“Music is a woman,” stated Richard Wagner in his theoretical work “Opera and Drama.” “The power of conception must be brought into opera.” Not with feminist-minded contemporaries and contemporaries would it be said: only music “fertilized by the thought of the creator” can “give birth to a real, vital melody.”
Art and life were inseparable for Wagner. And it is not surprising that not only the heroines of Wagner’s operas, but also his real girlfriends had to devote themselves to the service of “creative energy.” Women in the work and life of Wagner - three years ago even a special scientific symposium was held on this topic.
Sister image
Context
Context
The “feminine principle,” or “female prototypes,” as the composer’s biographer Joachim Köhler, author of The Last Titan, puts it, was abundantly represented in Wagner’s life from its very beginning. In other words, Wagner grew up among women and throughout his life he preferred female company male friendship.
He had five sisters, the eldest of whom, Johanna Rosalie Wagner, did much more to raise him than his mother Johanna Rosina Wagner-Geyer. Popular actress, she supported Richard in his intention to become a musician, guided him on the right path and remained an “angel” in his heart, whose death (Rosalia died giving birth to her first child in 1837) Wagner bitterly mourned. There is every reason to assume that it is the image of the sister that is resurrected in the bright figures of Elsa or Elizabeth.
Minna, wife
From about the age of 15 (and until the last years of his life), Wagner regularly fell in love. Mostly actresses or singers. His first serious romance brought him together with the diva of a theater troupe from Magdeburg, Wilhelmina, or Minna Planer, who was not accidentally entrusted with the role of “first mistress”. They met in the resort town of Bad Lauchstedt in 1834. Richard was 22, Minna was “already” 25 years old.
A year and a half later they got married in Konigsberg. The marriage was, as biographers put it, a “mutual misunderstanding”: the “experienced” Minna was looking for stability, the loving Wagner was thirsty for adventure. However, the marriage lasted 30 years, during which Minna managed, despite everything, to maintain her position" leading woman"in the life of Richard Wagner.
If in previous decades “Wagner scholars” adhered to the position of Wagner himself, who rejected the marriage with Minna as a “mistake of youth,” today the first wife, so to speak, has been rehabilitated. It is known that Wagner intensively discussed creative plans with his wife, in particular, the initial concept of the opera “Parsifal” was developed together with her.
Matilda, muse
Mathilde Wesendonck, wife of Wagner admirer and philanthropist Otto Wesendonck, is considered the "great love" of Wagner's life. The affair with a married lady and a friend's wife was apparently platonic in nature, which made it especially emotionally intense - and creatively productive.
With a surge of creative energy, “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre” appear (this opera is dedicated to Mathilde Wesendonck). The "love triangle" with the Wesendonks is a major inspiration for "Tristan and Isolde". Finally, Matilda's five poems, set to music by a loving composer, form the vocal cycle "Wesendonck Lieder", one of the most expressive declarations of love in the history of music.
Cosima, mistress of Green Hill
The affair with Matilda Wesendonck, which had no prospects one way or another, led to a final break with Minna. It was at this difficult moment that Richard Wagner met the woman who played a central role in his life: Cosima Wagner, daughter of Countess Marie d'Agoux and Wagner's friend Franz Liszt.
The novel was not hindered by the fact that Cosima was a married lady and the mother of two daughters at the time of her meeting with Wagner, as well as the fact that her husband was again Wagner’s friend and promoter of his work, conductor Hans von Bülow. Bülow limited himself to the comment: “As a person, Wagner is low, but as a creator he is great.” Cosima and Richard Wagner married in 1870, and the marriage produced three Wagner children: daughters Isolde and Eva and the long-awaited son and heir Siegfried.
It is to Cosima, a devoted wife, an enthusiastic fan and a zealous housewife in one person, that we are largely indebted for the implementation of the idea of the festival in Bayreuth. She also headed the festival after Wagner’s death in 1883, turning it into a cult event on a global scale. But that's another story.
Wagner Wilhelm Richard (1813-1883), German composer.
Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig into an artistic family, he was interested in literature and theater from childhood. His acquaintance with the work of L. van Beethoven had a huge influence on the formation of Wagner as a composer. Studying a lot on his own, he took piano lessons from organist G. Müller, and music theory from T. Weiling.
In 1834-1839 Wagner had already worked professionally as a conductor in various opera houses. In 1839-1842. lived in Paris. Here he wrote his first significant work - the historical opera Rienzi. In Paris, Wagner failed to stage this opera; it was accepted for production in Dresden in 1842. And until 1849, the composer worked as conductor and conductor of the Dresden Court Opera. Here in 1843 he staged his own opera “The Flying Dutchman”, and in 1845 - “Tannhäuser and the Wartburg Singing Competition”. One of Wagner's most famous operas, Lohengrin (1848), was written in Dresden.
In 1849, for participating in revolutionary unrest in Dresden, the composer was declared a state criminal and was forced to flee to Switzerland. His main literary works were created there, such as “Art and Revolution” (1849), “ artwork of the future" (1850), "Opera and Drama" (1851). In them, Wagner acted as a reformer - first of all opera art. His main ideas can be summarized as follows: in opera, drama should dominate music, and not vice versa; at the same time, the orchestra is not subordinate to the singers, but is an equal “actor”.
Musical drama is intended to become a universal work of art capable of morally influencing the audience. And such an impact can only be achieved using philosophical and aesthetic concepts generalized in a mythological plot.
The composer always wrote the libretto for his operas himself. In addition, in Wagner, each character, even some objects important for the development of the plot (for example, a ring), have their own musical characteristics (leitmotifs). The musical outline of the opera is a system of leitmotifs. Wagner embodied his innovative ideas in a grandiose project - “The Ring of the Nibelung”. This is a cycle of four operas: Das Rheingold (1854), Die Walküre (1856), Siegfried (1871) and Twilight of the Gods (1874).
In parallel with his work on the tetralogy, Wagner wrote another opera, Tristan and Isolde (1859). Thanks to the patronage of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who favored the composer since 1864, a theater was built in Bayreuth to promote Wagner's work. At its opening in 1876, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” was staged in its entirety for the first time, and in 1882 Wagner’s last opera, “Parsifal,” was released, which the author called a solemn stage mystery.
German composer, conductor and art theorist
Brief biography
Richard Wagner(full name, German: Wilhelm Richard Wagner; May 22, 1813, Leipzig - February 13, 1883, Venice) - German composer, conductor and art theorist. The greatest reformer of opera, Wagner provided significant influence on European musical culture, especially German, especially on the development of opera and symphonic genres.
Wagner's mysticism and ideologically charged anti-Semitism influenced German nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century, and later National Socialism, which surrounded his work with a cult, which in some countries (especially Israel) caused an “anti-Wagner” reaction after World War II.
