The Music Room

To Brebru.com

To Band Pages

 

Wagner in 1842

The life and times of Wagner
- a comparative chronology

1810 | 1820 | 1830 | 1840 | 1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 |

This chronology traces Wagner's main compositions and his movements across Europe. The links to the different places where Wagner lived should open a window with a short comment on the chosen place.

1810
	Mendelssohn is born in 1809. Chopin and Schumann are born in 1810. Liszt is born in 1811.
1812
	The Napoleonic war.
1813
Wilhelm Richard Wagner is born 22 May in Leipzig. The parents are Johanna Rosine Wagner (b. Pätz) and (probably) the police actuary Carl Friedrich Wagner. The father dies later the same year.	Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig. Verdi is born.
1814
The family moves to Dresden. W.'s mother marries the painter Ludwig Geyer.	The constitutional meeting is held at Eidsvoll, Norway. Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade.
1820
1821
	Baudelaire and Dostoyevsky are born.
1822
Weber's Der Freischütz is performed in Dresden - The young Wagner is enthusiastic.	Schubert: Symphony no 7(8) "Unfinished". Bruckner is born in 1824.
1826
The 13-year old boy translates 12 volumes of the Odyssey from old greek. He also takes up work on a tragedy in 5 acts, Leubald.	The first railroad opens - between Stockton and Darlington in northern England.
1827
W. travels by foot from Dresden to Prague, more than 100 km. In december the family moves back to Leipzig.	Beethoven dies. Schubert: Winterreise.
1828
In January W. attends in Leipzig for the first time the performance of a Beethoven symphony, no 7. Later, 13 March, a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the Leipziger Gewandhaus becomes a fundamental experience for the young Wagner.	Schubert dies, Ibsen and Tolstoy are born.
1829
W.s first compositions - all are lost.
1830
	The june-revolution in Paris. Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique is performed the same place.
1832
Symphony in C	Goethe dies.
1833
First opera - Die Feen. W. is appointed choirmaster at Würzburg.	Brahms is born.
1834
W. is appointed music director at a travelling theater based in Magdeburg. His début as an opera conductor with Don Giovanni. Meets Minna Planer.
1836
Second opera - Das Liebesverbot. W. moves to Königsberg with the hope of becoming music director at the theatre (this eventually happens in April the next year). Marries Minna Planer 24 November.
1837
W. is appointed music director at the theatre in Riga.	The first large steam-driven transatlantic ship: The Great Western. Victoria is crowned as queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
1839
W. flees from Riga in order to escape his creditors. During the stormy sea passage to London, the ship lands in Sandviken at Borøya by Tvedestrand, Norway. Inspiration for sailors choir of Der fliegende Holländer. Finally he ends up in Paris. W. hears Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette, which makes a profound impression.	Mussorgsky is born.
1840
Third opera - Rienzi - is completed in Paris. This opera is later to become his first and greatest success.	Schumann: Dichterliebe.
1841
Fourth opera - Der fliegende Holländer is completed in november.	Bach's Matthäus-Passion is performed in Leipzig, for the first time in over 100 years. The performance is conducted by Mendelssohn.
1842
W. moves to Dresden, where the success of Rienzi is formidable.
1843
	Grieg is born.
1844
	The first wireless message is transmitted between Washington and Baltimore - by electromagnetic telegraph. This method was invented by Samuel Morse 9 years earlier.
1845
Fifth opera - Tannhäuser is completed 13 April. Prose sketches for Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger.	1846: Schumann: Symphony no 2.
1848
Sixth opera - Lohengrin is completed 28 April. Prose sketches for Der Ring des Nibelungen - and the first libretto for the same.	February revolution in Paris, revolution in Munich, Berlin, Prague and Vienna. The last one is greeted enthusiastically by Wagner. Marx and Engels proclaims the Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.
1849
W. makes an active contribution to the revolutionary rising in Dresden. After the uprising a warrant against W. is issued by the police and W. must flee. He ends up in Zürich. The following exile lasts to 1860. In 1849 he also writes the Art and Revolution and The Artwork of the Future.	Dostoyevsky is arrested and sentenced to death for his participation in the revolutionary group around Petrachevsky. He is repreaved at the scaffold, but he must serve a sentence of four years of imprisonment with hard labour.
1850
1851
	The first World Exhibition - a large fair in London for the industry and the commerce.
1852
The libretto for Der Ring des Nibelungen is completed.
1854
Das Rheingold is completed 26 September.	Liszt: Les Préludes.
1856
Die Walküre is completed 23 March.	Freud is born.
1857
W. lays aside his work on Siegfried at the end of the second act. He composes the 5 Wesedonck-lieder to poems by Mathilde Wesendonck - with whom he has a passionate affair.	Liszt: Faust Symphony. Baudelaire publishes Les Fleurs du mal. The book is confiscated and six of the poems are condemned as obscene. The mass emigration to the US starts.
