes with Minna to Chemnitz, 60 km SW. A warrant for his arrest is issued but he is warned and stays on the run, helped financially by Franz Liszt. He obtains the expired passport of a friend with which he manages to cross the Swiss border in May without any trouble. Minna is unhappy to have to give up their relatively stable life and comes with her daughter to join him in Zurich only in September. RW publishes several essays in which he states his inclination towards communism and his view as to the future of the arts but he does not find the time to write music during the entire year. |
|
1850 |
A voyage to Paris is disappointing since nobody appears
interested in his operas.
A Mrs. Ritter in Dresden hears of Wagner’s precarious life as an exile in Zurich (12) and is willing to sponsor him with an annual allowance of 500, later 800 Thaler if he agrees to give her son Karl a thorough education in music. Wagner publishes the essay The Jews in Music (under a pseudonym) in the respected Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, containing vicious attacks on his former friend Giacomo Mayerbeer whom he now accuses of pandering to the public’s wishes for entertainment. |
|
1851 |
Prose drafts for Der junge Siegfried, sketches for
the operas Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. Growing estrangement
from his wife Minna.
RW suffers from an ugly facial erysipelas (a streptococcal infection of the skin) that has plagued him periodically since childhood. |
|
1852 |
Wagner writes the entire verse draft of Die Walküre in the first half of the year, that of Das Rheingold in the second half. Since he is not allowed to enter any of the German states, he answers requests from theaters in Schwerin, Breslau, Prag, Wiesbaden and Berlin to come and produce Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer by writing elaborate instruction booklets on how to perform these operas. He now earns a very good living as an independent artist and enjoys being asked to conduct his works. Most of his time is spent on the mighty Ring des Nibelungen, a tetralogy of operas no theater would yet be able to stage in the sumptuous form Wagner has in mind, because of the extravagant demands on personnel, space and equipment it would require. He starts thinking about a special opera house, to be constructed solely for the performances of his grand operas. | |
1853 |
Royalties for Tannhäuser, Der fliegende Holländer
and Lohengrin begin to come in. Much of Wagner’s expenses is taken
care of by the businessman Otto Wesendonck who runs an immensely profitable
textile import business in New York and now lives in Zurich. His
23-year old wife Mathilde is an admirer of Wagner’s and becomes very
emotional when she hears his music.
Excerpts from Tannhäuser, Rienzi, Lohengrin and Der fliegende Holländer are given as concert performances in a Hotel in Zurich and are celebrated as “miracles” whereas the composer Robert Schumann condemns Wagner’s creations as dissonant and devoid of form. RW meets Franz Liszt’s daughter Cosima on a trip to Paris in October. |
|
1854 |
Richard Wagner believes to have found a kindred soul in the
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer; his admiration is not returned. Continued
work on the music of the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and
conception of the opera Tristan und Isolde.
His debts amounting to more than 2,500 Thaler are paid off by his patron Otto Wesendonck. Several attempts to obtain permission for a return to Germany fail. Minna is suffering from a heart ailment. Das Rheingold (WWV 86A), the first opera of the four-part Ring, is completed at the end of May. |
|
1855 |
On concert tours to Paris and London between
February and July, Wagner’s interpretations of orchestral works by Mozart,
Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Weber bring the audiences to ovations although
the critics are less generous.
Back in Zurich, a prolonged period of ill health and nervous doubts begins. Many visits from friends and short trips are a hindrance to any productive work. |
|
1856 |
The second opera of Der Ring, i.e. Die Walküre (WWV 86B), is completed. A great deal of the most important conceptual work of the third part, Siegfried, exists already, for instance the musical characterization of the principal characters by motifs. |
|
1857 |
The gifted pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, an admirer
and friend of Wagner’s, marries Cosima, the daughter of Franz Liszt.