Wagner was born into the family of an official, Karl Friedrich Wagner (1770-1813). Under the influence of his stepfather, actor Ludwig Geyer (German: Ludwig Geyer), Wagner, educated at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig, began studying harmony under the guidance of Christian Gottlieb Müller in 1828, then composition with the cantor of the Church of St. Thomas, Theodor Weinlig, in 1831 g. began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig. In 1833-1842 he led a hectic life, often in great need in Würzburg, where he worked as a theater choirmaster, Magdeburg, then in Königsberg and Riga, where he was a conductor of musical theaters, then in Norway, London and Paris, where he wrote the Faust overture and opera "The Flying Dutchman". In 1842, the triumphant premiere of the opera “Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes” in Dresden laid the foundation for his fame. A year later he became court bandmaster at the royal Saxon court. In 1843, his half-sister Cicilia had a son, Richard, the future philosopher Richard Avenarius. Wagner became his godfather. In 1849, Wagner took part in the Dresden May Uprising, during which he met M. A. Bakunin. After the defeat of the uprising, he fled to Zurich, where he wrote the libretto of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”, the music of its first two parts (“Das Rheingold” and “Walkyrie”) and the opera “Tristan and Isolde”. In 1858 he visited short time Venice, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris and Berlin.
In 1864, having achieved the favor of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who paid his debts and continued to support him, he moved to Munich, where he wrote the comic opera Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg and the last two parts of the Ring of the Nibelungs: Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. In 1872, the foundation stone was laid in Bayreuth for the Festival House, which opened in 1876, where the premiere of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” took place on August 13-17, 1876. In 1882, the mystery opera Parsifal was staged in Bayreuth. That same year, Wagner went to Venice for health reasons, where he died in 1883 of a heart attack. He was buried in Bayreuth.
Music
To a much greater extent than all European composers of the 19th century, Wagner saw his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Wagner’s article “The Work of Art of the Future”: “Just as a person will not be free until he joyfully accepts the bonds that unite him with Nature, so art will not become free until the reasons to be ashamed of connection with life.” From this concept flow two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; The highest form of art is musical drama, understood as the organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where opera house for the first time began to be treated as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form “musical drama” created by Wagner. It was its creation that became the goal creative life Wagner. Some of its elements were embodied in the composer’s early operas of the 1840s - “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”. The theory of musical drama was most fully embodied in Wagner’s Swiss articles (“Opera and Drama”, “Art and Revolution”, “Music and Drama”, “Artwork of the Future”), and in practice - in his later operas: “Tristan and Isolde” ", the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung" and the mystery "Parsifal".
According to Wagner, musical drama is a work in which the romantic idea of a synthesis of arts (music and drama) is realized, an expression of programming in opera. To implement this plan, Wagner abandoned the traditions of the operatic forms that existed at that time - primarily Italian and French. He criticized the first for its excesses, the second for its pomp. He fiercely criticized the works of the leading representatives of classical opera (Rossini, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Auber), calling their music “candied boredom.”
Trying to bring opera closer to life, he came up with the idea end-to-end dramatic development- from beginning to end, not only of one act, but of the entire work and even a cycle of works (all four operas of the “Ring of the Nibelung” cycle). In the classical opera of Verdi and Rossini, individual numbers (arias, duets, ensembles with choirs) divide a single musical movement into fragments. Wagner completely abandoned them in favor of large through vocal-symphonic scenes flowing into one another, and replaced arias and duets with dramatic monologues and dialogues. Wagner replaced overtures with preludes - short musical introductions to each act, inextricably linked with the action at a semantic level. Moreover, starting from the opera Lohengrin, these preludes were performed not before the curtain opened, but already with the stage open.
External action in Wagner's later operas (especially in Tristan and Isolde) is reduced to a minimum; it is transferred to the psychological side, to the area of the characters' feelings. Wagner believed that the word is not capable of expressing the full depth and meaning of internal experiences, therefore, it is the orchestra, and not the vocal part, that plays the leading role in the musical drama. The latter is entirely subordinate to orchestration and is considered by Wagner as one of the instruments of the symphony orchestra. At the same time vocal part in musical drama represents the equivalent of theatrical dramatic speech. There is almost no songfulness or ariosity in it. Due to the specificity of vocals in Wagner’s operatic music (exceptional length, mandatory requirement dramatic mastery, merciless exploitation of the maximum registers of voice tessitura) in solo performing practice, new stereotypes of singing voices were established - Wagnerian tenor, Wagnerian soprano, etc.
Wagner attached exceptional importance orchestration and more broadly - symphonism. Wagner's orchestra is compared to an ancient choir, which commented on what was happening and conveyed the “hidden” meaning. Reforming the orchestra, the composer used up to four Wagner tubas, introduced a bass trumpet, a contrabass trombone, expanded the string group, and used six harps. In the entire history of opera before Wagner, not a single composer used an orchestra of such a scale (for example, “The Ring of the Nibelung” is performed by a four-piece orchestra with eight horns).
Wagner's innovation in the field is generally recognized harmony. He greatly expanded the tonality he inherited from the Viennese classics and early romantics by intensifying chromaticism and modal alterations. By weakening (straightforward among the classics) the unambiguous connections between the center (tonic) and the periphery, deliberately avoiding the direct resolution of dissonance into consonance, he imparted tension, dynamism and continuity to the modulation development. Business card Wagnerian harmony is considered to be the “Tristan chord” (from the prelude to the opera “Tristan and Isolde”) and the leitmotif of fate from “The Ring of the Nibelungs”.
Wagner introduced developed system leitmotifs. Each such leitmotif (short musical characteristic) is a designation of something: a specific character or living creature (for example, the Rhine leitmotif in “Das Rheingold”), objects that often act as symbolic characters (ring, sword and gold in “The Ring” , a love drink in "Tristan and Isolde", places of action (leitmotifs of the Grail in "Lohengrin" and Valhalla in "Das Rheingold") and even abstract ideas (numerous leitmotifs of fate and fate in the cycle "The Ring of the Nibelung", longing, a loving gaze in "Tristan and Isolde") Wagner’s system of leitmotifs received the most complete development in “The Ring” - accumulating from opera to opera, intertwining with each other, each time receiving new development options, all the leitmotifs of this cycle as a result unite and interact in the complex musical texture of the final opera “Death of the Gods”.
Understanding music as the personification of continuous movement, the development of feelings led Wagner to the idea of merging these leitmotifs into a single stream of symphonic development, in “ endless melody"(unendliche Melodie). The lack of tonic support (throughout the entire opera “Tristan and Isolde”), the incompleteness of each theme (in the entire cycle “Ring of the Nibelung”, with the exception of the climactic funeral march in the opera “Twilight of the Gods”) contribute to a continuous increase in emotions that does not receive resolution, which allows keep the listener in constant suspense (as in the preludes to the operas “Tristan and Isolde” and “Lohengrin”).
Literary heritage
Richard Wagner's literary heritage is enormous. Of greatest interest are his works on the theory and history of art, as well as music-critical articles. Wagner's extensive epistolary and his diaries, as well as the memoir work “My Life,” have been preserved.
