Richard Wilhelm Wagner – dreams of a national theater. The life and creative path of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, into a small bureaucratic family. Entering St. Thomas's School in 1828, he began his musical education. His first teacher was the church cantor T. Weinlig.

In 1831, Wagner became a student at the University of Leipzig.

Creative path

The period 1833-1842 was the most hectic and at the same time fruitful. Constantly in dire need of money, Wagner accepted the position of theater choirmaster in Würzburg.

He worked as a choirmaster and conductor in Norwegian, Paris and London theatres. While traveling around Europe, he created the “Faust” overture. Also at this time the opera “The Flying Dutchman” was written.

He received his well-deserved fame in 1842, when the Dresden premiere of his opera “Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes” took place. In 1843, he accepted the position of bandmaster at the court of the Saxon monarch.

In 1849 he took direct part in the May uprising. During the revolutionary actions, he met one of the founders of anarchy, M. A. Bakunin. When the uprising failed, Wagner fled to Switzerland. There the libretto of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” was created.

There, in Zurich, the opera “Tristan and Isolde” was written.

Wagner's influence

The opera reform had a gigantic impact on music both in Europe and in Russia. Wagner built on musical romanticism while laying the foundation for modernist movements.

Wagner's main propagandist in Russia was his close friend, A. N. Serov. In addition, the work of the outstanding German composer greatly influenced N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “Wagnerian notes” can be clearly seen in the works of A. G. Rubinstein and A. N. Scriabin.

Last years of life and death

In 1864, Wagner became close to the Bavarian monarch, Ludwig II. The monarch paid off many of the composer's debts and provided him with full support.

Having moved to Munich, Wagner completed “The Ring of the Nibelungs” and created the comic opera “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg.”

The premiere of the opera “The Ring of the Nibelungs” took place in 1876. 6 years later, the high-profile premiere of the mystery “Parsifal” took place.

In 1882, the German composer’s health deteriorated sharply and he went to Venice. The musician passed away in 1883 from a heart attack. Richard Wagner was buried in Bayreuth.

Other biography options

• Studying a short biography of Richard Wagner , you should know that he sympathized with the ideas of anti-Semitism. A little later, in Nazi Germany, an almost cult of the composer’s personality was created.
• While working on his operas, Wagner dressed in costumes that corresponded to the era in which he was interested. According to him, this way he “felt time” better.
• By his own admission, he saw music as an accessible method of expressing his philosophical ideas. Wagner sympathized with many ideas

To a much greater extent than all European composers since the end of the 16th century. (the time of the Florentine Camerata), Wagner viewed his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Work of art future: “Just as a person will not be free until he joyfully accepts the bonds that connect him with Nature, so art will not become free until he no longer has any reason to be ashamed of his connection with life.”

WAGNER, RICHARD (Wagner, Richard) (1813–1883), great German composer. Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, the son of an official, Karl Friedrich Wagner, and Johanna Rosina Wagner (née Pez), the daughter of a miller from Weißenfels.

Wagner’s childhood was not prosperous: he was sick a lot, his family moved often, and as a result, the boy studied in fits and starts at schools in different cities. However, already in early years Wagner took in much of what was later useful to him: he was well read in classical and modern literature, fell in love with the operas of K.M. Weber (who was a member of the Wagner house), attended concerts, and mastered the basics of composing technique. He also showed a desire for self-expression in theatrical and dramatic form, and was keenly interested in politics and philosophy. In February 1831 he entered the University of Leipzig, and shortly before that one of his first works was performed - the Overture in B-flat major.

At the university, Wagner attended lectures on philosophy and aesthetics, studied music with T. Weinlig, cantor of the school of St. Thomas. At the same time, he met people associated with exiled Polish revolutionaries, and in 1832 he accompanied Count Tyszkiewicz on his journey to Moravia, and from there he went to Vienna. In Prague, his just completed symphony in C major was played at the conservatory at an orchestral rehearsal, and on January 10, 1833 it was publicly performed in Leipzig in concert hall Gewandhaus.

Years of need.

A month later, thanks to the assistance of his brother (singer Karl Albert), Wagner received the position of tutor (choirmaster) at the Würzburg Opera House. He energetically set to work, while continuing his composition studies. In the Leipzig “Newspaper of Elegant Light”, Wagner published an article “German Opera”, which essentially anticipated his later theories, and began composing the opera The Fairies (Die Feen, based on a story by C. Gozzi), the composer’s first work in this genre. However, the opera was not accepted for production in Leipzig.

In 1834 he took the place of conductor at the Magdeburg Theater, and at the same time something happened in his life an important event: he met actress Minna Planer, became seriously interested in her, and after two years of courtship got married. The young musician did not achieve much success in Magdeburg (although the famous singer Wilhelmina Schröder-Devrient, who performed there, highly appreciated Wagner’s conducting art) and was not averse to looking for another place. He worked in Königsberg and Riga, but did not stay in these cities. Minna had already begun to regret her choice and left her husband for a while. In addition, Wagner was plagued by debts and disappointment in his abilities after the failures of two new works - the overture Rule, Britannia! (Rule, Britannia) and the opera The Forbidden Love (Das Liebesverbot, based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure). After Minna's departure, Wagner fled from debts and other troubles to his sister Ottilie, who was married to the book publisher F. Brockhaus. In their house, he first read E. Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Cola Rienzi, the Last Tribune (Cola Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen), which seemed to him suitable material for opera libretto. He set to work in the hope of gaining the approval of the famous Parisian master J. Meyerbeer, because Rienzi was written in the genre of the French " grand opera", and Meyerbeer was its unsurpassed master.

In the fall of 1838, Richard reunited with Minna in Riga, but theatrical intrigues forced him to soon leave the theater. The couple went to Paris by sea, visiting London along the way. The sea voyage turned out to be a difficult ordeal, as Wagner eloquently recounts in his autobiography, My Life (Mein Leben). During the voyage, he heard from the sailors a legend that formed the basis of his new opera The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Hollander). The Wagner couple spent two and a half years in France (from August 20, 1839 to April 7, 1842). Despite all sorts of difficulties and the lack of constant income, Richard developed his life in Paris in full force. His charm and brilliance of intellect earned him the respect and friendship of a number of prominent people. Thus, F. Habeneck, conductor of the Paris Grand Opera, authoritatively testified to Wagner’s outstanding talent as a composer (who, in turn, was deeply impressed by Habeneck’s interpretation of Beethoven’s works); publisher M. Schlesinger gave Wagner a job in the Musical Newspaper he published. Among the composer's supporters were German emigrants: specialist in classical philology Z. Leers, artist E. Kitz, poet G. Heine. Meyerbeer treated the German musician favorably, and the culmination of his Parisian years was Wagner’s acquaintance with G. Berlioz.