RW sets five poems written by Mathilde Wesendonck to music and dedicates them to her; they are now known as Wesendonck-Lieder (WWV 91). |
|
1858 |
He avoids the simmering conflict between his wife Minna and Mathilde, who sees herself as his muse, by going to Paris, then, in August, to Venice/Italy. Excited work on Tristan und Isolde. | |
1859 |
Italy’s war of liberation begins. The province Venetia with
her capital Venice remains Austrian territory. Wagner is expelled from
Venice and returns to Zurich to live in a house on the grounds of the
Wesendonck estate, as if the tensions with this family had never existed. He
completes Tristan und Isolde (WWV 90) in August.
In spite of continued requests for his inspired interpretations as a conductor and in spite of increasing acceptance of even his most difficult operas, Wagner lives well beyond the means that are now available to him. He moves to Paris in November where he makes the acquaintance of Hector Berlioz, Leo Tolstoi, Charles Baudelaire and Giacchino Rossini, the influential director of the Théâtre Italien and composer by appointment to the King of France. He is finally granted a partial amnesty that permits him to travel to all German states except Saxony. |
|
1861 |
The past year has brought Wagner wide acclaim and
encouragement but unfortunately no improvement of his finances. He lays the
first plans for a new opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Travels between Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria, always in the hope of seeing his operas produced. Hissing and catcalls interrupt both performances of Tannhäuser in Paris. |
|
1862 |
The overture of Die Meistersinger premieres in
Leipzig and is warmly received. The libretto is completed in January.
Richard (now 49 years old) and Minna (53) separate in November, after 26 years of a tumultuous marriage. He is granted full amnesty, also for Saxony. |
|
1863 |
Wagner conducts a series of concerts in
Prague,
St-Petersburg/Russia, Moskau, Buda (=Budapest/Hungary),
Karlsruhe (=Carlsruhe/Germany),
Breslau and
Vienna, and is
rewarded everywhere with ovations from the audiences. He immediately spends
the proceeds renting a villa in Vienna and furnishing it in luxury, in spite
of the threat of definite financial ruin.
Cosima von Bülow (27 years of age), the wife of conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow, and Richard Wagner make the vow that they will belong to each other. |
|
1864 |
Wagner’s situation takes a turn for the better: he meets
the young King of Bavaria, Ludwig II (born in 1845) who immediately pays off
all of RW’s considerable debts and places a house in Munich (=München)
plus a villa in its vicinity at his disposal.
In the fall, Ludwig II commissions Wagner to complete Der Ring des Nibelungen, and he hires Gottfried Semper, one of Wagner’s friends from Dresden and architect of Dresden’s monumental Staatsoper, to work out the plans for a grand festival theater in Munich that would meet the composer’s requirements. |
|
1865 |
Wagner’s position of confidence and influence with the King
(who is also called the “mad king” or the “fairy tale king”) is waning. The
fact that he is paid a higher salary than any of the King’s ministers, the
idea that he should have a monster of a theater built exclusively for his
own works, and a general indignation in view of the huge amounts of money
the King lavishes on his fantastic building projects (e.g. Neuschwanstein
Castle) all lead to public unrest and court intrigues that culminate in the
demand that Ludwig II dismiss Wagner.
In April, Cosima von Bülow’s and Richard Wagner’s daughter Isolde is born. In spite of all production difficulties, rehearsals without end, the usual cost overruns and postponements at the last minute, the premiere performance of Tristan und Isolde (WWV 90) under the direction of Hans von Bülow, in June, succeeds to the full satisfaction of Wagner. The audience gives him standing ovations during every entr’acte and he is, for once, considered a great composer even by the critics. Nevertheless, the hostility and intrigues at the court do not cease. The king’s secretary brings Wagner a note in which Ludwig II asks him to leave the country for a while. On December 10, Wagner returns to Switzerland and settles in Geneva. |
|
1866 |
On January 25, Wilhelmine (Minna) Wagner dies in
Dresden of a heart attack. The message of her death reaches RW in Marsaille
(=Marseille) where he is looking for a place to live; he does not attend the
funeral because he either does not find it convenient or he thinks he might
not make it to Dresden in time.