Philosophy
As for the influences of the various philosophers that Wagner experienced, Feuerbach is traditionally cited here. A.F. Losev, in the rough drafts of his article on Wagner, believes that the composer’s acquaintance with Feuerbach’s work was rather superficial. The key conclusion that Wagner made from Feuerbach’s thoughts was the need to abandon all philosophy, which, according to Losev, indicates a fundamental rejection of any philosophical borrowing in the process of free creativity. As for the influence of Schopenhauer, it was, apparently, stronger, and in The Ring of the Nibelung, as well as in Tristan and Isolde, one can find paraphrases of some of the provisions of the great philosopher. However, it can hardly be said that Schopenhauer became for Wagner the source of his philosophical ideas. Losev believes that Wagner interprets the philosopher’s ideas in such a unique way that it is only with great reserve that one can talk about following them.
"Utopia of Art"
Wagner never left his interest in social issues. A kind of Künstlerutopie (“utopia of art”) was described by the composer in the article “Art and Revolution,” published in 1849. Both before and after this, Wagner would more than once refer to the place of the artist in his contemporary society, but in this article the composer only once in a more or less systematized form, he will express his ideas about the ideal social order and the place of art in the future world harmony. Written after the defeat of the revolutions of 1848, in an atmosphere of considerable public pessimism regarding the possibility of radically changing the world for the better, Wagner’s article is full of enthusiasm and confidence in the imminent victory of the revolution. However, the revolution according to Wagner is very different from the one dreamed of by contemporary leaders of thought from both the liberal and socialist camps. The revolution will be sanctified by art, which will give it and the man it created true beauty. In the tradition of classical German idealism, Wagner believed that aesthetics (the beautiful) was naturally followed by ethics.
It is curious that this very optimistic and seemingly even somewhat naive concept contains many of the prerequisites for Wagner’s future thoughts. We are talking, firstly, about the determinism inherent in all of Wagner’s constructions. Indeed, according to Wagner, revolution should not take place, but will be sanctified by the grace of art. Wagner sees this as the logical completion of the circle of history. The revolution destroyed the Greek city-states, in which the theater allowed free citizens to achieve the highest manifestations of the spirit, since the vast majority of the inhabitants were slaves who needed only one thing - freedom. Apollo was replaced by Christ, who proclaimed the equality of all people, but forced them to equally rebel against the natural human nature for the sake of imaginary happiness in heaven. The last and real revolution, according to Wagner, should destroy Industry, that is, universal unification, which has become the dream and eden of the New Age. Thus, by combining two principles - universal freedom and beauty - world harmony will be achieved. In this last idea the second is visible characteristic feature Wagner's philosophical work is aimed at overcoming time, in which everything that is transitory, insignificant and at the same time vulgar is concentrated. Finally, in the idea of merging revolution and art, Wagnerian dualism is outlined, which, in all likelihood, has its roots in Plato’s concept of the separation of the original human being.
Wagner with family and friends in 1881
Mystical symbolism
A. F. Losev defines the philosophical and aesthetic basis of Wagner’s work as “mystical symbolism.” The key to understanding Wagner’s ontological concept is the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” and the opera “Tristan and Isolde”. Firstly, Wagner’s dream of musical universalism was fully realized in The Ring. “In The Ring, this theory was embodied through the use of leitmotifs, when every idea and every poetic image is immediately specifically organized with the help of a musical motif,” writes Losev. In addition, “The Ring” fully reflected his passion for Schopenhauer’s ideas. However, we must remember that we became acquainted with them when the text of the tetralogy was ready and work on the music began. Like Schopenhauer, Wagner senses the dysfunction and even meaninglessness of the basis of the universe. The only meaning of existence is thought to be to renounce this universal will and, plunging into the abyss of pure intellect and inaction, to find true aesthetic pleasure in music. However, Wagner, unlike Schopenhauer, believes that a world is possible and even predetermined in which people will no longer live in the name of the constant pursuit of gold, which in Wagner’s mythology symbolizes the world’s will. Nothing is known for sure about this world, but there is no doubt about its coming after a global catastrophe. The theme of global catastrophe is very important for the ontology of “The Ring” and, apparently, is a new rethinking of the revolution, which is no longer understood as a change in the social system, but as a cosmological action that changes the very essence of the universe.
As for “Tristan and Isolde,” the ideas contained in it were significantly influenced by a short-lived passion for Buddhism and at the same time a dramatic love story for Mathilde Wesendonck. Here the fusion of divided human nature that Wagner had been searching for for so long takes place. This connection occurs with the departure of Tristan and Isolde into oblivion. Thought of as a completely Buddhist fusion with the eternal and imperishable world, it resolves, in Losev’s opinion, the contradiction between subject and object on which European culture is based. The most important is the theme of love and death, which for Wagner are inextricably linked. Love is inherent in man, completely subjugating him, just as death is the inevitable end of his life. It is in this sense that Wagner's love potion should be understood. “Freedom, bliss, pleasure, death and fatalistic predestination - this is what the love potion is, so brilliantly depicted by Wagner,” writes Losev.
Influence
Wagner's operatic reform had a significant impact on European and Russian music, marking the highest stage of musical romanticism and at the same time laying the foundations for future modernist movements. Direct or indirect assimilation of Wagnerian operatic aesthetics (especially the innovative “cross-cutting” musical dramaturgy) marked a significant part of subsequent operatic works. Using a leitmotif systems in operas after Wagner it became trivial and universal. No less significant was the influence of innovative musical language Wagner, especially his harmony, in which the composer revised the “old” (previously considered unshakable) canons of tonality.
Among Russian musicians, Wagner’s friend A. N. Serov was an expert and promoter of Wagner. N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who publicly criticized Wagner, nevertheless experienced (especially in late creativity) Wagner's influence in harmony, orchestral writing, musical dramaturgy. Valuable articles about Wagner were left by the prominent Russian music critic G. A. Laroche. In general, the “Wagnerian” is more directly felt in the works of “pro-Western” composers Russia XIX century (for example, A.G. Rubinstein) than among representatives of the national school. Wagner's influence (musical and aesthetic) is noted in Russia and in the first decades of the 20th century, in the works of A. N. Scriabin.
In the West, the center of the Wagner cult became the so-called Weimar school (self-named New German School), which developed around F. Liszt in Weimar. Its representatives (P. Cornelius, G. von Bülow, I. Raff, etc.) supported Wagner, first of all, in his desire to expand the scope musical expressiveness(harmony, orchestral writing, operatic dramaturgy). Western composers influenced by Wagner include Anton Bruckner, Hugo Wolf, Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Béla Bartok, Karol Szymanowski, Arnold Schoenberg (in his early work) and many others.
The reaction to the cult of Wagner was the “anti-Wagner” tendency that opposed itself to it. largest representatives which included the composer Johannes Brahms and the musical esthetician E. Hanslick, who defended the immanence and self-sufficiency of music, its disconnection from external, extra-musical “stimuli”. In Russia, anti-Wagner sentiments are characteristic of the national wing of composers, primarily M. P. Mussorgsky and A. P. Borodin.