In terms of creativity, the Parisian period also brought considerable fruit: the symphonic overture Faust was written here, Rienzi’s score was completed, the libretto of The Flying Dutchman was completed, plans for new operas arose - Tannhauser, the result of reading a collection of ancient German legends by the Brothers Grimm) and Lohengrin ( Lohengrin). In June 1841, Wagner learned that Rienzi had been accepted for production in Dresden.

Dresden, 1842–1849.

Inspired by the news they received, the Wagners decided to return to their homeland. In Leipzig (where the Brockhaus family helped them), Munich and Berlin, Wagner encountered a number of obstacles, and when he arrived in Dresden, he found dissatisfied orchestra members for whom Rienzi’s score posed unusual tasks, directors for whom the opera’s libretto seemed too long and confusing, and artists not at all inclined to spend money on costumes for an unknown opera. However, Wagner did not give up, and his efforts were crowned with the triumphant premiere of Rienzi on October 20, 1842. The result of success was, in particular, a rapprochement between Wagner and F. Liszt, as well as invitations to conduct concerts in Leipzig and Berlin.

Following Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman was staged in Dresden at the beginning of 1843. Although this opera lasted only four performances, Wagner's name became so famous that in February 1843 he was appointed to the post of court conductor (head of the court opera). This news attracted the attention of numerous creditors of the composer from different cities in Germany. Wagner, who had a genius for resolving conflicts caused by living beyond one's means, dealt with the onslaught of creditors as well as previous and subsequent incidents of this kind.

Wagner had wonderful ideas (he later developed them in his literary works): he wanted to transform the court orchestra so that it could properly perform the scores of Beethoven, the idol of the young Wagner; At the same time, he showed concern for improving the living conditions of the orchestra members. He sought to free the theater from the tutelage of the court with its endless intrigues, and sought to expand the repertoire of church music by introducing into it the works of the great Palestrina.

Naturally, such reforms could not but cause resistance, and although many Dresdeners supported Wagner (at least in principle), they still remained in the minority, and when on June 15, 1848 - shortly after the revolutionary events in the city - Wagner publicly defended republican ideas, he was removed from his post.

Meanwhile, Wagner's fame as a composer grew and strengthened. The Flying Dutchman earned the approval of the venerable L. Spohr, who performed the opera in Kassel; it also ran in Riga and Berlin. Rienzi was staged in Hamburg and Berlin; Tannhäuser premiered on October 19, 1845 in Dresden. IN last years During the Dresden period, Wagner studied the epic Song of the Nibelungs and often appeared in print. Thanks to the participation of Liszt, a passionate propagandist new music– in Weimar, a concert performance of the third act of the just completed Lohengrin and a production of Tannhäuser in its complete (the so-called Dresden) edition were carried out.

In May 1849, while in Weimar at the Tannhäuser rehearsals, Wagner learned that his house had been searched and a warrant had already been signed for his arrest in connection with his participation in the Dresden uprising. Leaving his wife and numerous creditors in Weimar, he hastily left for Zurich, where he spent the next 10 years.

Exile.

One of the first in Zurich to support him was Jessie Losso, an Englishwoman, the wife of a French merchant; she did not remain indifferent to the advances of the German musician. This scandal was followed by another, which gained greater publicity: we're talking about about Wagner’s connection with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a philanthropist who gave Wagner the opportunity to settle in a comfortable house on the shores of Lake Zurich.

In Zurich, Wagner created all of his major literary works, including Art and Revolution (Die Kunst und die Revolution), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, inspired by and dedicated to the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach, Opera and Drama (Oper und Drama), and also the completely inappropriate pamphlet Jews in Music (Das Judenthum in Musik). Here Wagner attacks Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, the poets Heine and Börne; As for Heine, Wagner even expressed doubts about his mental abilities. In addition to his literary work, Wagner performed as a conductor - in Zurich (concert series were held by subscription) and in the 1855 season at the Philharmonic Society in London. His main task was the development of a grandiose musical and dramatic concept, which, after a quarter of a century of hard work, took the form of the opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen.

In 1851, the Weimar court, at the insistence of Liszt, offered Wagner 500 thalers so that part of the future tetralogy - The Death of Siegfried (later the finale of the cycle - Death of the Gods, Gtterdmmerung) was ready for execution in July 1852. However, Wagner's plan clearly exceeded the capabilities of the Weimar theater. As the composer wrote to his friend T. Uhlig, at that time he already imagined The Ring of the Nibelung as “three dramas with a three-act introduction.”

In 1857–1859, Wagner interrupted work on the Nibelungen Saga, captivated by the story of Tristan and Isolde. The new opera arose from Mathilde Wesendonck and was inspired by Wagner's love for her. While composing Tristan, Wagner met the composer and conductor G. von Bülow, who was married to Liszt's daughter Cosima (who later became Wagner's wife). Tristan was almost finished when, in the summer of 1858, its author hastily left Zurich and went to Venice: this happened as a result of another quarrel with Minna, who again declared her firm intention to never live with her husband again. Expelled from Venice by the Austrian police, the composer went to Lucerne, where he completed work on the opera.

Wagner did not meet his wife for about a year, but in September 1859 they met again in Paris. Wagner made another attempt to conquer the French capital - and again failed. His three concerts, given in 1860, were met with hostility by the press and brought nothing but losses. A year later, the premiere of Tannhäuser at the Grand Opera - in a new version made especially for Paris - was booed by raging members of the Jockey Club. Just at this time, Wagner learned from the Saxon ambassador that he had the right to return to Germany, to any region except Saxony (this ban was lifted in 1862). The composer used the permission he received to search for a theater that would stage his new operas. He managed to convert the music publisher Schott, who gave him generous advances.

In 1862–1863, Wagner made a series of concert trips that made him famous as a conductor: he performed in Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg, Budapest and Karlsruhe. However, uncertainty about the future weighed heavily on him, and in 1864, in the face of the threat of arrest for debt, he made another escape - this time with his Zurich acquaintance Elisa Wille - to Marienfeld. This was truly the last refuge: as Ernest Newman writes in his book, “most of the composer’s friends, especially those who had the means, were tired of his requests and even began to fear them; they came to the conclusion that Wagner was absolutely incapable of observing elementary decency, and were no longer going to allow him to encroach on their wallets.”

Munich. Second exile.