Cosima and Richard find a villa on the shore of Lake Lucerne/Switzerland, at a place called Tribschen (south of Zurich), that is to be their home for the next six years. King Ludwig II of Bavaria pays them a visit although his country, an ally of Austria, is at war with Prussia. The defeat of Bavaria in July remains without serious consequences for the country or the King. The triangular relationship between Cosima, her husband Hans and Richard gives rise to frictions that, however, do not diminish Hans von Bülow’s declared admiration for Wagner. Work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg progresses rapidly. |
|
1867 |
Cosima’s and RW’s second daughter, Eva, is born in
February.
Ludwig II appoints Hans von Bülow Kapellmeister (conductor) in Munich. Wagner and von Bülow work on the production of Lohengrin (WWV 75). The King and RW quarrel about the cast; Wagner is affronted and does not attend the première performance. The opera is a triumphant success. On the King’s wish, Tannhäuser (WWV 70) is given again and Wagner rises in the public’s esteem. Wagner’s first essays of a series entitled German art and German politics are published in the newspaper Die Süddeutsche Presse but a further publication is soon banned because of Wagner’s attacks on Ludwig II’s predecessor, his father Maximilian II of Bavaria. The opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is completed on October 24. |
|
1868 |
Semper tenders his resignation as architect of the planned
festival theater in Munich.
Première performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (WWV 96) in Munich, under the direction of Hans von Bülow. The performance is a triumph for the composer. RW makes the acquaintance of the young German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who is enthusiastic about Wagner’s music. |
|
1869 |
On June 6, Cosima’s and Richard’s son Siegfried is born,
their third child. Hans von Bülow agrees to divorce Cosima.
Nietzsche, now a professor of classical philology at the University of Basle (=Basel), becomes a close friend and visits Wagner very often in Tribschen. Cosima starts writing a diary that is to become the principal source of biographical information on RW’s later years. Ludwig II urges Wagner to stage Das Rheingold (WWV 86A) in Munich. The production is delayed time and again, mainly because of problems with casting. The King is upset about Wagner’s insistence that the opera should be performed only as part of the (as yet incomplete) tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, and he appoints a conductor (Franz Wüllner) who does not find the composer’s approval. Wagner has sold the exclusive rights to the four operas in advance to Ludwig II and is not in a position to raise an objection but he does not attend the première performance of his opera on September 22. |
|
1870 |
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is performed in
Berlin; the audience is indifferent.
Die Walküre (the 2nd part of the Ring cycle) is performed in Munich, against Wagner’s express wishes. After an interval of more than ten years, Wagner starts working again seriously on Siegfried and Die Götterdämmerung, the 3rd and 4th operas of the Ring cycle. Das Rheingold and Die Walküre are given in Munich in alternation, to great acclaim. Franz Liszt, the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, and the composer Johannes Brahms (whom RW despises) are in the audience. About one month after Cosima, née Liszt, and Hans von Bülow are granted a divorce, Cosima and Richard Wagner are married in a protestant church in Lucerne/Switzerland. |
|
1871 |
Wagner composes the pompous Kaisermarsch (WWV 104)
and dedicates it to Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, who is crowned Emperor, or
Kaiser, of Germany at Versailles/France after the defeat of the
French in the battle of Sedan.
On February 5, the opera Siegfried (WWV 86C) is completed. RW believes to have found the ideal location for the opera house that is to be dedicated to his work in the little town of Bayreuth in Bavaria. He proposes to erect it as a national music center, of course under his direction, and submits the idea to Ludwig II. In May, he travels to Berlin to obtain financial support for the building project from the Kaiser, but he finds from private sources only a fraction of the amount for which he had hoped. Somewhat hastily, he announces that the First Bayreuth Festival will take place in the summer of 1873. Friedrich Nietzsche surprises the Wagners with a composition of his own and is deeply wounded when Hans von Bülow destroys his musical ambitions in the strongest words: “... the most extreme in fantastic extravagance ... the most unsatisfying and unmusical ... piano cramps”. |
|
1872 |
In January, the Bayreuth City Council gives Wagner
permission to construct a festival theater on a plot the city has acquired;
he buys a piece of land nearby on which his villa Wahnfried is to be
built.