Attitude to Wagner non-musicians(who assessed not so much Wagner’s music as his controversial statements and his “aestheticizing” publications) ambiguously. Thus, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in his article “The Wagner Case”: “Was Wagner a musician at all? In any case, he was more than something else... His place is in some other area, and not in the history of music: he should not be confused with its great true representatives. Wagner and Beethoven are blasphemy...” According to Thomas Mann, Wagner “saw in art a sacred mystery, a panacea against all the ills of society...”.
Wagner's musical creations in the 20th-21st centuries continue to live on the most prestigious opera stages, not only in Germany, but throughout the world (with the exception of Israel).
Meaning
Wagner wrote The Ring of the Nibelung with little hope that a theater would be found capable of staging the entire epic and conveying its ideas to the listener. However, contemporaries were able to appreciate its spiritual necessity, and the epic found its way to the viewer. The role of the “Ring” in the formation of the German national spirit cannot be overestimated. IN mid-19th century, when The Ring of the Nibelung was written, the nation remained divided; The Germans remembered the humiliations of Napoleonic campaigns and the Vienna treaties; Recently a revolution thundered, shaking the thrones of the appanage kings - when Wagner left the world, Germany was already united, became an empire, the bearer and focus of all German culture. “The Ring of the Nibelung” and Wagner’s work as a whole, although not only it, was for the German people and for the German idea that mobilizing impulse that forced politicians, intellectuals, military men and the whole society to unite.
Swan Castle in honor of Richard Wagner
Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited castles in Germany and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. The castle is located in Bavaria, near the city of Fussen. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as the “fairytale king”.
King Ludwig was a great admirer of culture and art and personally supported the world famous composer Richard Wagner, and Neuschwanstein Castle was built in part in his honor. The interior of many rooms of the castle is imbued with the atmosphere of Wagner's characters. The third tier of the castle most fully reflects Ludwig's enthusiasm for Wagner's operas. The singers' hall, which occupies the entire fourth floor, is also decorated with characters from Wagner's operas.
Neuschwanstein Castle.
Photograph of Josef Albert (1886 or 1887)
Literally speaking, Neuschwanstein means "New Swan Castle" in analogy with the Swan King, one of Wagner's characters. Neuschwanstein really gives the impression of a fairytale castle. It was built at the end of the 19th century - at a time when castles had already lost their strategic and defensive functions.
In the castle courtyard there is a garden with an artificial cave. Neuschwanstein is beautiful inside too. Although only 14 rooms were completed before the sudden death of Ludwig II in 1886, these rooms were decorated with magical decorations. The fairy-tale appearance of Neuschwanstein inspired Walt Disney to create the Magic Kingdom, embodied in the famous cartoon "Sleeping Beauty".
Wagner's anti-Semitism
The Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia noted that Judeophobia was an integral part of Wagner's worldview, and Wagner himself was characterized as one of the forerunners of anti-Semitism in the 20th century.
Wagner's anti-Semitic speeches caused protests during his lifetime; Thus, back in 1850, the publication of his article “Jewishness in Music” by Wagner under the pseudonym “Freethinker” in the journal “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” caused protests from the professors of the Leipzig Conservatory; they demanded the removal of the magazine's then editor, Franz Brendel, from running the magazine. In 2012, Wagner’s article “Jewishness in Music” (based on the decision of the Velsky District Court of the Arkhangelsk Region dated March 28, 2012) was included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (No. 1204) and, accordingly, its printing or distribution in the Russian Federation is prosecuted by law.
Wagner was categorically against the Jew Hermann Levi conducting the premiere of Parsifal, and since it was the king's choice (Levi was considered one of the best conductors of his time and, along with Hans von Bülow, the best Wagnerian conductor), Wagner before last moment demanded that Levi be baptized. Levi refused.
Memory
- Monument (sculptor Stefan Balkenhol) in Leipzig. Opened in May 2013 as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth.
- For the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death, the German medalist Friedrich-Wilhelm Hörnlein made a commemorative medal.
- A crater on Mercury is named after Wagner.
- Streets in German cities, Riga and Kaliningrad, are named after Wagner.
- Depicted on postage stamps of the GDR and the USSR in 1963.
- In 2013, a postal envelope was issued in his honor in Russia.
- In 2013, in honor of Wagner's 200th birthday, German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl installed 500 colorful sculptures of Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, Germany.
R. Wagner is the largest German composer of the 19th century, who had a significant influence on the development of not only the music of the European tradition, but also the world artistic culture generally. Wagner did not receive a systematic musical education and in his development as a master of music owes a decisive measure to himself. The composer's interests, entirely focused on the opera genre, emerged relatively early. From his early work, the romantic opera "The Fairies" (1834) and right up to the musical mystery drama "Parsifal" (1882), Wagner remained a staunch adherent of serious musical theater, which through his efforts was transformed and updated.
At first, Wagner did not think of reforming the opera - he followed the established traditions of musical performance and sought to master the achievements of his predecessors. If in “Fairies” the German romantic opera, so brilliantly represented by “The Magic Shooter” by K. M. Weber, became a role model, then in the opera “The Ban of Love” (1836) he was more oriented towards the traditions of French comic opera. However, these early works did not bring him recognition - in those years Wagner led the hard life of a theater musician, wandering around different cities of Europe. For some time he worked in Russia, in the German theater of the city of Riga (1837-39). But Wagner... like many of his contemporaries, was attracted by the cultural capital of the then Europe, which was then universally recognized as Paris. The bright hopes of the young composer faded when he came face to face with the unsightly reality and was forced to lead the life of a poor foreign musician doing odd jobs. A change for the better came in 1842, when he was invited to the position of conductor at the famous opera house in the capital of Saxony, Dresden. Wagner finally had the opportunity to introduce his works to theater audiences, and his third opera, Rienzi (1840), won lasting recognition. And this is not surprising, since the model of the work was the French grand opera, the most prominent representatives of which were the recognized masters G. Spontini and G. Meyerbeer. In addition, the composer had performing forces of the highest rank - vocalists such as tenor J. Tihaček and the great singer-actress V. Schröder-Devrient, who became famous in her time in the role of Leonora in L. Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio,” performed in his theater.
The 3 operas adjacent to the Dresden period have a lot in common. Thus, in “The Flying Dutchman” (1841), completed on the eve of the move to Dresden, the ancient legend about a wandering sailor cursed for previous atrocities comes to life, whom only a devoted and pure love. In the opera “Tannhäuser” (1845), the composer turned to the medieval legend about the minnesinger singer, who gained the favor of the pagan goddess Venus, but earned the curse of the Roman church for this. And finally, in Lohengrin (1848) - perhaps the most popular of Wagner's operas - a bright knight appears who descended to earth from the heavenly abode - the Holy Grail, in the name of fighting evil, slander and injustice.
In these operas, the composer is still closely associated with the traditions of romanticism - his heroes are torn apart by conflicting impulses, when purity and purity are opposed to the sinfulness of earthly passions, boundless trust is opposed to deceit and betrayal. Romanticism is also associated with the slowness of the narrative, when it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but the feelings that they awaken in the soul. lyrical hero. This is where the important role of the extended monologues and dialogues of the characters, revealing internal struggle their aspirations and motivations, a kind of “dialectic of the soul” of an extraordinary human personality.