At this moment, unexpected help came - from Ludwig II, who had just ascended the royal throne in Bavaria. More than anything else, the young king loved Wagner's operas - and they were performed in Germany more and more often - and invited their author to Munich. In the summer of 1865, the royal troupe premiered Tristan (four performances). Shortly before that, Cosima von Bülow, with whom Wagner connected his life from the end of 1863, gave birth to his daughter. This circumstance gave Wagner's political opponents in Bavaria a reason to insist on the composer's removal from Munich. Once again Wagner became an exile: this time he settled in Tribschen on the shores of Lake Lucerne, where he spent the next six years.

At Triebschen he completed Die Meistersinger, Siegfried and most of The Twilight of the Gods (the other two parts of the tetralogy were completed a decade earlier), and created a number of literary works, the most important of which are On Conducting (ber das Dirigieren, 1869) and Beethoven (1870). He also completed his autobiography: the book My Life (the presentation in it was completed only up to 1864) appeared at the insistence of Cosima, who, after her divorce from von Bülow, became Wagner’s wife. This happened in 1870, a year after the birth of the composer’s only son, Siegfried. By that time, Minna Wagner was no longer alive (she died in 1866).

Ludwig of Bavaria, disillusioned with Wagner as a person, always remained a passionate admirer of his art. Despite serious obstacles and his own prejudices, he achieved the production in Munich of Die Meistersinger (1868), Das Rheingold (1869) and Die Valkre (1870), and the capital of Bavaria became a mecca for European musicians. In those years, Wagner became the undisputed leader in European music. Election to the Prussian Royal Academy of Arts was a turning point in Wagner's biography. Now his operas were staged throughout Europe and often met with a warm reception from the public. New law about copyright strengthened his financial position. E. Fritsch published a collection of his literary works. All that remained was to realize the dream of a new theater, where his musical dramas could be ideally embodied, and Wagner now interpreted them as a source of revival of German national identity and German culture. It took a lot of work, the support of well-wishers and financial assistance from the king to begin construction of the theater in Bayreuth: it was opened in August 1876 with the premiere of the Ring of the Nibelung. The king was present at the performances, and this was his first meeting with Wagner after an eight-year separation.

Last years.

After the celebrations in Bayreuth, Wagner and his family traveled to Italy; he met with Count A. Gobineau in Naples and Nietzsche in Sorrento. Once Wagner and Nietzsche were like-minded people, but in 1876 Nietzsche noticed a change in the composer: he had in mind the idea of ​​Parsifal, in which Wagner, after the “pagan” Ring of the Nibelung, returns to Christian symbols and values. Nietzsche and Wagner never met again.

Wagner's late period of philosophical exploration found expression in such literary works as Is There Hope For Us? (Wollen wir hoffen, 1879), Religion and Art (Religion und Kunst, 1889), Heroism and Christianity (Heldentum und Christentum, 1881), and mainly in the opera Parsifal. This last opera by Wagner, in accordance with the royal decree, could only be performed in Bayreuth, and this situation remained until December 1903, when Parsifal was staged at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In September 1882, Wagner went to Italy again. He was tormented by heart attacks, and one of them, on February 13, 1883, became fatal. Wagner's body was transported to Bayreuth and buried with state honors in the garden of his villa Wahnfried. Cosima outlived her husband by half a century (she died in 1930). In the same year, Siegfried Wagner, who played a significant role in preserving the legacy of his father and the traditions of performing his works, died with her.

To a much greater extent than all European composers since the end of the 16th century. (the time of the Florentine Camerata), Wagner viewed his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from a work of art of the future: “Just as a person will not be freed until he joyfully accepts the bonds that unite him with Nature, so art will not become free until he no longer has any reason to be ashamed of his connection with life." From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; The highest form of art is musical drama, understood as the organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where the theater is treated as a temple, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the musical drama created by Wagner.

Name: Richard Wagner

Age: 69 years old

Place of Birth: Leipzig, Germany

A place of death: Venice, Italy

Activity: composer, conductor

Family status: was married

Richard Wagner - biography

Wilhelm Richard Wagner is not a simple composer, he is an art theorist, one who influenced the entire European music culture and reformed opera.

Childhood, Wagner family

Richard's father was an official, but it turned out that the boy was raised by his stepfather, actor Ludwig Geyer. Nine children were born into the Wagner family, but two children died, and when the future composer was born, his father died. The head of the family was a fan of the Melpomene temple, and in his honor, four of the children connected their lives with the theater.

Immortal creativity of the composer

Wagner composed brilliant overtures and operas. The Royal Saxon court became a refuge for the composer for some time, where he worked as a bandmaster. Often Wagner's music reflected the feelings and emotions that filled the composer's world. More than any other composer, he called for turning to one’s nature, to the strong connection that exists between man and all of nature as a whole.

Wagner's ideas

Art is created by man and for man - the idea of ​​​​Wagner's entire work. The Opera Theater now began to be perceived as the highest form of reproduction of works of art, as a temple. And what happened on the stage in the temple of art bore a new name: musical drama. It embodied the combination of words and music. This became the meaning of the composer’s entire life. “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”, “Tristan and Isolde”, “The Ring of the Nibelung” and “Parsifal” are a number of masterpieces created by the German maestro.

Orchestra at the opera

The composer’s entire biography is a life in music, in opera and in its improvement. Wagner brought the art of opera closer to life, denying excessive pomp and falsehood in classical opera. In addition, he paid special attention not to the vocal performance of the parts, but to the music, which was intended to reveal the feelings and experiences of the heroes of the work. The orchestra in his operas played a separate role; it gave a musical characterization to each hero, living creature, and symbolic object. The viewer does not have the opportunity to relax, he is constantly tense, since the musical denouement will only be at the end of the work.

Philosophy in Wagner's music

The fascination with the ideas of the philosopher Schopenhauer can be traced in the works of Wagner. The composer believes that the universe is imperfect, meaningless and dysfunctional. Music should help you find true pleasure. If humanity continues to chase power and gold, then a world catastrophe may soon occur. Richard makes only two themes the most basic in his work: love and death. He links them inextricably in his operas. The system of leitmotifs was inherited not only by Wagner’s followers, but also by his contemporaries.

Some great Russian musicians took the opposite position in relation to the music of the great reformer. These included M.P. Mussorgsky and A.P. Borodin. Wagner, in turn, was so individual that he did not want to take into account the work of some composers who had Jewish roots ().

