WAGNER, Richard, German composer, creator of the modern music drama: b. Leip zig, 22 May 1813; d. Venice, 13 Feb. 1883. His father, a clerk in the police court, who had appointed chief of police by Marshal Da voust during the French occupation of Leipzig, died when Richard wa,, only six months old.; and the widow, left with seven children, mar ried, nine months later, Ludwig Geyer, a well known actor, playwright and portrait painter, as well as a tenor. His appearanc,es at the opera Dre,,den, where he lived, gave young Rich ard opportunity to become familiar with the operas then in vogue, his favorite being Weber's (Freischiitz,' which made a deep impression on him and determined the direction of his own genius to such a degree that it has been aptly said that it was Weber who wrote the first °Wagner Operas.'" When Geyer died, Richard was eight years old and he had not, up to that time, shown any special talent for music; in deed, he played the piano so badly that his teacher told him he would never amount to anything. His poetic talent began to manifest itself when he was 11. Shalcespeare became his model and at 16 he had completed a tragedy, a sort of 'compound of Hamlet and Lear, in which he killed off so many of the characters (42) that most of them had to be brought back as ghosts to prevent the play from coming to an untimely end. It was his desire to set this to music that first decided him, at 16, to be come a musician. He took some lessons and after a few preliminary trials wrote a piece concerning which he himself said afterward that °Beethoven's ninth symphony appeared like a simple Pleyel sonata by the side of this mar velously complicated overture?' These youthful extravagances were prophetic of the man who was to revolutionize the opera by his bold de fiance of all conventions. In 1830 he entered the University of Leipzig as a student of philol ogy and msthetics; but music claimed most of his attention, and he wrote, among other things, a symphony which showed such a remarkable mastery of the methods of classical composition as to indicate that he could have become one of the peat masters in the concert field had not the mclination of his genius taken him into the operatic domain. He wrote his first opera at Wiirzburg, where he had secured an engage ment 'as chorus master; it was entitled 'The Fairies,' but was not performed till five years after his death at Munich.
His second opera, (Das Liebesverbot) (based on 'Measure for Measure)), had a deservedly unsuccessful production at Magdeburg. Then he accepted an appointment as conductor at Kanigsberg, where he married a pretty actress, Minna Planer; and in the following year he moved again, to the Russian town of Riga, where he wrote the libretto and the music of the first two acts of (Rienzi.) This opera was planned on such a big scale that he lcnew he never could have it properly produced at a pro vincial theatre, wherefore he boldly resolved to go to the headquarters of spectacular opera — Paris — and try there to rival the popular idol, Meyerbeer, in his own field. With his wife and a huge Newfoundland dog he embarked at Pillau for London; the voyage lasted nearly four weelcs; three times the ship was tossed hy vio lent storms and it was during these that Wagner got the realistic ((local color" for his (Flying Dutchman,' the story of which was engaging his attention at the time. Paris did not prove hospitable to the Gerrnan musician. He tried in vain to have one of his operas produced; no one cared for the French songs he wrote and which he was finally glad to sell in Germany at $4 apiece; he could n6t even get a place as chorus singer in a Boulevard theatre. Luckily he found a music publisher, Schlecinger, who paid him for proof-reading and arranging popu lar melodies and operatic scores for piano and cornet and other instruments. Wagner also wrote some interesting musical essays and novel ties which were printed and paid for and which contain many autobiographic details. He com pleted (Rienzi) and also wrote the music of the (Flying Dutchman); but finally after nearly three years of starvation and numberless disap pointments, left Paris for Dresden, whence he had received a request for his (Rienzi.) With the return to Germany begins the sec ond period in Wagner's life. (Rienzi) was pro duced at Dresden 20 Oct 1842 and proved such a brilliant success that there was a demand for his other opera, (The Flying Dutchman,' which was given 2 Jan. 1843, only about 10 weeks after (Rienzi.) This proved to be less of a success; the performance was poor and the audience was puzzled and displeased when in place of the usual airs and processions it found an opera without arias, duos and dances — an opera so new in form and spirit that few could understand it Only four performances were given. However, (Rienzi) had made Wagner