1858
W. travels to Venice - which at this time is under Austria. Here he is harassed by the police.	Grieg enters the conservatory in Leipzig 6 October. Shortly afterwards he attends the Tannhäuser production at the Leipzig opera - 14 times!
1859
W. travels to Lucerne, later Paris. Tristan und Isolde is completed 6 August.	Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Hamsun is born.
1860
In July Wagner is granted a partial amnesty in the German states (except Saxony). For the first time in 11 years he is able to return to Germany. In the years 1860, 61 and 62 W. is moving around the whole time - great restlessness. Among the places he stays are Paris, Zürich, Karlsruhe, Weimar, Nürnberg, Munich, Vienna and in 62 also Leipzig and Dresden.	Mahler is born.
1862
W. is granted complete amnesty in the Saxony and he can safely return from his exile. He establishes a base in Biebrich by Mainz. In november W. moves to Penzing, at that time a suburb to Vienna. Here he takes up the relationship with Cosima von Bülow, daughter of Franz Liszt. She will later become his second wife.	Victor Hugo writes Les Misérables. Debussy is born.
1864
Due to increasing debts, W. must flee from Vienna. W.'s situation is desperate. In Stuttgart in april he declares: «Ich bin am Ende...». At this time the decisive turning-point in W.'s life happens - a new king has been crowned in Bavaria: the 18 year old Ludwig II, a great admirer of W.'s work. The first days of May Ludwig summons W., pays off all his debts and promises financial support in the future. W. moves to Munich.	Richard Strauss is born.
1865
	Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius are born.
1866
Minna Wagner dies. W. has become increasingly unpopular in Munich, due to his extramarital cohabitation with Cosima - who is still married to von Bülow, and due to his monetary comsumption - which draws the public finances. W. moves to Tribschen by Lucerne.	Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment.
1867
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is completed 24 October.	Marx: Das Kapital, vol I is published in Hamburg. Ibsen writes Peer Gynt. Baudelaire dies. 1868: Dostoyevsky: The Idiot.
1869
	Berlioz dies. Tolstoy completes War and Peace.
1870
W. and Cosima marries in Lucerne the 25 August. W. composes the Siegfried Idyll and he has the work performed at the staircase of the villa in the morning of 25 December, as a birthday present for Cosima.
1871
Siegfried is completed 5 February. During a travel through Bayreuth W. decides to build an opera house there. The purpose of this is primarily to be able to perform the Ring under optimal circumstances.	1870-71 - war Germany - France. March - May 1871: The "Commune of Paris" - an early attempt at direct democracy.
1872
W. moves to Bayreyth.	Bruckner: Symphony no 2. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov in revised version.
1874
Götterdämmerung is completed 21 November - and with this - the whole Ring of the Nibelung. The composition of text and music has - with lengthy interruptions - taken W. 26 years. The preparations for the Bayreuth-festival is close to bankruptcy. Once more king Ludwig II of Bavaria is giving his financial support.	Schönberg and Ives are born. Ravel is born in 1875.
1876
13 to 30 August: The first Bayreuth festival. Three complete Ring-cycles under the baton of Hans Richter. The festival shows a big deficit. W. begins a secret affair with Judith Gautier. Among the audience at this first Bayreuth festival were: Grieg, Bruckner, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns.	Centenary for the independence of the US. Brahms: Symphony no 1
1877
W. travels to London to raise money for the Bayreuth festival. A series of eight concerts in the recently opened Royal Albert Hall are a big success - but creates little profit.	Tolstoy: Anna Karenina.
1878
Again king Ludvig II of Bavaria covers W.'s debts. In return he receives the future rights for the Ring. Cosima discovers his affair with Judith Gautier - and this relationships ends.
1879
	Edison contructs the electric light bulb. Ibsen writes A Doll's House. Einstein is born.
1880
By reasons of health and climate, W. and his family moves to Naples in the beginning of January. Back to Bayreuth in November.	Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamasov.
1881
	Mussorgsky and Dostoyevsky die, Bartók is born.
1882
Parsifal is completed in Palermo, Sicily, 13 January. From 26 July to 29 August: The second Bayreuth festval with 16 performances of Parsifal under Hermann Levi. W. himself takes up the baton and conducts the last act of the first performance. This is the first performance in W.'s opera house since the first festival in 1876. Among the audience of this second Bayreuth festival were: Bruckner, Delibes, Saint-Saëns and Mahler. In september W. travels to Venice with his family.	The first electric power plant in the US. Stravinsky is born.
1883
Richard Wagner dies 13 February in Venice, of a heart attack. Cosima clings to the body for 24 hours. W. is buried the 18 February in the garden of the family property, Wahnfried, in Bayreuth.	Marx dies. Webern is born. Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.