But even during the years of work in the court service, Wagner had new plans. The impetus for their implementation was the revolution that broke out in a number of European countries in 1848 and did not escape Saxony. It was in Dresden that an armed uprising broke out against the reactionary monarchist regime, led by Wagner's friend, the Russian anarchist M. Bakunin. With his characteristic passion, Wagner took an active part in this uprising and after its defeat was forced to flee to Switzerland. A difficult period began in the composer’s life, but very fruitful for his work.
Wagner rethought and comprehended his artistic positions; moreover, he formulated the main tasks that, in his opinion, faced art in a number of theoretical works (among them, the treatise “Opera and Drama” - 1851) is especially important. He embodied his ideas in the monumental tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” - the main work of his entire life.
The basis of the grandiose creation, which fully occupies 4 theatrical evenings in a row, was made up of tales and legends dating back to pagan antiquity - the German “Song of the Nibelungs”, the Scandinavian sagas included in the Elder and Younger Edda. But pagan mythology with its gods and heroes became for the composer a means of knowledge and artistic analysis of the problems and contradictions of his contemporary bourgeois reality.
The content of the tetralogy, which includes the musical dramas “Das Rheingold” (1854), “Walkyrie” (1856), “Siegfried” (1871) and “Death of the Gods” (1874), is very multifaceted - the operas feature numerous characters who enter into conflict with each other complex relationships, sometimes even into cruel, irreconcilable struggle. Among them is the evil Nibelung dwarf Alberich, who steals a golden treasure from the daughters of the Rhine; The owner of the treasure, who managed to forge a ring from it, is promised power over the world. Alberich is opposed by the light god Wotan, whose omnipotence is illusory - he is a slave to the agreements he himself has concluded, on which his dominion is based. By taking the golden ring from the Nibelung, he brings upon himself and his family terrible curse, from which only a mortal hero who owes him nothing can save him. His own grandson, the simple-minded and fearless Siegfried, becomes such a hero. He defeats the monstrous dragon Fafner, takes possession of the treasured ring, awakens the sleeping warrior maiden Brunhilda, surrounded by a sea of fire, but dies, struck down by meanness and deceit. Along with him, the old world, where deception, self-interest and injustice reigned, also perishes.
Wagner's grandiose plan required completely new, previously unheard of means of implementation, a new operatic reform. The composer almost completely abandoned the hitherto familiar number structure - complete arias, choruses, ensembles. Instead, they were replaced by lengthy monologues and dialogues of the characters, unfolded into an endless melody. Broad melodiousness merged with declamation in vocal parts of a new type, in which a melodious cantilena and catchy speech characteristics were incomprehensibly combined.
The main feature of Wagner's operatic reform is associated with the special role of the orchestra. He is not limited to just supporting the vocal melody, but leads his own line, sometimes even coming to the fore. Moreover, the orchestra becomes the bearer of the meaning of the action - it is in it that the main musical themes are most often heard - leitmotifs, which become symbols of characters, situations, and even abstract ideas. The leitmotifs smoothly transform into each other, are combined in simultaneous sound, are constantly modified, but each time they are recognized by the listener, who has firmly grasped the semantic meaning assigned to us. On a larger scale, Wagnerian musical dramas are divided into extended, relatively complete scenes, where broad waves of emotional ups and downs, tension build-ups and releases occur.
Wagner began to implement his great plan during the years of Swiss emigration. But the complete impossibility of seeing on stage the fruits of his titanic work, truly unparalleled in power and tirelessness, broke even such a great worker - the writing of the tetralogy was interrupted for many years. And only an unexpected turn of fate - the support of the young Bavarian king Ludwig, inspired new strength in the composer and helped him complete, perhaps, the most monumental creation of the art of music, which was the result of the efforts of one person. To stage the tetralogy, it was built in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, where the entire tetralogy was first performed in 1876 exactly as Wagner intended it.
In addition to The Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner created in the second half of the 19th century. 3 more capital works. This is the opera "Tristan and Isolde" (1859) - an enthusiastic hymn eternal love, glorified in medieval legends, colored with anxious forebodings, permeated with a feeling of the inevitability of a fatal outcome. And along with such a composition immersed in darkness, the dazzling light of the popular festival crowned the opera “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg” (1867), where in an open competition of singers the most worthy, marked by a true gift, wins, and self-satisfied and stupidly pedantic mediocrity is put to shame. And finally, the master’s last creation - “Parsifal” (1882) - an attempt to musically and scenically represent the utopia of universal brotherhood, where the seemingly indestructible power of evil was defeated and wisdom, justice and purity reigned.
Wagner occupied a completely exceptional position in European music of the 19th century - it is difficult to name a composer who would not have been influenced by him. Wagner's discoveries influenced the development of musical theater in the 20th century. - composers learned lessons from them, but then moved in different ways, including those opposite to those outlined by the great German musician.
M. Tarakanov
The significance of Wagner in the history of world musical culture. His ideological and creative appearance
Wagner is one of those great artists whose work had a great influence on the development of world culture. His genius was universal: Wagner became famous not only as the author of outstanding musical works, but also as a wonderful conductor, who, along with Berlioz, was the founder contemporary art conducting; he was a talented poet-playwright - the creator of librettos for his operas - and a gifted publicist and musical theater theorist. Such versatile activity, combined with ebullient energy and a titanic will in establishing his artistic principles, attracted widespread attention to Wagner’s personality and music: his ideological and creative achievements caused heated debate both during the composer’s lifetime and after his death. They have not subsided to this day.
“As a composer,” said P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Wagner is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in the second half of this (that is, the 19th. - M.D.) centuries, and his influence on music is enormous." This influence was multifaceted: it extended not only to the musical theater, where Wagner worked most of all as the author of thirteen operas, but also to means of expression musical art; Wagner's contribution to the field of program symphony is also significant.
“...He is great as an opera composer,” said N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” wrote A. N. Serov, “... entered the German people and became a national treasure in their own way, no less than the operas of Weber or the works of Goethe or Schiller.” “He was gifted with a great gift of poetry, powerful creativity, his imagination was enormous, his initiative was strong, his artistic skill was great...” - this is how V. V. Stasov characterized the best sides of Wagner’s genius. The music of this remarkable composer, according to Serov, opened up “unknown, immense horizons” in art.
Paying tribute to Wagner's genius, his daring courage as an innovative artist, leading figures of Russian music (primarily Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stasov) criticized some tendencies in his work that distracted from the tasks of real depiction of life. Wagner's general artistic principles and his aesthetic views as applied to musical theater were subjected to especially fierce criticism. Tchaikovsky briefly and aptly said about this: “While I admire the composer, I have little sympathy for what is the cult of Wagner’s theories.” Wagner's favorite ideas, images of his operatic work, and methods of their musical embodiment were also disputed.
However, along with well-aimed critical remarks, there is an intense struggle for the assertion of national identity Russian musical theater, so different from German operatic art, sometimes caused biased judgments. In this regard, M. P. Mussorgsky very correctly noted: “We often criticize Wagner, but Wagner is strong and powerful because he probes art and tugs at it...”.
