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Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Born: 22nd May 1813, Leipzig

Died: 13th February 1883, Venice

Nationality: German

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas—although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionised the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In this approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined these ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner

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  • Fabio Luisi on Wagner's Ring Cycle

    23rd Jun 2026by James Longstaffe

    The Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra speaks about his association with the music of Wagner, and his decision to undertake performances and a recording of the composer's monumental cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen.

    Classical Interview

  • Wagner's Ring Cycle from Fabio Luisi in Dallas

    29th May 2026by Katherine Cooper

    Recorded live at concert performances in 2024, this new Ring scores highly for the Italian conductor's lyrical, nuanced approach to the score and boasts a fine new Wagnerian hero in Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson.

    Classical Recording of the Week
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