Richard Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries

Interesting facts from the life of Wagner:

The future composer’s love for music was influenced by his stepfather, who in every possible way contributed to the development of his stepson’s musical talent.
The musical genius graduated from school at the age of thirteen.
The period of age from 20 to 30 years of Wagner was marked by great need – he barely made ends meet, earning a living as a conductor and choirmaster. During this time he managed to live in Magdeburg, Königsberg and Riga.
At the age of 36 he took part in the Dresden uprising. Following the defeat of the rebels, Wagner fled to Switzerland. It was these events that prompted him to write the famous cycle “The Ring of the Nibelung”.
Richard Wagner had a huge influence on the art of opera, in fact becoming its reformer.
He was married twice, the second time to the daughter of the composer Franz Liszt, who left her husband and two children for him (see interesting facts about Franz Liszt).
When fame and fame came to him, Wagner still remained a poor man. Fortunately for him, the king of Bavaria favored the talented composer – in fact, he supported him and paid all his debts.
Wagner’s personality was ambiguous – for example, he was noted for a number of anti-Semitic speeches and publications, which is why many scandals erupted around him at one time.
The famous composer Rimsky-Korsakov publicly criticized Wagner’s work.
Wagner’s phenomenal memory allowed him to conduct Beethoven’s works by heart. This once led to a funny story in London, where he was asked to play with the score. He obeyed, and after the concert the audience vied with each other to praise Wagner with the words “well, this is a completely different matter, not like learning by heart!” And then everyone saw that the score belonged to a different work, was written in a different language, and generally lay upside down on the music stand.
The aforementioned Ring of the Nibelung cycle lasts sixteen hours.
Wagner wrote fourteen operas, not counting many other, smaller works.
He sympathized with the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer.
When composing operas, the composer dressed himself in clothes appropriate to the time in which the action of the work he created took place.
Wagner considered his work primarily as a way to convey his philosophical ideas to the public.
To ensure the ideal sound of “Ring of the Nibelung”, he built his own theater in the city of Bayreuth, believing that none of the already existing opera houses in the world were capable of “sounding” properly.
Richard Wagner wrote many works on the history and theory of art.
The great German composer died of a heart attack in Venice