An even more fierce struggle arose around the name and cause of Wagner in foreign countries. Along with enthusiastic fans who believed that from now on theater should develop only along Wagner’s path, there were also musicians who completely rejected the ideological and artistic value of Wagner’s works and saw in his influence only detrimental consequences for the evolution of musical art. The Wagnerians and their opponents took irreconcilably hostile positions. While sometimes expressing fair thoughts and observations, with their biased assessments they rather confused these issues rather than helping to resolve them. Such extreme points of view were not shared by the largest foreign composers second half of the 19th century century - Verdi, Bizet, Brahms - but even they, recognizing Wagner’s genius, did not accept everything in his music.
Wagner's work gave rise to conflicting assessments, because not only his multifaceted activity, but also the composer's personality itself was torn apart by severe contradictions. By one-sidedly emphasizing any one aspect of the complex image of the creator and man, Wagner’s apologists, as well as detractors, gave a distorted idea of his significance in the history of world culture. To correctly determine this meaning, one must understand Wagner's personality and life's work in all its complexity.
A double knot of contradictions characterizes Wagner. On the one hand, these are contradictions between worldview and creativity. Of course, one cannot deny the connections that existed between them, but the activities composer Wagner was far from coinciding with the activities of Wagner, the prolific writer-publicist, who expressed many reactionary thoughts on issues of politics and religion, especially in the last period of his life. On the other hand, both his aesthetic and socio-political views are sharply contradictory. A rebellious rebel, Wagner already arrived at the revolution of 1848-1849 with an extremely confused worldview. It remained so during the years of the defeat of the revolution, when reactionary ideology poisoned the composer’s consciousness with the poison of pessimism, gave rise to subjectivist sentiments, and led to the establishment of national-chauvinist or clerical ideas. All this could not but affect the contradictory nature of his ideological and artistic quests.
But Wagner is truly great in that, despite subjective reactionary views, despite their ideological instability, objectively reflected in artistic creativity essential aspects of reality, revealed - in an allegorical, figurative form - the contradictions of life, exposed the capitalist world of lies and deceit, exposed the drama of great spiritual aspirations, powerful impulses for happiness and unaccomplished heroic deeds, broken hopes. Not a single composer of the post-Beethoven period in foreign countries of the 19th century was able to raise such a large complex of burning issues of our time as Wagner. Therefore, he became the “ruler of thoughts” of a number of generations, and his work absorbed large, exciting problems of modern culture.
Wagner did not give a clear answer to the vital questions he posed, but his historical merit lies in the fact that he posed them so sharply. He was able to do this because he permeated all his activities with a passionate, irreconcilable hatred of capitalist oppression. Whatever he expressed in theoretical articles, whatever reactionary political views he defended, Wagner in his musical creativity has always been on the side of those who sought the active use of their powers in establishing a sublime and humane principle in life, against those who were mired in the swamp of petty-bourgeois well-being and self-interest. And, perhaps, no one else has been able to show with such artistic persuasiveness and power the tragedy of modern life, poisoned by bourgeois civilization.
A sharply expressed anti-capitalist orientation gives Wagner's work enormous progressive significance, although he was unable to understand the complexity of the phenomena he depicted.
Wagner is the last major romantic artist of the 19th century. Romantic ideas, themes, images were entrenched in his work even in the pre-revolutionary years; they were developed by him later. After the revolution of 1848, many prominent composers, under the influence of new social conditions, as a result of a sharper exposure of class contradictions, switched to other topics and switched to realistic positions in their coverage (the most striking example of this is Verdi). But Wagner remained a romantic, although his inherent inconsistency was reflected in the fact that at different stages of his activity, either the features of realism or, conversely, reactionary romanticism more actively appeared.
This commitment to romantic themes and the means of expressing them placed him in a special position among many of his contemporaries. The individual properties of Wagner’s personality, who was always dissatisfied and restless, also had an effect.
His life is full of unusual ups and downs, passions and periods of boundless despair. I had to overcome countless obstacles to promote my innovative ideas. Years, sometimes decades, passed before he was able to hear the scores own compositions. One had to have an ineradicable thirst for creativity in order to work in these difficult conditions the way Wagner worked. Serving art was the main motivation of his life. (“I exist not to earn money, but to create,” Wagner proudly declared). That is why, despite cruel ideological mistakes and breakdowns, relying on the progressive traditions of German music, he achieved such outstanding artistic results: following Beethoven, he sang the heroics of human daring, like Bach, with an amazing richness of shades he revealed the world of human spiritual experiences and, following the path Weber, embodied images of German folk legends and tales in music, and created magnificent pictures of nature. Such a variety of ideological and artistic solutions and perfect mastery are characteristic of the best works of Richard Wagner.
Themes, images and plots of Wagner's operas. Principles of musical dramaturgy. Features of musical language
Wagner as an artist emerged in the conditions of social upsurge in pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, he not only formalized his aesthetic views and outlined ways to transform musical theater, but also defined a circle of images and subjects close to himself. It was in the 40s, simultaneously with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, that Wagner thought through the plans for all the operas he worked on in the following decades (The exceptions are “Tristan” and “Parsifal”, the concept of which matured during the years of the defeat of the revolution; this explains the stronger influence of pessimistic moods than in other works.). He mainly drew material for these works from folk legends and tales. Their content, however, served him original a point for independent creativity, not ultimate purpose. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modern times, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, because, he said, every historical generation can discover in myth my topic. His sense of artistic proportion and tact betrayed him when subjectivist ideas took precedence over the objective meaning of folk legends, but in many cases, when modernizing plots and images, the composer managed to preserve the vital truth of folk poetry. The mixing of such different tendencies is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian drama, both its strengths and weaknesses. However, referring to epic plots and images, Wagner gravitated towards them purely psychological interpretation - this, in turn, gave rise to an acutely contradictory struggle between the “Siegfried” and “Tristan” principles in his work.
Wagner addressed ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic plots in them. He was less interested in the real situation of distant antiquity or the historical past, although here he achieved a lot, especially in “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg”, in which realistic tendencies were more pronounced. But above all, Wagner sought to show emotional drama strong characters. A modern epic of the struggle for happiness he consistently embodied in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, persecuted by fate, tormented by his conscience, passionately dreaming of peace; this is Tannhäuser, torn apart by a contradictory passion for sensual pleasure and for a moral, harsh life; this is Lohengrin, rejected and not understood by people.
The struggle of life in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Passion burns Tristan and Isolde; Elsa (in Lohengrin) dies after breaking the prohibition of her beloved. The inactive figure of Wotan is tragic; through lies and deceit he achieved illusory power, which brought grief to people. But the fate of Wagner’s most vital hero, Sigmund, is also tragic; and even Siegfried, far from the storms of life's dramas, this naive, powerful child of nature, is doomed to a tragic death. Everywhere and everywhere - a painful search for happiness, a desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they are not allowed to come true - lies and deceit, violence and deceit have entangled life.
