Music Through The Ages Tuesday, April 19th

Objectives Welcome Back! Wagner Review Continue Wagner Happy Tuesday!

Review What were the years of Wagner? Where was Wagner born? What was his primary instrument? Was he very good? Who was his first major influence? Major teacher? Which political figure did Wagner influence? Why didn’t Wagner write very many symphonies? Which piece did Wagner transcribe for piano?

Wagner’s early years continued In 1834, Wagner returns to Leipzig to take up the position of musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg. He writes his second opera here, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban of Love) which is based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. The opera was produced but was closed before the second performance due to the financial collapse of the theatre company. Wagner falls into substantial financial problems and has to flee to Riga where he meets his wife Amalie in 1837 In 1839, Wagner’s debts catch up with him and again, has to flee from Riga They flee to London by boat

Wagner’s early years continued While en route to London, Wagner encounters a terrible storm at sea. This inspires him to write the opera Die Fliegende Höllander (The Flying Dutchman) Arrive in Paris in 1839 and stay until 1842 where Wagner writes critical music journal articles and reviews while also editing and publishing operas at a publisher in Paris During his time in Paris, Wagner completes his 3 rd and 4 th operas, Fliegende Höllander and Rienzi

Dresden In 1842, Wagner moves to Dresden and was appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor During this time he stages Der fliegende Höllander in 1843 and also completes his second of three romantic operas, Tannhäuser The third and final of his Romantic Operas was Lohengrin Romantic Operas of Wagner Der fliegende Höllander (1843) Tannhäuser (1845) Lohengrin (1850)

Exile in Switzerland Before his exile to Switzerland, Wagner was heavily involved in left-wing politics in Dresden which eventually led to a revolution and Wagner’s need to flee. (Wife leaves him) Wagner arrives in Switzerland and finishes Lohengrin and writes his friend *Franz Lizst to conduct the premiere of it in Weimar Elsa’s Dream Aria

Wagner and his writings… When he arrived in Zürich, Switzerland, Wagner began writing essay’s for publishing One of his major writings was “The Artwork of the Future” where he goes on to discuss Opera as a “total work of art” and it includes many facets of art including: music, song, dance, poetry, visual arts and stagecraft. Another article he wrote was called, “Judaism in Music.” This was one of his first anti-Semitic articles and expressed his dramatic views

The Ring Cycle In 1853, Wagner began work on the first of four operas in the Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold In 1854, he begins work on the second of the four operas, Die Walküre In 1856, he beings the third of the four operas, Siegfried

Tristan und Isolde Written in 1857 Considered to be one of his most influential operas Most notable musical concepts within this opera are Chromaticism and Harmonic Suspension

Exile in Venice/Paris In 1858, Wagner moves to Venice for a short period of time while Minna returned to Dresden In 1859, Wagner moves to Paris again and helps oversee a new staging of Tannhäuser In 1861, at the re-premiere of Tannhäuser, protests against Napoleon and Wagner break out causing the show to close sooner than anticipated. Attempts to make peace with Minna, but fails

Wagner’s Break In 1862, Wagner has been granted amnesty and is allowed to return to Germany In 1864, King Ludwig II takes the throne and happens to be an admirer of Wagner and pardons Wagner of all his crimes and agrees to pay all his debts In 1866, Minna passes away (Wagner does not attend funeral) and Wagner remarries shortly after to Cosima

Bayreuth King Ludwig agrees to help Wagner move and fund the building of the most elaborate opera house to this date, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus This opera house was built specifically to do only Wagner operas #ego In 1876, Wagner completes Götterdamerung and the Ring Cycles is premiered

Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Wagner’s Final Opera’s In 1868, Wagner finishes Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg In 1876, Wagner completes Parsifal (2:00)