by Simon Callow
CHRONOLOGY
1813 22 May: Richard Wagner born in Leipzig. 23 November: death of father, Carl Friedrich Wagner.
1821 30 September: Ludwig Geyer, Richard’s stepfather, dies.
1822 Attends school in Dresden, as Wilhelm Richard Geyer.
1825 Performs Weber’s Der Freischütz for friends.
1826 Translates first three books of Homer’s Odyssey into German.
1827 Begins Leubald: a Tragedy. Drops the name Geyer.
1828 Studies at the Nikolai-Gymnasium.
1829 Sees Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient perform on stage, and decides to become a musician. Composes piano sonatas, string quartet.
1830 Arranges Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for piano. Composes three overtures, including the Drum Beat, which is performed in Leipzig.
1831 Studies music with Theodor Weinlig.
1832 Works on The Wedding. Symphony in C performed in Prague. Piano Sonata in B-flat major published.
1833 Composition of The Fairies.
1834 Musical director in Lauchstädt and Magdeburg. Beginning of relationship with Minna Planer.
1835 Works on The Ban on Love.
1836 Premiere of The Ban on Love. 24 November: marries Minna Planer.
1837 Appointed musical director in Riga. Rosalie Wagner dies.
1838 Begins work on Rienzi.
1839 Flight from Riga. Wagner escapes his creditors. Travels to London and then to Paris.
1840 Completes Rienzi. First version of Faust overture. Meets Liszt.
1841 Composition of The Flying Dutchman.
1842 Richard and Minna leave Paris for Dresden. 20 October: premiere of Rienzi in Dresden.
1843 2 January: premiere of The Flying Dutchman in Dresden. Takes on the position of Court Kapellmeister in Dresden. Composes The Apostles’ Love Feast.
1844 Works on Tannhäuser. The Flying Dutchman opens in Berlin, Rienzi in Hamburg. Weber’s remains brought to Dresden from London.
1845 19 October: premiere of Tannhäuser in Dresden. Prose sketches of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg and Lohengrin.
1846 Begins composition of Lohengrin. Conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time.
1848 9 January: death of Wagner’s mother, Johanna. Wagner gets involved in politics and becomes a revolutionary. Prose sketch for The Ring of the Nibelung. Libretto-poem for Siegfried’s Death.
1850 Exile in Zurich. Writes Judaism in Music. 28 August: premiere of Lohengrin in Weimar, under direction of Franz Liszt.
1851 Writes Opera and Drama.
1852 Completes libretto-poem of The Ring of the Nibelung in Zurich.
1853 Composes Prelude to The Rhinegold. Concerts in Zurich. Writes piano sonata for Mathilde Wesendonck.
1854 Reads Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Presentation for the first time. First ideas for Tristan and Isolde.
1855 Revises Faust overture. Travels to London where he gives eight concerts.
1856 23 March: completion of The Valkyrie. First sketches for Siegfried.
1857 Stays at the Wesendoncks’. Relationship between Richard and Minna deteriorates. 9 August: completes sketches to Act II of Siegfried. Writes libretto and begins composition of Tristan and Isolde.
1858 The relationship between Richard and Mathilde Wesendonck causes a separation between Richard and Minna. Minna goes to Dresden. Wagner leaves for Venice, where he works on Tristan.
1859 Completes Tristan and Isolde. Travels to Paris, where Minna joins him.
1860 Conducts his own music in Paris. Partial amnesty from German Confederation.
1861 Tannhäuser in Paris. Sees Lohengrin for the first time, in Vienna, where rehearsals for Tristan begin. Reads libretto of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg to friends.
1862 Last meeting with Minna, in Biebrich. Works on The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. Conducts Lohengrin for the first time (in Frankfurt). Spends time with Minna in Dresden, the last time they see each other. Full amnesty from Saxon king.
1863 Concert tours in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia. Wagner and Cosima von Bülow meet in Berlin, and declare that they belong to each other.
1864 In flight from creditors. King Ludwig II invites Wagner to Munich; Wagner moves into Haus Pellet by Lake Starnberg. Cosima and Hans von Bülow stay with him for two months. Wagner conducts first Munich performance of The Flying Dutchman.
1865 10 April: birth of Isolde, first child of Richard and Cosima. Premiere of Tristan and Isolde in Munich. Wagner begins writing My Life. Completes Act II of Siegfried. 10 December: Wagner is driven out of Bavaria.
1866 25 January: death of Minna Wagner. Wagner settles in Tribschen, near Lucerne. Works on The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
1867 Cosima in Tribschen. 17 February: Eva, second child of Richard and Cosima, born. Cosima finally leaves Bülow. Mastersingers completed.
