Richard Wagner was one of the most revolutionary figures in the history of music, a composer who made pivotal contributions to the development of harmony and musical drama that reverberate even today. Indeed, though Wagner occasionally produced successful music written on a relatively modest scale, opera -- the bigger, the better -- was clearly his milieu, and his aesthetic is perhaps the most grandiose that Western music has ever known. Early in Read more his career, Wagner learned both the elements and the practical, political realities of his craft by writing a handful of operas which were unenthusiastically, even angrily, received. Beginning with Rienzi (1838-40) and The Flying Dutchman (1841), however, he enjoyed a string of successes that propelled him to immortality and changed the face of music. His monumental Ring cycle of four operas -- Das Rheingold (1853-54), Die Walküre (1854-56), Siegfried (1856-71) and Götterdämmerung (1869-74) -- remains the most ambitious and influential contribution by any composer to the opera literature. Tristan and Isolde (1857-59) is perhaps the most representative example of Wagner's musical style, which is characterized by a high degree of chromaticism, a restless, searching tonal instability, lush harmonies, and the association of specific musical elements (known as leitmotifs, the flexible manipulation of which is one of the glories of Wagner's music) with certain characters and plot points. Wagner wrote text as well as music for all his operas, which he preferred to call "music dramas."
Wagner's life matched his music for sheer drama. Born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, he began in the early 1830s to write prolifically on music and the arts in general; over his whole career, his music would to some degree serve to demonstrate his aesthetic theories. He often worked as a conductor in his early years; a conducting engagement took him to Riga, Latvia, in 1837, but he fled the country in the middle of the night two years later to elude creditors. Wagner as a young man had some sympathy with the revolutionary movements of the middle nineteenth century (and even the Ring cycle contains a distinct anti-materialist and vaguely socialist drift); in the Dresden uprisings of 1849 he apparently took up arms, and he had to leave Germany when the police restored order. Settling in Zurich, Switzerland, he wrote little for some years but evolved the intellectual framework for his towering mature masterpieces. Wagner returned to Germany in 1864 under the protection and patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria; it was in Bayreuth, near Munich, that he undertook the construction of an opera house (completed in 1876) built to his personal specifications and suited to the massive fusion of music, staging, text, and scene design that his later operas entailed. Bayreuth became something of a shrine for the fanatical Wagnerites who carried the torch after his death; it remains the goal of many a pilgrimage today. His attitude toward Jews was deeply ambivalent (he believed, mistakenly, that his stepfather was Jewish), but some of his writings contain anti-Semitic elements that have aroused considerable controversy among opera lovers, especially in view of Adolf Hitler's apparent predilection for the composer's music. Read less

Featured Richard Wagner CDs & DVDs:

Wagner: Parsifal / Haenchen, Vogt, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Release Date: 07/21/2017 Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 002694909 Number of Discs: 2

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The Best Of Wagner

Release Date: 02/15/1994 Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8556657 Number of Discs: 1

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Wagner: Highlights From The Ring / Mund, Czech-slovak Rso

Release Date: 02/15/1994 Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8550211 Number of Discs: 1

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Wagner: Orchestral Highlights / Wildner, Polish NRSO

Release Date: 02/15/1994 Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8550498 Number of Discs: 1

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Wagner: Lohengrin (Highlights)

Release Date: 06/30/1992 Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8550136 Number of Discs: 1

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Work: Tristan und Isolde: Liebestod

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101.

The Ultimate Divas Album

Label: Decca Catalog: 460596 Release Date: 09/15/1998 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Gioachino Rossini, Richard Wagner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Georges Bizet ...
Performer: Marilyn Horne, Cecilia Bartoli, Birgit Nilsson, Kirsten Flagstad ...
Conductor: Henry Lewis, Riccardo Chailly, Hans Knappertsbusch, Sir Georg Solti ...
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra, Bologna Teatro Comunale Chorus, Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra ...

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102.

Operatic Arias (1911-1962)

Label: Nimbus Catalog: 7851 Release Date: 05/19/1998 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Karl Millöcker, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Francesco Cilèa, Amilcare Ponchielli ...
Performer: Jussi Björling, Fritz Wunderlich, Tito Gobbi, Kirsten Flagstad ...

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103.

Callas Edition - Live In Concert

Label: Emi Classics Catalog: 72030 Release Date: 01/20/1998 Number of Discs: 2
Composer: Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi ...
Performer: Maria Callas
Conductor: Alfredo Simonetto, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Nicola Rescigno, Antonino Votto ...
Orchestra/Ensemble: Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra Milan, Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra Rome, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ...

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104.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde Highlights / Modl, Windgassen

Label: Teldec Historic Series Catalog: 95516 Release Date: 03/07/1995 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Richard Wagner
Performer: Martha Mödl, Johanna Blatter, Wolfgang Windgassen
Conductor: Arthur Rother
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin City Opera Orchestra
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105.

Kirsten Flagstad Vol 1 - The Early Recordings 1914-1941

Label: Simax Catalog: 1821 Release Date: 01/01/1995 Number of Discs: 3
Composer: Edvard Grieg, Eyvind Alnaes, Sigurd Lie, Christian Sinding ...
Performer: Kirsten Flagstad, Eyvind Alnaes
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orchestra

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106.

Kirsten Flagstad, Vol. 2: Live Performances 1935-1948

Label: Simax Catalog: 1822 Release Date: 01/01/1995 Number of Discs: 2
Composer: Richard Wagner, Gioachino Rossini, Carl Maria von Weber, Traditional ...

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107.

Opera's Greatest Love Songs - Pavarotti, Domingo, Et Al

Label: Rca Victor Red Seal Catalog: 61886 Release Date: 10/26/1993 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Georges Bizet, Richard Wagner, Charles Gounod ...
Performer: Julia Varády, Franco Corelli, Leontyne Price, Placido Domingo ...
Conductor: Sir Colin Davis, Herbert von Karajan, Henry Lewis, Nello Santi ...
Orchestra/Ensemble: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra ...

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108.

Prima Voce - Divas Vol 2 (1909-1940)

Label: Nimbus Catalog: 7818 Release Date: 12/02/1992 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Pietro Mascagni, Richard Wagner, Manuel Ponce, Jacques Offenbach ...
Performer: Mafalda Favero, Kirsten Flagstad, Nina Koshetz, Maggie Teyte ...
Conductor: Antonio Sabino, Hans Lange, Eugene Ormandy, Sir John Barbirolli ...
Orchestra/Ensemble: Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Paris Opéra Comique Orchestra

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109.

Prima Voce - Kirsten Flagstad

Label: Nimbus Catalog: 7847 Release Date: 12/02/1992 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Carl Maria von Weber, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Kirsten Flagstad
Conductor: Eugene Ormandy, Edwin McArthur, Hans Lange
Orchestra/Ensemble: Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Orchestra

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110.

Wagner: Arias & Duets / Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior

Label: Rca Victor Gold Seal Catalog: 7915 Release Date: 04/19/1990 Number of Discs: 1
Composer: Richard Wagner
Performer: Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior
Conductor: Edwin McArthur, Eugene Ormandy, Hans Lange
Orchestra/Ensemble: San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
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