Richard Wagner - biography of personal life

In Magdeburg, Richard met the actress Minna Planer. Work in the theater did not go well for Wagner, the prima went to Berlin. This departure of his beloved woman forced the composer to confess his love and propose marriage. The marriage was hasty and unhappy. There was not enough money, the beloved was not an exalted person and did not live with dreams. She was four years older than her husband, had a very practical approach to life and did not understand her husband. The theater was closed, the composer lived in Riga for two years, studied French, and dreamed of conquering France.

But this is a little later, while Richard was inflamed with feelings for Matilda Wesendonck, a married beauty and an exalted nature. This woman was always among the very first listeners of the musician’s works. But marital duty remained a true duty for Matilda; she did not leave her husband for Wagner. And Wesendonck forever remained a financial assistant and friend for the composer.

R. Wagner is the largest German composer of the 19th century, who had a significant influence on the development of not only the music of the European tradition, but also world artistic culture as a whole. Wagner did not receive a systematic musical education and in his development as a master of music owes a decisive degree to himself. The composer's interests, entirely focused on the opera genre, emerged relatively early. From his early work, the romantic opera "The Fairies" (1834) and right up to the musical mystery drama "Parsifal" (1882), Wagner remained a staunch adherent of serious musical theater, which through his efforts was transformed and updated.

At first, Wagner did not think of reforming opera - he followed established traditions musical performance, sought to master the conquests of his predecessors. If in “Fairies” the German romantic opera, so brilliantly represented by “The Magic Shooter” by K. M. Weber, became a role model, then in the opera “The Ban of Love” (1836) he was more focused on the traditions of the French comic opera. However, these early works did not bring him recognition - in those years Wagner led the hard life of a theater musician, wandering around different cities in Europe. For some time he worked in Russia, in the German theater of the city of Riga (1837-39). But Wagner... like many of his contemporaries, was attracted by the cultural capital of the then Europe, which was then universally recognized as Paris. The bright hopes of the young composer faded when he came face to face with the unsightly reality and was forced to lead the life of a poor foreign musician doing odd jobs. A change for the better came in 1842, when he was invited to the position of conductor at the famous opera house in the capital of Saxony, Dresden. Wagner finally had the opportunity to introduce his works to theater audiences, and his third opera, Rienzi (1840), won lasting recognition. And this is not surprising, since the model of the work was the French grand opera, the most prominent representatives of which were the recognized masters G. Spontini and G. Meyerbeer. In addition, the composer had performing forces of the highest rank - vocalists such as tenor J. Tihaček and the great singer-actress V. Schröder-Devrient, who became famous in her time in the role of Leonora in L. Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio,” performed in his theater.

The 3 operas adjacent to the Dresden period have a lot in common. Thus, in “The Flying Dutchman” (1841), completed on the eve of the move to Dresden, the old legend about a wandering sailor cursed for previous atrocities, whom only devoted and pure love can save, comes to life. In the opera “Tannhäuser” (1845), the composer turned to the medieval legend about the minnesinger singer, who gained the favor of the pagan goddess Venus, but earned the curse of the Roman church for this. And finally, in “Lohengrin" (1848) - perhaps the most popular of Wagner's operas - a bright knight appears, descending to earth from the heavenly abode - the Holy Grail, in the name of fighting evil, slander and injustice.

In these operas, the composer is still closely associated with the traditions of romanticism - his heroes are torn apart by conflicting impulses, when purity and purity are opposed to the sinfulness of earthly passions, boundless trust is opposed to deceit and betrayal. Romanticism is also associated with the slowness of the narrative, when it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but the feelings that they awaken in the soul. lyrical hero. This is where it comes from important role extended monologues and dialogues characters, revealing the internal struggle of their aspirations and motivations, a kind of “dialectic of the soul” of an extraordinary human personality.

But even during the years of work in the court service, Wagner had new plans. The impetus for their implementation was the revolution that broke out in a number of European countries in 1848 and did not escape Saxony. It was in Dresden that an armed uprising broke out against the reactionary monarchist regime, led by Wagner's friend, the Russian anarchist M. Bakunin. With his characteristic passion, Wagner took an active part in this uprising and after its defeat was forced to flee to Switzerland. A difficult period began in the composer’s life, but very fruitful for his work.

Wagner rethought and comprehended his artistic positions; moreover, he formulated the main tasks that, in his opinion, faced art, in a number of theoretical works(among them, the treatise “Opera and Drama” - 1851) is especially important. He embodied his ideas in the monumental tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” - the main work of his entire life.

The basis of the grandiose creation, which fully occupies 4 theatrical evenings in a row, was made up of tales and legends dating back to pagan antiquity - the German “Song of the Nibelungs”, the Scandinavian sagas included in the Elder and Younger Edda. But pagan mythology with its gods and heroes became for the composer a means of knowledge and artistic analysis problems and contradictions of contemporary bourgeois reality.

The content of the tetralogy, which includes the musical dramas “Das Rheingold” (1854), “Walkyrie” (1856), “Siegfried” (1871) and “Death of the Gods” (1874), is very multifaceted - the operas feature numerous characters who enter into conflict with each other complex relationships, sometimes even into cruel, irreconcilable struggle. Among them is the evil Nibelung dwarf Alberich, who steals a golden treasure from the daughters of the Rhine; The owner of the treasure, who managed to forge a ring from it, is promised power over the world. Alberich is opposed by the light god Wotan, whose omnipotence is illusory - he is a slave to the agreements he himself has concluded, on which his dominion is based. Taking away Golden ring According to the Nibelung, he brings upon himself and his family a terrible curse, from which only a mortal hero who owes him nothing can save him. His own grandson, the simple-minded and fearless Siegfried, becomes such a hero. He defeats the monstrous dragon Fafner, takes possession of the treasured ring, awakens the sleeping warrior maiden Brunhilda, surrounded by a sea of ​​fire, but dies, struck down by meanness and deceit. Along with him, the old world, where deception, self-interest and injustice reigned, also perishes.

Wagner's grandiose plan required completely new, previously unheard of means of implementation, a new operatic reform. The composer almost completely abandoned the hitherto familiar number structure - complete arias, choruses, ensembles. Instead, they were replaced by lengthy monologues and dialogues of the characters, unfolded into an endless melody. Broad melodiousness merged with declamation in vocal parts of a new type, in which a melodious cantilena and catchy speech characteristics were incomprehensibly combined.

