Richard Wagner Anniversary

[Stavros]

The German composer, Richard Wagner, who in later life wore frilly knickers, enjoyed perfumed baths and draped himself in silk...was born in Leipzig 200 years old today. He was baptised at the St Thomas Kirche where Johann Sebastian Bach was music director the previous century -indeed, Wagner, along with Bach and Beethoven is one of the most influential composers in the history of music, and, given his influence on those Europeans -mostly Jewish- who emigrated to Hollywood between the world wars, cinema music owes an enormous debt to Wagner.

Wagner was approximately five foot four inches tall, with a large head and a colossal ego; he started out as a conductor in small opera houses where, much to the annoyance of the disciples he acquired towards the end of his life, he loved conducting Bellini -there are quotes of Bellini's work in an early opera, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love -derived from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure), and particularly Lohengrin; and he once said I love Bellini -but don't tell the Wagnerians.

Wagner wanted his art to be taken seriously, and it is because of his example, followed closely by his Italian contemporary and fellow-genius, Giuseppe Verdi, that the public watched operas in the dark -indeed, the practice of lowering the lights to focus on the stage also became a standard feature of theatre, underlining the importance of Wagner and Verdi. Another innovation emerged in the opera-house he persuaded 'mad' King Ludwig II of Bavaria to build for him at Bayreuth -an auditorium where everyone has an unimpeded view of the stage -although this is the design of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, even as recently as the 1980s a major opera house (in Paris) was designed on the old horseshoe system guaranteeing some seats with only a partial view of the stage -proving that Wagner was right and it was wrong to ignore his example.

Wagner was, notoriously, abusive towards Jews, and made the mistake of writing copious pages of drivel to 'prove' his amateurish pseudo-scientific theories, none of which can be taken seriously. His reputation has undoubtedly suffered as a result, not least because of a far more nasty German-speaking Austrian Jew-hater. Chopin was another Jew-hater, as was Edgar Degas, and the American novelist, Edith Wharton, and the uncomfortable truth is that regarding Jews as inferior (and worse) was common in Europe and America and only became unfashionable after the Second World War, and has never died out completely. Wagner gets a lot of criticism, and sometimes it is justified, but if that is the case, should the other Jew-haters also be 'outed' -even banned?- or are there too many of them? Curiously, many of his most important orchestral players and conductors were Jewish, but there have been some severe put-downs in recent years, notably by Paul Lawrence Rose (Wagner, Race and Revolution, 1992) and Marc Weiner, (Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination, 1995), though both books are weakly argued.

Most of Wagner's leading characters are outsiders, loners of some sort who discover they have hidden powers or are destined to change the world -or destroy it as the case may be; an inheritance from Greek drama, European myth, and not so different from the superheroes, Frodos and Harry Potters of recent vintage.

So it is the music that survives, with musical dramas that are a challenge to any producer. The composer departed from the practice of inserting arias and ensemble pieces in between light conversation, and wrote long pieces of continuous music with recurring theme that are suggested at one place before emerging as the main theme at the climax. The texture of Wagner's music ranges from the harsh to the exquisite, his harmonic structures often break the boundaries of conventional music and have been identified as the beginning of modern, atonal music. Hector Berlioz played the opening chord of Tristan und Isolde again and again but was completely baffled by it, it broke all the rules of music at the time.

Enjoy!

[GroobySteven]

How old was he when he killed his wife?

[PatrickLA]

considered the FATHER of modern classical music.

[Stavros]

How old was he when he killed his wife?

Wagner was married twice but didn't kill either of his wives: he first married an actress, Minna von Planer when he was 23, she left him in 1858 at the time when her husband was having an affair with Mathilde von Wesendonck, the wife of the banker in Switzerland on whom Wagner relied for accommodation and finances. She returned to Dresden and spent the last years of her life with a postman before dying of a heart attack in 1866. Wagner meanwhile had embarked on an affair with Cosima, wife of the conductor Hans and daughter of Liszt. They were married in 1870 when Wagner was 57 and Cosima 33; he couldn't have murdered her as he died in 1883 and Cosima died in 1930.

I hope that answers your question, tra-la-la.

[GroobySteven]

Wagner was married twice but didn't kill either of his wives: he first married an actress, Minna von Planer when he was 23, she left him in 1858 at the time when her husband was having an affair with Mathilde von Wesendonck, the wife of the banker in Switzerland on whom Wagner relied for accommodation and finances. She returned to Dresden and spent the last years of her life with a postman before dying of a heart attack in 1866. Wagner meanwhile had embarked on an affair with Cosima, wife of the conductor Hans and daughter of Liszt. They were married in 1870 when Wagner was 57 and Cosima 33; he couldn't have murdered her as he died in 1883 and Cosima died in 1930.

I hope that answers your question, tra-la-la.

I thought he drowned her after a night on their yacht?

[Stavros]

[sukumvit boy]

A genius ,but a nasty person.
But so was Newton.

[robertlouis]

The music was magnificent, the work of genius.

But the man was a complete shit.

[dc_guy_75]

He was supposably a transvestite.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007...classicalmusic

[flabbybody]

I always thought he got an unfair rap because Hitler loved his stuff. never knew Wagner himself was a scumbag