the hero of the day; he was appointed royal conductor and kept that position about six years. His nezt opera, (Tannhauser,) departed more widely still from the accepted models. It was produced 19 Oct. 1845 and, to Wagner's chagrin, seemed to give pleasure only in so far as it resembled the old-fashioned operas. However, he persevered in his path of reform and wrote (Lohengrin.) It was finished in 1848, but he could not even get it accepted for perform ance. Nor could he get any attention for his plans for reforming the Dresden Opera. He became more and more dissatisfied with his posi tion, and when, in 1849, the Revolution broke out, he foolishly joined the insurgents. The re sult was that he had to seek safety in flight ; his companions were caught and imprisoned, while he succeeded in reaching Weimar where Liszt took care of him and provided him with the means of escape to Switzerland. In that home of political refugees he dwelt during most of the years — more than a decade — that he was exiled from Germany. For six years he com posed no more operas, devoting his time to writ ing essays on musical and dramatic subjects by way of .explaining his theories. Little attention was paid to these and he might have starved but for the assistance of Liszt and other friends. All this time the plans for his great (Nibelung Tetralogy) were slowly maturing in his mind. In 1852 the poems were finished and printed and 1 Nov. 1853 he began to write the music for (Rheingold) ; it was finished the following year and 'Die Wallciire) was completed by March 1856. In the meantime he had unwisely accepted an offer to conduct a series of Philharmonic concerts in London (1855). Queen Victoria and the public were lcind to him, but the press treated him shamefully, his music being de scribed as an ((inflated display of noise and ex travagance,' as void of melody, etc. He got only $1,000 for four months' work. Returning to Switzerland, he finished (Die Waliciire) and began the third opera of the Nibelung Tetralogy, (Siegfried.) When he had got to the middle of the second act, he despaired of ever finishing and producing this great cylic work, and so abandoned it for the time being (in June 1857) and began his (Tristan und Isolde,) which, being a separate work, would, he hoped, re-establish his connection with the stage. He completed it in 1859, but seven years elapsed before he suc ceeded in producing it In 1860 he gave a series of concerts in Paris; they resulted in a large deficit In the following year Napoleon ordered a performance of (Tannhauser.) Wagner was given to understand that he must introduce a ballet in the second act; he refused to do so, and the members of the Jockey Club took their revenge by creating such a disturbance that Wagner declined to allow more than three per formances to be given. He thus received only $150 for a year's hard work. Immediately after this disaster he wrote the poem for his only comic or humorous opera, (Die Meistersinger,) of which he had made a sketch as early as 1845.
It was while composing this opera that the most important event of his life happened. He seldom had much money, but when he had he spent it with artistic lavishness, nor did he hesitate to live beyond his means. The failure, through no fault of his, of a Russian concert project, left him so deeply in debt in Vienna, that, to escape prison, he had to hide in Ger many. On 3 May 1864, he was preparing to disappear in the Suabian Alps, there to com plete his (Meistersinger) score, when a message arrived from the new Icing of Bavaria, Lud wig II, who invited him to come to Munich to live there at his expense, to compose operas and produce them. Wagner wept for joy, and promptly proceeded to Munich, where (Tristan und Isolde) was produced on 10 June 1865 and (Die Meistersinger) 21 June 1868. But Wagner's enemies made life so unpleasant for him that he left Munich and took up his abode in a villa on Lake Luceme, where, after completing his comic opera, he took up 'Siegfried) and finished that (1869). The fourth and last opera of the Tetralogy, (Got terdammerung,) was not completed till 1874. His plan of having a special theatre for the Te tmlogy built in Munich having failed, notwith than the hind pair, and to increase this advan tage still further the axle of the fore-wheels is frequently fixed to the bottom of the vehicle by a swivel joint, in which case the safts are attached to the fore-axle. The framework of the wagon is usually mounted on springs. See CARRIAGE.