Richard Wagner and His Poetical Work, from "Rienzi" to "Parsifal"

Richard Wagner was born May 22, 1813, in Leipsic, Germany. He died in Venice on February 13, 1883. His father was a Leipsic city official, who gave his son the benefit of the illustrious Thomas School, preparatory to a university career. The latter, however, was not of much advantage to him, as young Wagner devoted himself mainly to musical studies. He led a theatre orchestra in Magdeburg, then in Königsberg, then in Riga.
From the latter place he went, in 1839, to Paris, where he completed Rienzi and the Flying Dutchman, in 1841. The latter was suggested by a gale which Wagner experienced during a short voyage. Rienzi was first brought out at Dresden in 1842, and led to Wagner's appointment as orchestra leader in Dresden, where he brought out his Tanhäuser in 1845. In 1849 Wagner had to leave Germany for political reasons, and went to Switzerland, where Lohengrin was finished and the tetralogy of the Nibelung was begun. Wagner then lived in Italy, Vienna, and Paris, where Tanhäuser met with a disastrous presentation in 1861, and led accidentally to the following pages.
In 1864 Wagner became intimate with Louis II., the young King of Bavaria, under whose zealous patronage he brought out his Tristan in 1857 the Mastersingers in 1768, Rhinegold in 1853 and the Walkyria in 1870,—all at Munich, wrote the text for his operas, and also numerous pamphlets, most of which led to acrimonious discussions. Wagner's musical ideals received some outward impulses from the Oberammergau passion play and the success of the Franco-Prussian war, which led to the establishment of the German Empire. A special Wagner theatre was begun in 1872 at Bayreuth, where the master has since lived, and his works were first presented in 1876, in entire harmony with his vast requirements. Wagner's last work, Parsifal, was published in 1878.
Wagner's early writings were collected in an edition of nine volumes, published in Leipsic, 1871 to 1873. His life was written by Glasenapp in two volumes, 1876 to 1878. Kastner published a Wagner catalogue. But it will take years, perhaps decades, before a final and just estimate can be formed of so great a master. The following pages were written by Judith Gautier, the Paris writer, and translated by an American lady. They have gone through several European editions, as they give an account of Wagner's opera texts, and pay a tribute to the genius of the great composer, who was also a remarkable and original author.