According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness lies in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle. But love should not be passive - life is affirmed in achievement. Thus, the calling of Lohengrin - the defender of the innocently accused Elsa - is the fight for the rights of virtue; feat is life ideal Siegfried, his love for Brünnhilde calls him to new heroic deeds.
All Wagner's operas, starting with his mature works of the 40s, have features of ideological community and unity of musical and dramatic concept. The revolution of 1848-1849 marked an important milestone in the ideological and artistic evolution of the composer, increasing the inconsistency of his creativity. But basically the essence of the search for means of embodying a certain, stable range of ideas, themes, and images remained unchanged.
Wagner permeated his operas unity of dramatic expression, for which he unfolded the action in a continuous, continuous stream. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life, necessitated such continuity. Wagner was not alone in such quests. This was also achieved, each in his own way, by the best representatives of opera art of the 19th century - Russian classics, Verdi, Bizet, Smetana. But Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music Weber had outlined, most consistently developed the principles end-to-end development in the musical and dramatic genre. He merged individual opera episodes, scenes, even paintings together into a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expression with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic structures. But paying more and more attention to depicting the inner world of the characters by depicting externally scenic, effective moments, he introduced into his music features of subjectivism and psychological complexity, which in turn gave rise to verbosity and destroyed the form, making it loose and amorphous. All this exacerbated the inconsistency of Wagnerian dramaturgy.
One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. Wagner did not invent it: musical motifs that evoked certain associations with specific life phenomena or psychological processes were also used by composers french revolution the end of the 18th century, both by Weber and Meyerbeer, and in the field of symphonic music - by Berlioz, Liszt and others. But Wagner differs from his predecessors and contemporaries in his broader, more consistent use of this system (The fanatical Wagnerians made a fair mistake in studying this issue, trying to give every theme, even intonation, a leitmotif meaning and endow all leitmotifs, no matter how brief, with almost comprehensive content.).
Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score (However, in operas of the 40s the number of leitmotifs does not exceed ten.). He began composing the opera by developing a musical theme. So, for example, in the very first sketches of “The Ring of the Nibelung” the funeral march from “The Death of the Gods” is depicted, which, as said, contains a complex of the most important heroic themes of the tetralogy; First of all, the overture was written for “Die Meistersinger” - it enshrines the main thematic theme of the opera, etc.
Wagner's creative imagination is inexhaustible in inventing themes of remarkable beauty and plasticity, in which many essential phenomena of life are reflected and generalized. Often these themes provide an organic combination of expressive and figurative principles, which helps to concretize the musical image. In the operas of the 40s, the melodies are extended: the leading themes-images outline different facets of phenomena. This method of musical characterization is preserved in later works, but Wagner’s predilection for vague philosophizing sometimes gives rise to impersonal leitmotifs that are designed to express abstract concepts. These motives are brief, devoid of the warmth of human breath, incapable of development, and have no internal connection with each other. So along with themes-images arise themes-symbols.
Unlike the latter, the best themes of Wagner's operas do not live separately throughout the work, they do not represent unchanging, isolated formations. Quite the opposite. The leading motifs contain common features, and together they form certain thematic complexes that express shades and gradations of feelings or details of a single picture. Wagner brings together different topics and motives through subtle changes, comparisons or combinations of them at the same time. “The composer’s work on these motifs is truly amazing,” wrote Rimsky-Korsakov.
Wagner's dramatic method and his principles of symphonization of opera scores had an undoubted influence on the art of subsequent times. The largest composers of musical theater in the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries took advantage, to one degree or another, of the artistic achievements of the Wagnerian leitmotif system, although they did not accept its extremes (for example, Smetana and Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Prokofiev).
The interpretation of the vocal principle in Wagner's operas is also noted for its originality.
Fighting against superficial, uncharacteristic melody in a dramatic sense, he argued that vocal music should be based on the reproduction of intonations, or, as Wagner said, accents of speech. “Dramatic melody,” he wrote, “finds support in verse and language.” There are no fundamentally new points in this statement. During the 18th-19th centuries, many composers turned to the embodiment of speech intonations in music in order to update the intonation structure of their works (for example, Gluck, Mussorgsky). Wagner's sublime declamation introduced a lot of new things into music of the XIX century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Singers performing Wagner's operas also faced unprecedentedly new creative challenges. But, based on his abstract and speculative concepts, he sometimes unilaterally emphasized declamatory elements to the detriment of song elements, subordinating the development of the vocal element to symphonic development.
Of course, many pages of Wagner's operas are filled with full-blooded, varied vocal melody, conveying the finest shades of expressiveness. The operas of the 40s are rich in such melodicism, among which “The Flying Dutchman” stands out for its folk song style of music, and “Lohengrin” for its melodiousness and heartfelt warmth. But in subsequent works, especially in “Die Walküre” and “Die Meistersinger,” the vocal part is endowed with great content and acquires leading importance. One can recall Sigmund’s “spring song”, the monologue about the sword Notung, the love duet, the dialogue between Brünnhilde and Sigmund, Wotan’s farewell; in "Die Meistersinger" - Walter's songs, Sax's monologues, his songs about Eve and the shoemaker angel, quintet, folk choirs; in addition - songs of sword forging (in the opera “Siegfried”); Siegfried's story on the hunt, Brünnhilde's dying monologue (“Death of the Gods”), etc. But there are also pages of the score where the vocal part either takes on an exaggeratedly pompous tone, or, on the contrary, is relegated to the role of an optional appendage to the orchestral part. Such a violation of the artistic balance between the vocal and instrumental principles is characteristic of the internal inconsistency of Wagner's musical dramaturgy.
Wagner's achievements as a symphonist are indisputable; he consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work. His overtures and orchestral introductions (Wagner created four operatic overtures (for the operas “Rienzi”, “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser”, “Die Meistersinger”) and three architecturally completed orchestral introductions (“Lohengrin”, “Tristan”, “Parsifal”).), symphonic intermissions and numerous paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, “the richest material for fine music, and where Wagner’s texture turned out to be suitable for at this moment, there he turned out to be truly great and powerful due to the plasticity of his images, thanks to his incomparable, ingenious instrumentation and expression.” Tchaikovsky equally highly regarded symphonic music Wagner, noting “unprecedentedly beautiful instrumentation” and “an amazing wealth of harmonic and polyphonic fabric.” V. Stasov, like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, who condemned Wagner’s operatic work for many things, wrote that his orchestra “is new, rich, often dazzling in color, in poetry and charm of the strongest, but also the most delicate and sensually charming colors... ."
Already in the early works of the 40s, Wagner achieved brilliance, fullness and richness of orchestral sound; introduced a triple cast (in “The Ring of the Nibelung” - a quadruple cast); used the range of strings more widely, especially due to the upper register (his favorite technique is the high arrangement of string chords divisi); gave a melodic purpose to brass instruments (such is the powerful unison of three trumpets and three trombones in the reprise of the Tannhäuser overture or the unisons of brass on a moving harmonic background of strings in Ride of the Valkyries and The Spell of Fire, etc.). By mixing the sound of the three main groups of the orchestra (strings, wood, brass), Wagner achieved flexible, plastic variability of the symphonic fabric. High contrapuntal skill helped him in this. Moreover, his orchestra is not only colorful, but also characteristic, sensitively reacting to the development of dramatic feelings and situations.
