Wagner, R.: Scenes From Lohengrin And Siegfried

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Cat No: 8555788

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Release Date: 06 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313578825

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: WAGNER, R.

Description
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)Scenes from Lohengrin and SiegfriedRichard Wagner was born in Leipzig in 1813, the acknowledgedson of a Government official Carl Friedrich Wagner and his wife Johanna, butapparently fathered in fact by the actor Ludwig Geyer, who was to marry Johannaafter Carl Friedrich's death. Wagner's education was an intermittent one, muchof it in Dresden, where he fell under the spell of Weber and Der Freisch??tz,the first great German romantic opera. Returning to Leipzig he was to profitmore from contact with his uncle Adolf, a widely read scholar with a knowledgeof Greek tragedy, as well as of the classics of Italy, the works ofShakespeare, and of course, of the literature of his own country. In LeipzigWagner took the opportunity of furthering his own interests in music,stimulated by the performances of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra andBeethoven's opera Fidelio, which he heard in 1829. He borrowed books from themusic lending library of Robert Schumann's future teacher and father-in-law,Friedrich Wieck, and took private music lessons at the Thomasschule, where J.S.Bach had been employed a century earlier. The later career of Wagner was a turbulent one. His incomenever matched his ambitions, and he was driven on by an aggressive and ruthlessurge to create a new form of music, the music of the future, particularly inthe conjunction of all arts in a series of great music dramas. He worked firstas conductor at the undistinguished opera-house in Magdeburg, married a singer,Minna Planer, moved to Konigsberg and later to Riga. From there, pursued bycreditors, he sailed for England, and thence a week later to Paris, wheresuccess continued to elude him. Recognition was finally to come from his nativeSaxony, with a production for the opera Rienzi in Dresden and an officialappointment to the royal court. His own tactless espousal of revolutionarynotions led to his flight from Saxony in 1849, at first to Liszt in Weimar, andthen to Switzerland. Further troubles were to follow as the result of thepolitical suspicions he had aroused, the constant attention of creditors andhis selfish unscrupulousness in his relations with women. The protection laterafforded by King Ludwig II of Bavaria allowed some respite from difficulties,but his liaison with Liszt's daughter Cosima, wife of the Bavarian courtconductor Hans von B??low, and his unpopularity in Munich, led to a furtherperiod of exile in Switzerland. His final relative triumph in the establishmentof a Festival devoted to his work in Bayreuth was accomplished again with theencouragement of King Ludwig. The first festival took place in 1876, but didnothing to reduce his increasing personal debts. Wagner died during the course of a visit to Venice in 1883.In his lifetime he had inspired equally fanatical devotion and hatred, both ofwhich continued after his death. His
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