The main feature of Wagner's operatic reform is associated with the special role of the orchestra. He is not limited to just supporting the vocal melody, but leads his own line, sometimes even coming to the fore. Moreover, the orchestra becomes the bearer of the meaning of the action - it is in it that the main musical themes- leitmotifs that become symbols of characters, situations, and even abstract ideas. The leitmotifs smoothly transform into each other, are combined in simultaneous sound, are constantly modified, but each time they are recognized by the listener, who has firmly grasped the semantic meaning assigned to us. On a larger scale, Wagnerian musical dramas are divided into extended, relatively complete scenes, where broad waves of emotional ups and downs, tension build-ups and releases occur.

Wagner began to implement his great plan during the years of Swiss emigration. But the complete impossibility of seeing on stage the fruits of his titanic work, truly unparalleled in power and tirelessness, broke even such a great worker - the writing of the tetralogy was interrupted for long years. And only an unexpected turn of fate - the support of the young Bavarian king Ludwig, inspired new strength in the composer and helped him complete, perhaps, the most monumental creation of the art of music, which was the result of the efforts of one person. To stage the tetralogy, it was built in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, where the entire tetralogy was first performed in 1876 exactly as Wagner intended it.

In addition to The Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner created in the second half of the 19th century. 3 more capital works. This is the opera "Tristan and Isolde" (1859) - an enthusiastic hymn eternal love, glorified in medieval legends, colored with anxious forebodings, permeated with a feeling of the inevitability of a fatal outcome. And along with such a work immersed in darkness, the dazzling light of the popular festival crowned the opera “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg” (1867), where in an open competition of singers the most worthy, marked by a true gift, wins, and self-satisfied and stupidly pedantic mediocrity is put to shame. And finally, the master’s last creation - “Parsifal” (1882) - an attempt to musically and scenically represent the utopia of universal brotherhood, where the seemingly indestructible power of evil was defeated and wisdom, justice and purity reigned.

Wagner occupied a completely exceptional position in European music of the 19th century - it is difficult to name a composer who would not have been influenced by him. Wagner's discoveries influenced the development of musical theater in the 20th century. - composers learned lessons from them, but then moved in different ways, including those opposite to those outlined by the great German musician.

M. Tarakanov

The significance of Wagner in the history of world musical culture. His ideological and creative appearance

Wagner is one of those great artists whose work had a great influence on the development of world culture. His genius was universal: Wagner became famous not only as the author of outstanding musical works, but also as a wonderful conductor, who, along with Berlioz, was the founder of the modern art of conducting; he was a talented poet-playwright - the creator of librettos for his operas - and a gifted publicist and musical theater theorist. Such versatile activity, combined with ebullient energy and a titanic will in establishing his artistic principles, attracted widespread attention to Wagner’s personality and music: his ideological and creative achievements caused heated debate both during the composer’s lifetime and after his death. They have not subsided to this day.

“As a composer,” said P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Wagner is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in the second half of this (that is, the 19th. - M.D.) centuries, and his influence on music is enormous." This influence was multifaceted: it extended not only to the musical theater, where Wagner worked most of all as the author of thirteen operas, but also to means of expression musical art; Wagner's contribution to the field of program symphony is also significant.

“...He is great as an opera composer,” said N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” wrote A. N. Serov, “... entered the German people and became a national treasure in their own way, no less than the operas of Weber or the works of Goethe or Schiller.” “He was gifted with a great gift of poetry, powerful creativity, his imagination was enormous, his initiative was strong, his artistic skill was great...” - this is how V. V. Stasov characterized best sides genius of Wagner. The music of this remarkable composer, according to Serov, opened up “unknown, immense horizons” in art.

Paying tribute to Wagner's genius, his daring courage as an innovative artist, leading figures of Russian music (primarily Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stasov) criticized some tendencies in his work that distracted from the tasks of real depiction of life. The general artistic principles of Wagner, his aesthetic views as applied to musical theatre. Tchaikovsky briefly and aptly said about this: “While I admire the composer, I have little sympathy for what is the cult of Wagner’s theories.” Wagner's favorite ideas, images of his operatic work, and methods of their musical embodiment were also disputed.

However, along with well-aimed critical remarks, there is an intense struggle for the assertion of national identity Russian musical theater, so different from German operatic art, sometimes caused biased judgments. In this regard, M. P. Mussorgsky very correctly noted: “We often criticize Wagner, but Wagner is strong and powerful because he probes art and tugs at it...”.

An even more fierce struggle arose around the name and cause of Wagner in foreign countries. Along with enthusiastic fans who believed that from now on theater should develop only along Wagner’s path, there were also musicians who completely rejected the ideological and artistic value of Wagner’s works and saw in his influence only detrimental consequences for the evolution of musical art. The Wagnerians and their opponents took irreconcilably hostile positions. While sometimes expressing fair thoughts and observations, with their biased assessments they rather confused these issues rather than helping to resolve them. Such extreme points of view were not shared by the largest foreign composers the second half of the 19th century - Verdi, Bizet, Brahms - but even they, recognizing Wagner’s genius, did not accept everything in his music.

Wagner's work gave rise to conflicting assessments, because not only his multifaceted activity, but also the composer's personality itself was torn apart by severe contradictions. By one-sidedly emphasizing any one aspect of the complex image of the creator and man, Wagner’s apologists, as well as detractors, gave a distorted idea of ​​his significance in the history of world culture. To correctly determine this meaning, one must understand Wagner's personality and life's work in all its complexity.

A double knot of contradictions characterizes Wagner. On the one hand, these are contradictions between worldview and creativity. Of course, one cannot deny the connections that existed between them, but the activities composer Wagner was far from coinciding with the activities of Wagner, the prolific writer-publicist, who expressed many reactionary thoughts on issues of politics and religion, especially in the last period of his life. On the other hand, both his aesthetic and socio-political views are sharply contradictory. A rebellious rebel, Wagner already arrived at the revolution of 1848-1849 with an extremely confused worldview. It remained so during the years of the defeat of the revolution, when reactionary ideology poisoned the composer’s consciousness with the poison of pessimism, gave rise to subjectivist sentiments, and led to the establishment of national-chauvinist or clerical ideas. All this could not but affect the contradictory nature of his ideological and artistic quests.

But Wagner is truly great in that, despite subjective reactionary views, despite their ideological instability, objectively reflected the essential aspects of reality in artistic creativity, revealed - in an allegorical, figurative form - the contradictions of life, exposed the capitalist world of lies and deceit, exposed the drama of great spiritual aspirations, powerful impulses for happiness and unaccomplished heroic deeds, broken hopes. Not a single composer of the post-Beethoven period in foreign countries of the 19th century was able to raise such a large complex of burning issues of our time as Wagner. Therefore, he became the “ruler of thoughts” of a number of generations, and his work absorbed large, exciting problems of modern culture.

