2024-07-26 12:42:00
The integrated works of art from the symbiosis of music, speech, dramatic theater, scenery and architecture, with the concept of gesamtkunswerk, made Richard Wagner and his operas famous throughout the world. Every year the festival in Bayreuth, where the composer opened a theater for his own compositions in 1876, attracts about 60 thousand fans of this German composer.
It was clear from the beginning: Richard Wagner liked to keep everything in his hands. Until now, the operas referred to were performed at the Bayreuth Festival, and the proposal to expand the list of works and composers was considered as an attack on sanctity. It is also unbelievable that during his life Wagner came to create a cult around himself, was, so to speak, an influence, and worked on self-promotion. He readily sees himself as a Renaissance man in robes of satin and brocade, wearing Albrecht Dürer’s headdress and beard. “This picture shows the role of the master that Wagner wanted to be known as, and in this he succeeded,” said Sven Friedrich, director of the company. Richard Wagner Museum Bayreuth. The exhibition “Wagner as a Man” (“Mensch Wagner”), organized here, shows the underside of the person of the composer Wagner – behind the facade of the cult around him.
Richard Wagner and his image of superman
Richard Wagner was not only a conductor and composer, but also a poet, playwright, music writer, philosopher of art and director. His children contribute to your image powerful This myth is still alive. The main role in it is given to Wagner’s music, especially his operas. The repeated leitmotifs in them were a novelty for that time and touched the audience. As during Wagner’s lifetime, today many couples get married to the “Bridal Chorus” from his opera “Lohengrin”, despite its tragic ending.
The concert hall in Bayreuth was built with the participation of Richard Wagner for his own compositionsPhoto: Daniel Karmann/dpa/photo association
Richard Wagner was a man full of contradictions. As a young man, he participated in the March Revolution of 1848-1849 in Germany – a rebellion for freedom, democracy and against the bourgeoisie. This did not stop him from living and working on the money of the rich, who borrowed almost never to return. The biggest patron was King Ludwig II of Bavaria (Ludwig II von Bayern), without his financial support, among other things, the Festival Hall would not have been built in Bayreuth.
Unsavory personality traits of Richard Wagner
It is also known that Richard Wagner was a strong anti-Semite. In 1850, when anti-Semitism was on the rise in Europe, he published a pamphlet, “Judas in Music,” under a pseudonym, in which he wrote about the ability of Jews to express themselves. in a way. This situation played into the hands of the National Socialists at the beginning of the 20th century. Hitler was one of the most devoted fans of Wagner’s operas in the 1930s.
Wagner moved beyond his power and used people for his own purposes. He was always in need of money, and more than once he was forced to flee from his foreign creditors, he willingly used such a situation to help his Jewish acquaintances. Giacomo Meyerbeer, a German composer of Jewish origin and a prominent figure of French opera, helped him with money and contacts in Paris. Wagner later rejected his former teammate.
In general, Wagner was not a simple and happy person. The German composer and composer Clara Schumann did not like her pride and teary smile. Sven Friedrich, director of the Bayreuth museum, said: “Wagner was a small man, deceitful and selfish. Thomas Mann called him a “sniffling dwarf from Saxony” with “prodigious talent and a mean character.”
Wagner – a child of his time
The identity of the composer at the Bayreuth exhibition can be learned from personal testimonies, and from the recollections of his relatives and associates. Wagner’s second wife Cosima Wagner describes in her writings their life together, her husband’s preferences and fears, which manifest themselves in his dreams. He was often expected to apologize publicly to Giacomo Meyerbeer, who had hated him, while the audience applauded. For the first time, the exhibition presents Wagner’s financial receipts, bank statements, and books with medical and dietary recipes. The inventor was tormented by shingles throughout his life;
Richard Wagner’s wallet and notebookPhoto: Richard-Wagner-Museum
The organizers of the exhibition, which runs until October 6, sought to present Wagner not as a creative vision, but as a child of his time and life circumstances. That’s why there are many items from your daily life here. Here you can find shoes, handbags, composer’s manuals, and documents related to the construction of the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth, where the noisy Wagner lived with his family away from the noise of the big city. Today, within its walls there is a museum where an exhibition is taking place.
Villa Wahnfried, where the inventor once lived, is now a museum Photo: Gaby Reucher/DW
In search of peace and quiet, Wagner also goes on hikes. He welcomed creativity and cursed 19th century industrialism. At the same time, he did not deprive himself of the facilities associated with progress – in particular, he traveled by train. In search of money for the preparation of the Bayreuth festival, which he founded, he traveled all over the country – and in a separate car.
The travels and works of Wagner
Life took Wagner to different parts of Europe – depending on where he had work. In Riga he was the director of the German City Theater. The design of the seats and the deep wire pit will later serve as a model for him during the Festival Building in Bayreuth. A group of Richard Wagner fans ensured that the former theater, which was empty in the capital of Latvia, was returned to its original appearance.
Richard Wagner’s shoesPhoto: Richard-Wagner-Museum
In Riga, Wagner worked on his first opera Rienzi, which premiered in Dresden in 1842 and his work in Paris made him famous as a composer. In the capital of France, he wrote the Faust overture and the opera The Flying Dutchman, which was inspired by a long journey on a stormy ship – from Riga through London to Paris. “The Flying Dutchman” is currently in the Bayreuth festival program. The orchestra will be conducted by Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv.
After the March Revolution of 1849, Richard Wagner fled to Zurich, where he began work on the libretto for The Ring of the Nibelungs and wrote the opera Tristan und Isolde. This year, on July 25, his new production featuring Icelandic actor Thorleifur Orn Arnarson will open the Bayreuth Festival.
In the event of his death, Richard Wagner ordered the construction of a crypt in the garden of Villa Wahnfried. He died in Venice in 1883 without leaving a will. Until 1908, the Bayreuth Festival was directed by his wife Cosima. Since 2008, his granddaughter Katharina Wagner has been the director.
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