1868 21 June: premiere of Mastersingers in Munich. Wagner and Nietzsche meet in Leipzig. Cosima moves in with Wagner in Tribschen permanently.
1869 Nietzsche starts visiting Tribschen on a regular basis. Wagner begins Act III of Siegfried. Birth of Siegfried Wagner. Premiere of The Rhinegold in Munich; Wagner not present. Starts work on The Twilight of the Gods.
1870 Premiere of The Valkyrie in Munich; Wagner absent. Official divorce of Cosima and Hans von Bülow. Wagner and Cosima marry in Lucerne. 25 December (Cosima’s birthday): first performance of Siegfried Idyll.
1871 Completion of Siegfried. Wagner chooses Bayreuth as location for his festival.
1872 Moves to Bayreuth. Foundation stone is laid for the construction of the Festspielhaus. Tours Germany with Cosima recruiting performers for the first season.
1873 Reads libretto of The Twilight of the Gods to friends and patrons in Berlin. Gives concerts in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin.
1875 Extensive concert tours in Vienna, Budapest and Berlin. Further rehearsals in Bayreuth. Wagner directs productions of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin in Vienna.
1876 Wagner writes Grand Festival March in Celebration of the American Declaration of Independence. Tristan and Isolde in Vienna to raise funds for Bayreuth. August: first Bayreuth Festival opens with The Ring of the Nibelung: three complete cycles performed. Wagner and family travel to Italy. Meets Nietzsche one last time in Sorrento.
1877 First American performance of The Flying Dutchman, in New York. Wagner begins working on Parsifal. Concerts in London and for Queen Victoria at Windsor. Reads Parsifal libretto to friends in Heidelberg.
1878 Wagner conducts Prelude to Parsifal at Villa Wahnfried. Continues working on the opera.
1879 More work on Parsifal. Second festival postponed again.
1880 Works on Parsifal during ten-month Italian sojourn. Conducts Prelude to Parsifal in Munich for Ludwig; they never meet again.
1881 Another long sojourn in Italy, working on Parsifal. Frequently ill.
1882 January:
Parsifal at last completed, in Palermo, Sicily. Rehearsals in Bayreuth, under the baton of Hermann Levi. After the festival, Wagner travels to Venice with family. Conducts his early Symphony in C in Teatro La Fenice.
1883 Starts pamphlet on ‘The Feminine Element in Mankind’. 13 February: Wagner dies in Venice. 18 February: funeral in Bayreuth.
WAGNER’S WORKS
From John Deathridge, Martin Geck, and Egon Voss’s Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis (WWV): Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard Wagners und ihrer Quellen (Schott Musik International, Mainz, London, & New York, 1986). I have translated the German opera and titles into English.
1 tragedy Leubald (1826–28)
2 piano Sonata in D minor
3 aria Aria (1829; lost)
4 chamber music String Quartet in D major
5 piano Sonata in F minor
6 opera Pastoral Opera (Lovers’ Caprices) (early 1830?; lost)
7 lieder Lieder (1828–30; drafts)
8 aria Aria for soprano and orchestra (early 1830?; lost)
9 arrangement Piano reduction of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (1830–31)
10 orchestral Overture in B-flat major (Drum-Beat) (1830; lost)
11 orchestral Political Overture (c.1830; lost)
12 orchestral Overture to Schiller’s The Bride of Messina (1830; lost?)
13 orchestral Fragment of an orchestral work in E minor (c.1830)
14 orchestral Overture in C major (1830; lost)
15 lieder Seven Compositions on Goethe’s Faust
16 piano 4-hands Sonata in B-flat major, for four hands
17 orchestral Overture in E-flat major (1831; lost)
18 arrangement Piano reduction of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major (1831; lost)
19A choral Study fugue Thine is the Kingdom (1831–32)
19B choral ? Double Fugue (1831–32)
20 orchestral Concert Overture No. 1 in D minor (1831)
21 piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 1 (1831)
22 piano Fantasia in F-sharp minor (1831)
23A piano Polonaise for piano (1831–32)
23B piano 4-hands Polonaise for piano, four hands (1832)
24 orchestral Overture in E minor and Theatre Music to Raupach’s König Enzio
25 orchestral Entracte tragique No. 1 in D major (fragment)
26 piano Grand Sonata in A major (1832)
27 orchestral Concert Overture No. 2 in C major
28 aria Scene and aria for soprano and orchestra
29 orchestral Symphony in C major
30 lieder Evening Bells
31 opera The Wedding (1832–33)
32 grand romantic opera The Fairies
33 aria Aria No. 15 (Aubry) Like a Lovely Spring Morning from the opera The Vampire by Heinrich Marschner with a new allegro ‘But now, wherever I look, I am confronted by horrors of the night’
34 arrangement Instrumentation of a cavatina from Bellini’s The Pirate
35 orchestral Symphony in E major
36 orchestral Music for the Pageant for the Arrival of the New Year 1835
37 orchestral Overture to Guido Theodor Apel’s historic drama Columbus
38 grand comic opera The Ban on Love or The Novice of Palermo
39 orchestral Polonia (Wagner); Overture in C major
40 grand opera The Noble Bride
41 incidental music Music for the play The Last Heathen Conspiracy in Prussia or The German Knightly Order in Königsberg by J. Singer, Sketches
42 orchestral Rule Britannia. Overture in D major
43 aria ‘Gentle melancholy longs to stir’. Aria for bass and orchestra. Excerpt from the opera Mary, Max und Michel by Carl Blum
44 choral Folk hymn Nicolay
45 aria Bass aria from The Swiss Family
46B arrangement Giacomo Meyerbeer: Robert Le Diable No. 18 (C). Cavatina and re-orchestration
46C arrangement Carl Maria von Weber: Euryanthe No. 18. Hunting chorus and re-orchestration
46D arrangement Fromental Halévy: The Guitarist for several instruments
46E arrangement Arrangements of Halévy’s The Queen of Cyprus
46F arrangement Daniel Auber: Zanetta or Playing with Fire. Arrangement for flute and string trio, Suites No. 1 and 2
47 arrangement Gioachino Rossini: Les soirées musicales, No. 12 Duet ‘Li Marinari’, instrumentation
48 comic opera Man’s Wit trumps Woman’s, or The Happy Bear Family
49 grand tragic opera Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes
50 lieder The Christmas Tree
51 choral Funeral music for Julies von Holtei
52 choral ? Norma, il predisse, o Druidi, aria for bass, male chorus, and orchestra from the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini
53 song Dors mon enfant
54 song Extase (fragment)
55 song Attente
56 song La tombe dit à rose (fragment)
57 song Mignonne
58 song Tout n’est qu’images fugitives (Soupir)
59 orchestral Faust Symphonie, first movement (A Faust Overture, first version)
59 orchestral Faust Overture (second version)
60 song Les deux grenadiers
61 song Adieux de Marie Stuart
62B arrangement Arrangements from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera La favorite
62C arrangement Henri Herz: Grande Fantaisie sur La Romanesca fameux air de danse du XVI siècle, Op. 111. Arrangement for piano four-hands
62E arrangement Arrangements of Fromental Halévy’s opera in five acts The Queen of Cyprus
63 romantic opera The Flying Dutchman (1840–1841)
64 piano Album Leaf for Ernst Benedikt Kietz: Song without Words
65 piano ? ‘Descendons gaiement la courtille’. Contribution to the Vaudeville-Ballet-Pantomime La descente de la courtille by Th. Marion Dumersan and Ch.-Désiré Dupeuty, for chorus and orchestra
66 opera The Saracen Woman
67 opera The Falun Mine
68 choral Cantata The Day Breaks
68A choral Cantata on the Unveiling of the Monument to Friedrich Augustus
69 choral The Apostles’ Pentecost
70 grand romantic opera
Tannhäuser and the Song Contest on the Wartburg (1842–45)
71 choral Greeting from his Loyal People to Friedrich August (II of Saxony)
72 choral At Weber’s Grave
73 orchestral Funeral music
74 arrangement Orchestration of Spontini’s La vestale
75 romantic opera Lohengrin (1850)
76 opera ? Friedrich I
77 arrangement Arrangement of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s tragic opera Iphigénie en Aulide
78 orchestral Symphonies
79 arrangement Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Stabat mater; arrangement
80 opera Jesus of Nazareth (1849; scenario and 1 musical sketch)
81 opera ? Achilleus (1849–50)
82 heroic opera Wieland the Smith (1849–50; scenario only)
83 arrangement Arrangement of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1850)
84 piano Polka (1853)
85 piano A Sonata for the Album of Frau MW (1853)
86A Stage Festival Play, preliminary evening Das Rheingold (1853–54)
86B Stage Festival Play, first day Die Walküre (1854–56)
86C Stage Festival Play, second day Siegfried (1856–71)
86D Stage Festival Play, third day The Twilight of the Gods (1869–74)
87 arrangement Concert ending for the Overture to Gluck’s Iphigenie in Aulis (1854)
88 piano Zurich Sweetheart-Waltzes (1854)
