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Richard Wagner
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Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1813 as the son of a policeman, Friedrich Wagner, who died soon after the composer's birth. It is both fitting and psychologically congruous that a question mark should hover over the identity of the father and mother of the composer whose works resonate so eloquently with themes of parental anxiety. His mother remarried the painter-actor-poet, Ludwig Geyer, in August 1814. Many people believe that Geyer was Wagner's biological father, since the mother and Geyer had been friends long before Friedrich Wagner’s death. There is much evidence that Richard believed this as well.
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The greatest composer of German opera, Richard Wagner was the youngest of nine children of Friedrich and Johanna Wagner. His father, a police registrar, died 6 months after Wagner was born, and his mother was remarried the following year to Ludwig Geyer, an actor and portrait painter, who moved the family to Dresden. Geyer died in 1821, and in 1827 the family returned to Leipzig.
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De jonge Richard Wagner had ambitie toneelschrijver te worden. In 1831 schreef hij zich echter in aan de universiteit van Leipzig om muziek te studeren. Beethoven was een belangrijke vroege muzikale invloed, in wiens stijl Wagner trachtte te componeren.
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Richard Wagner spent his childhood in Dresden, Germany and later studied music in Leipzig from 1831 to 1833, where he attended a performance of the 9th Symphony by Beethoven in 1828. He later worked as a chorus and music director in several towns, ending with Riga in 1836, where he married Minna Planer on November 24th. In 1843, after the performances of his operas Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman in Dresden, Wagner was appointed the Royal Saxon music director of the court orchestra for life. After the completion of Lohengrin in May 1848, Wagner passionately engaged himself in the revolution. In autumn 1848, under the influence of the revolutionary events and the writings of Ludwig Feuerbach and Pierre-Jean Proudhon, Wagner conceived the fable that was later set to music in the tetralogy in his music festival, The Ring of the Nibelungen. Wagner was actively engaged in the Dresden uprising from May 3-9, 1849, and as a result he was forced to leave Dresden with the leaders of the uprising to avoid arrest, becoming exiled to Switzerland.
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At the age of 27 Richard Wagner began work on his monumental cycle of four musical dramas: Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungs). It is made of four separate operas and about 18 hours of music that includes themes that have specific meanings. In his operas, he liked to create tension between good and evil.. It took Wagner 22 years to complete The Ring! It remains on of the most remarkable opera compositions of all time. A special house was designed by Wagner and built in Bayreuth, Germany so that there would be a home for The Ring to be performed.
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Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a police actuary, and Johanna Rosine Wagner. Soon after Richard's birth his father died, and his mother married Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright, whom Wagner suspected to be his real father. From the early childhood Wagner studied and enjoyed music, piano in particular. In the age of 15 Wagner attended a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony which became the profound experience for the boy. He started writing his own music: piano sonatas, overtures and even a Symphony in C major.
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Richard Wagner