Wagner also appears to be an innovator in the field of harmony. In search of the strongest expressive effects, he intensified the tension of musical speech, saturated it with chromatisms, alterations, complex chord complexes, created a “multi-layered” polyphonic texture, and used bold, extraordinary modulations. These quests sometimes gave rise to exquisite tension in style, but never acquired the character of artistically unjustified experiments.
Wagner sharply opposed the search for “musical combinations for their own sake, only for the sake of their inherent sharpness.” Addressing young composers, he adjured them to “never turn harmonic and orchestral effects into an end in themselves.” Wagner was an opponent of groundless daring; he fought for the truthful expression of deeply human feelings and thoughts and in this regard maintained contact with the progressive traditions of German music, becoming one of its most outstanding representatives. But throughout its long and difficult life in art he was sometimes carried away by false ideas and deviated from the right path.
Without forgiving Wagner for his errors, noting the significant contradictions in his views and creativity, rejecting the reactionary features in them, we highly value the genius German artist, who principledly and confidently defended his ideals, enriching world culture with wonderful musical creations.
M. Druskin
If we want to make a list of characters, scenes, costumes, objects that abound in Wagner's operas, we will see fairy world. Dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods and demigods, spears, helmets, swords, trumpets, rings, horns, harps, banners, storms, rainbows, swans, doves, lakes, rivers, mountains, fires, seas and ships on them, miraculous phenomena and disappearances, bowls of poison and magical drinks, disguises, flying horses, enchanted castles, fortresses, duels, inaccessible peaks, sky-high heights, underwater and earthly abysses, blooming gardens, sorceresses, young heroes, disgusting evil creatures, immaculate and eternally young beauties , priests and knights, passionate lovers, cunning sages, powerful rulers and rulers suffering from terrible spells... Needless to say, magic, witchcraft reigns everywhere, and the constant background of everything is the struggle between good and evil, sin and salvation , darkness and light. To describe all this, the music must be magnificent, dressed in luxurious clothes, full of small details, like a great realistic novel, inspired by the fantasy that feeds adventure and chivalric novels in which anything can happen. Even when Wagner narrates ordinary events commensurate with ordinary people, he always tries to get away from everyday life: to depict love, its charms, contempt for danger, unlimited personal freedom. All his adventures arise spontaneously, and the music turns out natural, flowing as if there were no obstacles in its path: it has a power that dispassionately embraces all possible life and turns it into a miracle. She easily and outwardly nonchalantly moves from pedantic imitation of pre-19th century music to the most stunning innovations, to the music of the future.
German composer and art theorist Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig (Germany). His father Karl Friedrich Wagner died of typhus on November 23, 1813. Soon, Wagner's mother Johanna Rosina remarried the actor and painter Ludwig Geyer, who actually replaced Richard's father.
Richard Wagner with early age felt an attraction to music, especially highlighting the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. He attended school in Dresden, then in Leipzig. At the age of fifteen he wrote his first theater play, and at the age of sixteen he began composing music. In 1831, Wagner entered the University of Leipzig and at the same time began studying music theory under the guidance of Theodor Weinlig, cantor of the Church of St. Thomas. A year later, the symphony created by Wagner was successfully performed in the main concert hall Leipzig Gewandhause. In 1833, Wagner received a position as theater choirmaster in Würzburg and composed the opera “Fairies” (based on Carlo Gozzi’s play “The Snake Woman”), which was not staged during the composer’s lifetime.
In 1835, Wagner wrote his second opera, The Forbidden Love (based on Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure), which premiered in Magdeburg in 1836. By that time, Wagner had already made his debut as a conductor (he performed with a small opera troupe). In 1836, Wagner settled in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), where he was given the position of musical director of the city theater. In 1837, he took a similar position in Riga and began writing his third opera, Rienzi (based on the novel by the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton). In Riga, Wagner began active conducting activities, performing mainly the music of Beethoven. Wagner made a genuine revolution in the art of conducting. To achieve more complete contact with the orchestra, he abandoned the custom of conducting while facing the audience and turned to face the orchestra.
In 1839, Wagner and his wife, fleeing creditors, moved from Riga to London, and from there to Paris. Here Wagner became close to Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz. His source of income was working for publishing houses and theaters; At the same time, he composed the words and music for the opera The Flying Dutchman. In 1842, Wagner returned to Germany. The production of his opera Rienzi in Dresden brought him great success. At the same time, the opera "The Flying Dutchman", staged in 1843, was received more restrainedly. On April 13, 1845, Wagner completed work on the opera Tannhäuser, and on October 19 of the same year the work premiered in Dresden.
From 1845 to 1848, Richard Wagner devoted a large amount of time to the study of Scandinavian mythology and German epic, which was reflected in the opera Lohengrin, as well as in his work on sketches for the texts of the operas The Ring of the Nibelung and Die Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
In 1849, Wagner took part in the Dresden anti-government revolt and, after its defeat, fled first to Weimar and then, through Paris, to Switzerland. Having been declared a state criminal, he did not cross the borders of Germany for 13 years. During his stay in Zurich, Wagner began writing aesthetic treatises, which he began publishing in 1850. In his works “Art and Revolution”, “Artwork of the Future”, “Opera and Drama”, he expressed deeply philosophical views on art and the theory of musical drama.
In 1858, Wagner left Switzerland, and in 1861 his opera Tannhäuser was staged at the Paris Opera. Despite the fact that Wagner reworked the opera in accordance with the tastes of the French public (in particular, he added a large ballet bacchanalia scene at the beginning of the first act), the work was brutally booed.
In 1862, Wagner received a full amnesty and the right to unhindered entry into Germany. In 1863, the composer visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he introduced the public to excerpts from his operas. In addition, Wagner conducted many of Beethoven's symphonies.
In 1865, the opera Tristan and Isolde was staged in Munich, then, three years later, Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg, Das Rheingold, and Die Walküre. The appearance of these last two operas on the Munich stage was the first attempt to perform the enormous cycle “The Ring of the Nibelung”, which Wagner was bringing to an end.
This tetralogy with mythological plot, according to Wagner, required a theater with a stage equipped with all kinds of innovations. Friends and admirers of Wagner, led by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, financially helped to implement this idea and a Wagner theater was erected in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. The Bayreuth Festival Theater opened in the summer of 1876 with a production of the entire “Ring of the Nibelung” under the direction of Hans Richter. The entire tetralogy lasts about 18 hours (the longest piece of music in history). "Das Rheingold" is not divided into acts and serves as an "opening evening", while the other three operas - "Die Walküre", "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods" - contain three acts each ("Twilight of the Gods" also has a prologue , which makes the structure of this opera similar to the structure of the tetralogy as a whole).
Completion creative path The composer became the opera ("solemn stage mystery") "Parsifal" based on the epic novel by the German medieval poet-knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, which premiered in 1882.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources