The Wagner Tuba

  • Wagner Tuba
    • Introduction
    • Wagner Tuba History
      • The Vision
      • The Apprentice
      • Trials and Transpositions
      • Fruition
      • The Disciple
      • Wagner’s Heirs
      • Modern Voices
      • Wagner Tuba Revival
    • Physical Properties & Range
    • Wagner Tuba Notation
    • Position in The Score
    • Seating in the Orchestra
  • Composers
    • Wagner Tuba Composers
    • Stephen Caudel
    • Andrew Downes
    • Jan Koetsier
    • Jorge E. López
    • Elisabeth Lutyens
  • Richard Wagner
    • Introduction
    • Birth in Leipzig
    • The ‘Acting’ Father
    • Wagner the Student
    • Early Compositions
    • Marriage to Minna Planer
    • Wagner in Paris
    • Mathilde Wesendonk
    • King Ludwig II of Bavaria
    • Wagner and Cosima
    • Bayreuth & Final Years
  • The Brass Section
    • Introduction
    • French Horn Introduction
      • French Horn History
      • French Horn Range
      • The Double Horn
      • French Horn Manufacturers
      • Famous Horn Players
      • French Horn Repertoire
      • Learning The French Horn
      • French Horn Orchestration
      • Contemporary Jazz Horn
    • Trumpet Introduction
      • Types Of Trumpet
      • Trumpet History
      • Trumpet Range
      • Famous Trumpet Players
    • Trombone
    • Tuba
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Bayreuth & the Final Years

As he grew older, one thing still frustrated Wagner: his need to find a permanent theatre in which he could produce his operas. Eventually he settled in Bayreuth, a small provincial town midway between Berlin and Munich and in spite of many problems, somehow he managed to raise the money and put on the festival which was successful enough to become a regular fixture even to this day.

LohengrinAlthough he suffered several heart attacks, Wagner did live to see his dream come true, that is to say a performance of his cycle: the Ring of the Nibelungen exactly as he had conceived it between the 13th and the 30th of August 1876.

He completed his last opera: Parsifal in Palermo in January 1882. The legend of Parsifal was also the background for one of Wagner’s earlier works, Lohengrin (left). The libretto for this work draws on a number of other medieval Teutonic legends centred around around the Knights of the Holy Grail. A second Bayreuth Festival was held for Parsifal but by this time. Wagner was extremely ill, having suffered through a series of increasingly severe angina attacks. Incredibly, during the sixteenth and final performance of Parsifal on 29th August, he secretly entered the pit during Act III, took the baton from conductor Hermann Levi, and led the performance to its conclusion.

Palazzo Vendramin VeniceWagner moved with his family to Ca’ Vendramin Calergi – a C16th palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice (right) on the 14th of September 1882 intending to write some one movement symphonies but whilst working at his desk on the 13th of February 1883, he had a final fatal heart attack. His body was returned to Bayreuth and he was buried with great ceremony at Wahnfried, his house in Bayreuth where his festival was established and which still endures today – a testament to his single-minded genius and determination.

Back to Richard Wagner’s Life – Introduction

RICHARD WAGNER MENU

  • Richard Wagner’s Life
    • Wagner’s Birth in Leipzig
    • The ‘Acting’ Father
    • Wagner the Student
    • Wagner – Early Compositions
    • Marriage to Minna Planer
    • Wagner in Paris
    • Mathilde Wesendonk
    • King Ludwig II of Bavaria
    • Wagner and Cosima
    • Bayreuth & the Final Years

THE LEITMOTIF

Wagner was arguably the greatest exponant of the Leitmotif. In simple terms this is a theme meant to represent a character in a dramatic work. In his essay "Opera and Drama" (1851) Wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a music drama. The leitmotif corresponds to this ideal.

Modern film composers use this technique extensively today.

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