Wagner did not give a clear answer to the vital questions he posed, but his historical merit lies in the fact that he posed them so sharply. He was able to do this because he permeated all his activities with a passionate, irreconcilable hatred of capitalist oppression. Whatever he expressed in theoretical articles, whatever reactionary political views he defended, Wagner in his musical work was always on the side of those who sought the active use of their powers in establishing a sublime and humane principle in life, against those who were mired in the swamp bourgeois well-being and self-interest. And, perhaps, no one else has been able to show with such artistic persuasiveness and power the tragedy of modern life, poisoned by bourgeois civilization.

A sharply expressed anti-capitalist orientation gives Wagner's work enormous progressive significance, although he was unable to understand the complexity of the phenomena he depicted.

Wagner is the last major romantic artist of the 19th century. Romantic ideas, themes, images were entrenched in his work even in the pre-revolutionary years; they were developed by him later. After the revolution of 1848, many prominent composers, under the influence of new social conditions, as a result of a sharper exposure of class contradictions, switched to other topics and switched to realistic positions in their coverage (the most striking example of this is Verdi). But Wagner remained a romantic, although his inherent inconsistency was reflected in the fact that at different stages of his activity, either the features of realism or, conversely, reactionary romanticism more actively appeared.

This commitment to romantic themes and the means of expressing them placed him in a special position among many of his contemporaries. The individual properties of Wagner’s personality, who was always dissatisfied and restless, also had an effect.

His life is full of unusual ups and downs, passions and periods of boundless despair. I had to overcome countless obstacles to promote my innovative ideas. Years, sometimes decades, passed before he was able to hear the scores of his own compositions. One had to have an ineradicable thirst for creativity in order to work in these difficult conditions the way Wagner worked. Serving art was the main motivation of his life. (“I exist not to earn money, but to create,” Wagner proudly declared). That is why, despite cruel ideological mistakes and failures, relying on progressive traditions German music, he achieved such outstanding artistic results: following Beethoven, he sang the heroics of human daring, like Bach, revealed the world of human spiritual experiences with an amazing richness of shades and, following the path of Weber, embodied in music the images of German folk legends and legends, created magnificent pictures of nature. Such a variety of ideological and artistic solutions and perfect mastery are characteristic of the best works of Richard Wagner.

Themes, images and plots of Wagner's operas. Principles of musical dramaturgy. Features of musical language

Wagner as an artist emerged in the conditions of social upsurge in pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, he not only formalized his aesthetic views and outlined ways to transform musical theater, but also defined a circle of images and subjects close to himself. It was in the 40s, simultaneously with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, that Wagner thought through the plans for all the operas he worked on in the following decades (The exceptions are “Tristan” and “Parsifal”, the concept of which matured during the years of the defeat of the revolution; this explains the stronger influence of pessimistic moods than in other works.). He mainly drew material for these works from folk legends and tales. Their content, however, served him original a point for independent creativity, not ultimate purpose. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modern times, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, because, he said, every historical generation can discover in myth my topic. His sense of artistic proportion and tact betrayed him when subjectivist ideas took precedence over the objective meaning of folk legends, but in many cases, when modernizing plots and images, the composer managed to preserve life truth folk poetry. The mixing of such different tendencies is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian drama, both its strengths and weaknesses. However, referring to epic plots and images, Wagner gravitated towards them purely psychological interpretation - this, in turn, gave rise to an acutely contradictory struggle between the “Siegfried” and “Tristan” principles in his work.

Wagner turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic plots in them. He was less interested in the real situation of distant antiquity or the historical past, although here he achieved a lot, especially in “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg”, in which realistic tendencies were more pronounced. But above all, Wagner sought to show the spiritual drama of strong characters. A modern epic of the struggle for happiness he consistently embodied in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, persecuted by fate, tormented by his conscience, passionately dreaming of peace; this is Tannhäuser, torn apart by a contradictory passion for sensual pleasure and moral, harsh life; this is Lohengrin, rejected and not understood by people.

The struggle of life in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Passion burns Tristan and Isolde; Elsa (in Lohengrin) dies after breaking the prohibition of her beloved. The inactive figure of Wotan is tragic; through lies and deceit he achieved illusory power, which brought grief to people. But the fate of Wagner’s most vital hero, Sigmund, is also tragic; and even Siegfried, far from the storms of life's dramas, this naive, powerful child of nature, is doomed to a tragic death. Everywhere and everywhere - a painful search for happiness, a desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they are not allowed to come true - lies and deceit, violence and deceit have entangled life.

According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness lies in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle. But love should not be passive - life is affirmed in achievement. Thus, the calling of Lohengrin - the defender of the innocently accused Elsa - is the fight for the rights of virtue; feat is life ideal Siegfried, his love for Brünnhilde calls him to new heroic deeds.

All Wagner's operas, starting with his mature works of the 40s, have features of ideological community and unity of musical and dramatic concept. The revolution of 1848-1849 marked an important milestone in the ideological and artistic evolution of the composer, increasing the inconsistency of his creativity. But basically the essence of the search for means of embodying a certain, stable range of ideas, themes, and images remained unchanged.

Wagner permeated his operas unity of dramatic expression, for which he unfolded the action in a continuous, continuous stream. Strengthening the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transfer of processes mental life necessitated such continuity. Wagner was not alone in such quests. This was also achieved, each in his own way, by the best representatives of opera art of the 19th century - Russian classics, Verdi, Bizet, Smetana. But Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music Weber had outlined, most consistently developed the principles end-to-end development in the musical and dramatic genre. He merged individual opera episodes, scenes, even paintings into a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expression with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic structures. But paying more and more attention to the image inner world heroes by depicting externally scenic, effective moments, he introduced into his music features of subjectivism and psychological complexity, which in turn gave rise to verbosity, destroyed the form, making it loose and amorphous. All this exacerbated the inconsistency of Wagnerian dramaturgy.

One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. Wagner did not invent it: musical motifs that evoked certain associations with specific life phenomena or psychological processes were also used by composers french revolution late XVIII century, and Weber, and Meyerbeer, and in the field of symphonic music - Berlioz, Liszt and others. But Wagner differs from his predecessors and contemporaries in his broader, more consistent use of this system (The fanatical Wagnerians made a fair mistake in studying this issue, trying to give every theme, even intonation, a leitmotif meaning and endow all leitmotifs, no matter how brief, with almost comprehensive content.).

Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score (However, in operas of the 40s the number of leitmotifs does not exceed ten.). He began composing the opera by developing a musical theme. So, for example, in the very first sketches of “The Ring of the Nibelung” the funeral march from “The Death of the Gods” is depicted, which, as said, contains a complex of the most important heroic themes of the tetralogy; First of all, the overture was written for “Die Meistersinger” - it enshrines the main thematic theme of the opera, etc.

Wagner's creative imagination is inexhaustible in inventing themes of remarkable beauty and plasticity, in which many essential phenomena of life are reflected and generalized. Often these themes provide an organic combination of expressive and figurative principles, which greatly helps in concretizing musical image. In the operas of the 40s, the melodies are extended: the leading themes-images outline different facets of phenomena. This method of musical characterization is preserved in later works, but Wagner’s predilection for vague philosophizing sometimes gives rise to impersonal leitmotifs that are intended to express abstract concepts. These motives are brief, devoid of the warmth of human breath, incapable of development, and have no internal connection with each other. So along with themes-images arise themes-symbols.

Unlike the latter best themes Wagner's operas do not live separately throughout the work, they do not represent unchanging, isolated formations. Quite the opposite. The leading motifs contain common features, and together they form certain thematic complexes that express shades and gradations of feelings or details of a single picture. Wagner brings different themes and motifs together through subtle changes, comparisons or combinations of them at the same time. “The composer’s work on these motifs is truly amazing,” wrote Rimsky-Korsakov.

Wagner's dramatic method and his principles of symphonization of opera scores had an undoubted influence on the art of subsequent times. The largest composers of musical theater in the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries took advantage, to one degree or another, of the artistic achievements of the Wagnerian leitmotif system, although they did not accept its extremes (for example, Smetana and Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Prokofiev).

The interpretation of the vocal principle in Wagner's operas is also noted for its originality.

Fighting against superficial, uncharacteristic melody in a dramatic sense, he argued that vocal music should be based on the reproduction of intonations, or, as Wagner said, accents of speech. “Dramatic melody,” he wrote, “finds support in verse and language.” There are no fundamentally new points in this statement. During the 18th-19th centuries, many composers turned to the embodiment of speech intonations in music in order to update the intonation structure of their works (for example, Gluck, Mussorgsky). Wagner's sublime declamation introduced a lot of new things into the music of the 19th century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Singers performing Wagner's operas also faced unprecedentedly new creative challenges. But, based on his abstract and speculative concepts, he sometimes unilaterally emphasized declamatory elements to the detriment of song elements, subordinating the development of the vocal element to symphonic development.

Of course, many pages of Wagner's operas are filled with full-blooded, varied vocal melody, conveying the finest shades of expressiveness. The operas of the 40s are rich in such melodicism, among which “The Flying Dutchman” stands out for its folk-song composition, and “Lohengrin” for its melodiousness and heartfelt warmth. But in subsequent works, especially in “Die Walküre” and “Die Meistersinger,” the vocal part is endowed with great content and acquires leading importance. May I remind you " spring song"Sigmund, monologue about the sword Notunga, love duet, dialogue between Brünnhilde and Sigmund, Wotan's farewell; in "Die Meistersinger" - Walter's songs, Sax's monologues, his songs about Eve and the shoemaker angel, quintet, folk choirs; in addition - songs of sword forging (in the opera “Siegfried”); Siegfried's story on the hunt, Brünnhilde's dying monologue (“Death of the Gods”), etc. But there are also pages of the score where the vocal part either takes on an exaggeratedly pompous tone, or, on the contrary, is relegated to the role of an optional appendage to the orchestral part. Such a violation of the artistic balance between the vocal and instrumental principles is characteristic of internal inconsistency Wagnerian musical dramaturgy.

Wagner's achievements as a symphonist are indisputable; he consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work. His overtures and orchestral introductions (Wagner created four operatic overtures (for the operas “Rienzi”, “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser”, “Die Meistersinger”) and three architecturally completed orchestral introductions (“Lohengrin”, “Tristan”, “Parsifal”).), symphonic intermissions and numerous scenic paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, “the richest material for visual music, and where Wagner’s texture turned out to be suitable for a given moment, there he turned out to be truly great and powerful in the power of the plasticity of his images, thanks to his incomparable, ingenious instrumentation and expression” . Tchaikovsky equally highly regarded Wagner’s symphonic music, noting its “unprecedentedly beautiful instrumentation” and “amazing richness of harmonic and polyphonic fabric.” V. Stasov, like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, who condemned Wagner’s operatic work for many things, wrote that his orchestra “is new, rich, often dazzling in color, in poetry and charm of the strongest, but also the most delicate and sensually charming colors... ."

Already in the early works of the 40s, Wagner achieved brilliance, fullness and richness of orchestral sound; introduced a triple cast (in “The Ring of the Nibelung” - a quadruple cast); used the range of strings more widely, especially due to the upper register (his favorite technique is the high arrangement of string chords divisi); gave a melodic purpose to brass instruments (such is the powerful unison of three trumpets and three trombones in the reprise of the Tannhäuser overture or the unisons of brass on a moving harmonic background of strings in “The Ride of the Valkyries” and “The Spell of Fire”, etc.). By mixing the sound of the three main groups of the orchestra (strings, wood, brass), Wagner achieved flexible, plastic variability of the symphonic fabric. High contrapuntal skill helped him in this. Moreover, his orchestra is not only colorful, but also characteristic, sensitive to development dramatic feelings and situations.

Wagner also appears to be an innovator in the field of harmony. In search of the strongest expressive effects, he intensified the tension of musical speech, saturated it with chromatisms, alterations, complex chord complexes, created a “multi-layered” polyphonic texture, and used bold, extraordinary modulations. These quests sometimes gave rise to exquisite tension in style, but never acquired the character of artistically unjustified experiments.

Wagner sharply opposed the search for “musical combinations for their own sake, only for the sake of their inherent sharpness.” Addressing young composers, he implored them to “never turn harmonic and orchestral effects into an end in themselves.” Wagner was an opponent of groundless daring; he fought for the truthful expression of deeply human feelings and thoughts and in this regard maintained contact with the progressive traditions of German music, becoming one of its most outstanding representatives. But throughout its long and difficult life in art he was sometimes carried away by false ideas and deviated from the right path.

Without forgiving Wagner for his errors, noting the significant contradictions in his views and creativity, rejecting the reactionary features in them, we highly value the genius German artist, who principledly and confidently defended his ideals, enriching world culture with wonderful musical creations.

