Richard Wagner

Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin

            Lohengrin was first performed in 1850, and is certainly a Romantic opera in the strictest sense.  It is based upon the legendary romance of the 13th century of Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail, who is sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue the maiden, Elsa, who must never ask his name.   The young King Ludwig II of Bavaria was so moved by Wagner’s opera that he more or less bankrupted his country in order to build the famous castle, “Neuschwanstein”, that is so beloved by today’s tourists to Southern Germany.

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

            Many—perhaps, most--of the respected and honored composers left little of themselves behind to speak for them except their immortal music.  And that’s usually enough.  But no great composer found the time to write, speculate, theorize, philosophize, and generally inflict his ideas expressed through the written word, as did Wagner.  Much was brilliant and influential—and some was simply evil rubbish.  His theories and the model of his own compositions changed the world of nineteenth-century opera in profound ways, brought to fruition in his great tetralogy—the Ring.

“Prelude and Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde

            Many—perhaps, most--of the respected and honored composers left little of themselves behind to speak for them except their immortal music.  And that’s usually enough.  But no great composer found the time to write, speculate, theorize, philosophize, and generally inflict his ideas expressed through the written word, as did Wagner.  Much was brilliant and influential—and some was simply evil rubbish.  His theories and the model of his own compositions changed the world of nineteenth-century opera in profound ways, brought to fruition in his great tetralogy—the Ring.

“Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre

            The works of Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi together largely dominated the important world of nineteenth-century opera.  But the two could not have been more different in almost every regard—save that of musical excellence.  Verdi built simply upon the traditional elements of Italian opera and took them to new heights of dramatic artistry and coherence, gradually incorporating some progressive reforms of the medium as he grew into old age.   Wagner, on the other hand, after his early attempts, and some real successes thereafter, embarked upon an unprecedented, new theoretical thrust in opera composition that changed forever the history of music.  While Verdi had long Italian tradition to draw upon, Wagner took upon himself to build upon Carl Maria von Weber’s seminal work, De

“Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre

            The works of Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi together largely dominated the important world of nineteenth-century opera.  But the two could not have been more different in almost every regard—save that of musical excellence.  Verdi built simply upon the traditional elements of Italian opera and took them to new heights of dramatic artistry and coherence, gradually incorporating some progressive reforms of the medium as he grew into old age.   Wagner, on the other hand, after his early attempts, and some real successes thereafter, embarked upon an unprecedented, new theoretical thrust in opera composition that changed forever the history of music.  While Verdi had long Italian tradition to draw upon, Wagner took upon himself to build upon Carl Maria von Weber’s seminal work, De