The foundation stone for the new Festival Theater is laid in May, in pouring rain. A grand ceremony follows in the old theater, with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Delegates from a number of Wagner fan clubs that have sprung up in Germany consider it a patriotic duty to participate in the financing of the theater. Wagner is encouraged and hopes to be able to build the opera house without Ludwig II’s money. Cosima and Richard tour Germany in November and December in order to raise money for the construction and to recruit musicians. They attend a number of opera performances about which Wagner writes a scathing report on their return. Wagner shows the first evident symptoms of a heart disease. |
|
1873 |
Financing the festival house is becoming increasingly
difficult, in part because of a financial crisis that grips nearly all
European countries. Wagner’s appeal to Bismarck, Chancellor of the German
Reich, is not answered. He petitions Ludwig II to grant him credit for
the First Bayreuth Festival that he has now postponed until 1875.
RW continues to travel through Germany and gives concerts and recitals in a frantic attempt to find patrons for the opera house. In August, the roof is raised on the new Festpielhaus but the last phase of the construction is in serious danger. The King of Bavaria has refused, until now, to advance funds or grant a guarantee for the requested amount of 100,000 Thaler (i.e. one-third of the total cost) that is still missing. The income from more than 200 performances of Wagner’s operas during the year alone is not nearly enough. The sale of 1,300 so-called Patronats-Scheinen, a sort of stock certificates without dividends, is very slow, although Wagner is reduced to peddling them himself in his recitals. All through these financial troubles, Wagner is greeted by cheering crowds wherever he appears, he is given banquets and all kinds of ceremonies are performed in his honor. The number of true Wagner followers is swelling, but the sale of patronage certificates is a mere trickle; only 200 have been sold to that date, of which number Egypt’s Khedive alone signed for 500 £. The 2nd volume of Wagner’s autobiography Mein Leben, dictated to Cosima, is published in Basle. |
|
1874 |
Ludwig II grants Wagner the long-sought credit of 100,000
Thaler.
The Wagners move into their newly built home, the Villa Wahnfried. Its large central hall soon becomes the locale for the presentation of work in progress, for musical and theatrical performances, for rehearsals and for vivacious discussions in a circle of friends and illustrious guests. On November 21, Richard Wagner completes the score of Die Götterdämmerung (WWV 86D), the 4th opera of the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen on which he has been working, off and on, for 21 years. The grand opening of the Festspielhaus is again postponed, to 1876. |
|
1875 |
Richard Wagner is practically the entire year on a concert tour through all of Germany and Austria. Rehearsals for Der Ring begin in Bayreuth. | |
1876 |
Wagner composes the Grand Festival March (WWV 110) for the
centennial celebration of the American Declaration of Independence; he
receives the princely honorarium of $ 5,000.
The four parts of Der Ring des Nibelungen are performed on August 13, 14, 16 and 17 for the inauguration of the Festival Theater, before the German Kaiser, King Ludwig II, the Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil, a score of titled nobility and the nobility of famous artists like Peter Tschaikowski, Anton Bruckner, Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns. Nearly every scene is interrupted by applause turning crescendo into an ovation. Every performance becomes a triumph for Richard Wagner. The theater proves to have a fabulous acoustic. The musicians are not used to playing in an orchestra pit, without being seen by the audience, but musically trained spectators in the unpretentious auditorium agree that the sound is not less than wonderful. The second and third performances of the Ring cycle begin on August 20 and 27, respectively. The house is sold out every time. Apart from the critics who, as usual, have hardly a good word for Wagner’s oeuvre, the only person unhappy with the performances seems to be Richard Wagner himself. The feeling turns into despair when he is told that the festival managed to produced the immense deficit of 148,000 Mark. He seeks consolation in the arms of Judith Gauthier, a recent divorcée, until Cosima finds out about the romance and puts an end to it. The Wagner’s three-month voyage to Italy is overshadowed by the financial crisis. |
|
1877 |
RW returns to work on the sketch of Parsifal, a
story about which he has thought since 1865, and he completes the entire
libretto by April.
An impresario in London promises to arrange for a series of twenty concerts under Wagner’s direction in the Royal Albert Hall; the proceeds would eliminate all of Wagner’s debts but the plan is too optimistic. Eight concerts are actually given in May, with excerpts from Die Walküre and Der fliegende Holländer. They bring Wagner an income of 700 £, or, about one-tenth of the Bayreuth deficit. Wagner believes his art, imbued with German patriotism and dedicated to the German soul, is misunderstood by the public, ridiculed by the press, and consequently refused by financiers. He briefly considers emigrating to the United States. The poetry of Parsifal and the first musical sketches elate Friedrich Nietzsche. |
|
1878 |
Wagner works on the orchestration of the opera Parsifal
which he considers his greatest achievement.
Cosima is instrumental in negotiating with Ludwig II’s government a contract, in March, that provides a guarantee to cover the festival deficit in return for giving the Royal Theater in Munich the exclusive rights to perform Parsifal without payment of royalties to the composer. However, he is to be paid 10 p.c. of the receipts from performances of his other operas. RW publishes a number of essays on art and culture in the Bayreuther Blätter, a newspaper whose editor is his friend Richard Pohl. In this year noted for the official repression of the social democratic movement, Wagner does not conceal his belief that Germany’s salvation will come from socialism. |
|
1879 |
The year is dominated by Wagner’s worsening state of health. He suffers from a periodically occurring eczema, has abdominal pains, rheumatism and complains about a general lack of strength. Nevertheless, the music for Parsifal is nearing completion. | |
1880 |
Richard and Cosima spend the first nine months of the year
traveling through Italy. The 4th volume of his autobiography (until the year
1864) is published.
In November, Wagner conducts the Parsifal prelude in Munich, in a private performance for King Ludwig II. He is angered when the King demands to hear also the overture to Lohengrin. This is the last time that Wagner and the King see each other. |
|
1881 |
When some German princes agree to provide patronage for the
Bayreuth Festival, Ludwig II hastens to give an example of his grace and
largesse and renounces the exclusive rights to the performances of
Parsifal in his theater in Munich.
Wagner is busy writing essays on religion and the arts, on equal rights for all, on heroism, etc. Work on the last act of Parsifal is interrupted by renewed intestinal and respiratory problems. In November, Cosima, Daniel, Siegfried and Richard Wagner escape the foul weather in Bayreuth and travel to Palermo in Sicily. |
|
1882 |
The opera Parsifal (WWV 111) is completed in
Palermo on the 13th of January. Richard’s health has improved somewhat although
he is still suffering the symptoms of a heart disease. The family returns to
Germany in May.
The Second Bayreuth Festival opens on July 26 with the première of Parsifal. Eduard Hanslick of Vienna, the most caustic and harshest of Wagner’s critics, is enchanted with the beauty of the music. The applause at the end lasts 40 minutes. The opera is performed another fifteen times before the festival comes to an end on August 29. The Wagners move to Venice in September. In December, RW steps on the podium for the last time to conduct his Symphony in C major (WWV 29). |
|
1883 |
The family rents an entire floor in the Palazzo
Vendramin in Venice (14), on the Canale Grande. The foul winter
weather does not subdue the wild and loud carnival merriment in the streets,
and RW is drawn right into it.
A massive heart attack ends his life in the afternoon of February 13, three months before his 70th birthday. He is laid to rest in the garden of his Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth. |
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Recommended Literature |
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Hans-joachim Bauer: Richard Wagner. Verlag Ullstein, Frankfurt/M: 1995 (in German) Udo Bermbach: Richard Wagner. Ellert & Richter Verlag, Hamburg: 2006 (in German) John Deathridge, Martin Geck, Egon Voss: Wagner-Werkverzeichnis. Schott, Mainz: 1985 (in German) Philippe Godefroid: Richard Wagner, l’opéra de la fin du monde. Gallimard, Paris: 1988 (in French) Martin Gregor-Dellin: Wagner-Chronik. Carl Hanser Verlag, München: 1972 (in German) Hans Mayer: Wagner. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg: 1959 (in German) Stewart Spencer: Wagner Remembered. Faber & Faber, London: 2000 |
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