M. Druskin

If we want to make a list of characters, scenes, costumes, objects that abound in Wagner's operas, a fairy-tale world appears before us. Dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods and demigods, spears, helmets, swords, trumpets, rings, horns, harps, banners, storms, rainbows, swans, doves, lakes, rivers, mountains, fires, seas and ships on them, miraculous phenomena and disappearances, bowls of poison and magical drinks, disguises, flying horses, enchanted castles, fortresses, duels, inaccessible peaks, sky-high heights, underwater and earthly abysses, flowering gardens, sorceresses, young heroes, disgusting evil creatures, immaculate and eternally young beauties, priests and knights, passionate lovers, cunning sages, powerful rulers and rulers suffering from terrible spells... There is no need to say that magic, witchcraft reigns everywhere, and the constant background of everything is the struggle between good and evil, sin and salvation, darkness and light. To describe all this, the music must be magnificent, dressed in luxurious clothes, full of small details, like a great realistic novel, inspired by fantasy, feeding adventure and chivalric novels, in which anything can happen. Even when Wagner narrates ordinary events commensurate with ordinary people, he always tries to get away from everyday life: to depict love, its charms, contempt for dangers, unlimited personal freedom. All his adventures arise spontaneously, and the music turns out natural, flowing as if there were no obstacles in its path: it has a power that dispassionately embraces everything. possible life and turning it into a miracle. She easily and outwardly nonchalantly moves from pedantic imitation of pre-19th century music to the most stunning innovations, to the music of the future.

There are many significant names in the history of opera, but one of them serves as a milestone or, better said, a watershed. Richard Wagner divided the entire history of world opera - before and after him. The work of this German composer brought revolutionary changes to the art of opera. The opera genre after Wagner will never be the same as it was before him.

“Not many musicians have received such contradictory, polar assessments as Richard Wagner,” stated writer and musicologist Édouard Schuré, who knew the composer. “He suffered the fate of all major reformers. Opponents and enemies who recognized the indomitable fighter mainly by those blows which they received from him portrayed him as a man of extremes, exorbitant pride and boundless egoism, taking into account people and objects only to the extent that he needed them, and indifferent to everything else.”

“What Nietzsche wrote about Wagner cannot give us a correct assessment of Wagner as a poet and thinker; what Nordau said about him in his “Degeneration”, we consider vulgar and frivolous. “Who,” as the newest historian of German literature says Kuno-Franke, “German literature owes the first energetic proclamation of the artistic ideals of the future, the ideals of collectivist pantheism,” and in Russia “it is worthy of a more objective and more correct assessment,” Henri Lishtanberger emphasized in December 1904 in the preface to the Russian translation of the book. Richard Wagner as a poet and thinker" S. Soloviev. Perhaps it was the poet Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov, nephew of the philosopher and poet Vladimir Solovyov, second cousin of Alexander Blok. He complained about how few books about Wagner there are in Russia.

And now, on the eve of Wagner’s anniversary, a Russian biography of the composer was published, which will fill many gaps in Wagner’s life. Its author, Marina Zalesskaya, writes: “The controversy around Wagner’s work still continues, which causes fanatical delight among some, and persistent rejection among others. Needless to say, the personality of the composer himself is equally contradictory and ambiguous? On the one hand, this a radiant knight in shining armor, praising the beauty of eternal love. On the other hand, a man who tramples on the sacred bonds of friendship and is deprived of an elementary feeling of gratitude. Wagner is a brilliant composer, reformer, philosopher, “poet and thinker,” in the apt expression of a deep researcher of his work, Henri Lishtanberger "And he is a petty miser, greedy for money and always fleeing from his creditors."

Born on May 22, 1813, the youngest child in the Wagner family was baptized in the Leipzig Church of St. Thomas, where the great Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor for more than a quarter of a century. Wilhelm Richard Wagner's father died of typhus exactly six months after the birth of his fourth son. In August 1814, his mother remarried an old family friend, actor and painter Ludwig Heinrich Christian Geyer, who actually replaced Wagner's father. The next year, the actor received an invitation to the Dresden Royal Theater and the family left Leipzig. The boy was sent to school under his stepfather's name. “Thus,” Wagner wrote in his autobiography, “my Dresden childhood comrades knew me until the age of fourteen under the name of Richard Geyer.” And only six years after the death of his stepfather, returning to his hometown, Richard from “Korshun” (surname Geyer homophone of the word "kite" - Geier) again turned into a “carriage maker” (Wagner).

The famous German literary critic, almost official biography composer, suggested that Geyer was not a stepfather, but Richard’s own father. The founder and director of the Wagner Society in Riga, Karl Friedrich Glasenapp, made his conclusion based on one episode from the composer’s life, when Richard, looking at the portrait of Geyer hanging in his office, suddenly caught a similarity between his son Siegfried and the probable “grandfather”. The composer really had a spiritual closeness with his stepfather and Richard subconsciously strived to be like Geyer.

Another person who had a huge impact on the future musical genius was Pastor Wetzel, who mentored Richard (then Geyer) for a year. As for creativity, the young composer was influenced, first of all, by Beethoven, K. M. Weber, Mozart, and then G. A. Marshner. And, of course, we must not forget how close the writer and musician Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann turned out to be for the young Wagner. If we use Goethe’s expression, “Ah, two souls live in my sick breast,” then in Richard’s healthy breast lived passions that were not alien to each other. To music and literary creativity. As a 15-year-old teenager, Wagner, who received a classical education, wrote the great tragedy Leubald und Adelaide. In it, researchers see the influence of Shakespeare and Goethe, especially his “Goetz von Berlichingen”. The heroine's name is borrowed from Beethoven's "Adelaide".

Richard's family did not like his play, and he decided to write music for it. But he did not yet have the necessary knowledge, and his mother did not allow him to take systematic music lessons. My first piano sonata d-moll(D minor) Wagner wrote in 1829, followed by a string quartet D major(D major), not yet having a clear understanding of the laws of composition. The failure of the next overture forced him to put an end to amateurism in music. Richard began taking music theory lessons from Theodor Weinlich, the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas, in which he was baptized. Having mastered music, Richard began writing librettos for his own operas. This first happened when the music critic, librettist, and later friend of the composer, Heinrich Rudolf Constanz Laube, offered Wagner his finished opera text - the heroic opera Kosciuszko. But the composer, as he admitted, “immediately felt that Laube was mistaken about the nature of the reproduction historical events". After several squabbles with Laube, Richard decided that from now on he would write all the librettos for his operas himself. At that time, Wagner replaced the patriotic gentlemen with the plot of Carlo Gozzi's fairy tale "The Snake Woman". He will call his opera "Fairies" ( Die Feen).