Richard Wagner's works for the stage, representing more than 50 years of creative life, comprise his 13 completed operas and a similar number of failed or abandoned projects. His first effort, begun when he was 13, was a prose drama, Leubald, but thereafter all his works were conceived as some form of musical drama. It has been suggested that Wagner's wish to add incidental music to Leubald, in the manner of Beethoven's treatment of Goethe's drama Egmont, may have been the initial stimulus that directed him to musical composition.[1]
Wagner's musical education began in 1828, and a year later he was producing his earliest compositions, writing words and music, since lost, for his first opera attempt, Die Laune des Verliebten. During the subsequent decade he began several more opera projects, none of which was successful although two were completed and one was staged professionally. His first commercial success came in 1842 with Rienzi, by which time he had completed Der fliegende Holländer, in which for the first time he used the device of the leitmotiv, a characteristic that became a feature of all his later works.[2]
After accepting the post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony in February 1843, Wagner continued to compose operas and plan various large-scale projects. His political activities forced him to flee the city in 1849, beginning a long period of exile. In Zürich, his first refuge, he wrote the essay Die Kunst und die Revolution ("Art and the Revolution"), in which he introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), or "drama-through-music". This idea was developed in the extended discourse Oper und Drama ("Opera and Drama"), 1850–51. A different form of verse-setting, which Wagner termed Versmelodie, was proposed, in which the music would grow out of the verse, this unification overriding such traditional operatic considerations as display arias written as showcases for the talents of individual singers.[3] According to Wagner historian Robert Gutman: "The orchestra with its many tongues would take over the traditional operatic tasks of the chorus".[4] Beginning with Das Rheingold (1853–54), the principles of Gesamtkunstwerk became the basis of all Wagner's stage work, in which, quoting Wagner chronicler Charles Osborne, "the drama presented on a conscious level by the words [...] would be pursued on a deeper, unconscious level in the orchestra."[5]
From his first attempt in the opera genre, Die Laune des Verliebten, Wagner became his own librettist and remained so throughout his creative career.[6] His practice was to create music and text simultaneously; in biographer Robert Gutman's words: "as the music proceeded it drew forth the words." While working on Tannhäuser Wagner explained his technique in a letter, saying: "before starting to create a verse or even outline a scene, I must first feel intoxicated by the musical aroma of my subject."[7]
Unlike the works of many composers, those of Richard Wagner were not identified by opus numbers, and no proper attempt to create a complete catalogue was made until the 1980s. In 1983 the Wagner scholar John Deathridge, in an article in The Musical Times, outlined the need for a reliable catalogue.[8] Two years later, in conjunction with Martin Gech and Egon Voss, he produced Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, described by fellow-scholar Michael Saffle as "perhaps the single finest and most useful of all Wagner reference works." Each of Wagner's known works, whether finished or unfinished, is listed in a number sequence running from 1 to 113. The list includes all compositions and all prose drafts where the music is either lost or unwritten.
Sketched work or incomplete work
| WWV | Title! | Genre and acts | Year of comp. | Première date | Place and theatre | Notes | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leubald | Trauerspiel[9] 5 Acts | 1827–28 | 9 August 1989 | Bayreuth, Studiobühne Schützenhaus | Childhood attempt to write a grand tragedy based on Shakespearean themes. A version of the text exists, but no music survives. | [10] [11] | |
| 6 | Die Laune des Verliebten (unfinished) English: The infatuated lover's caprice | Oper? | 1829–30 | Unperformed | – | Based on a play by Goethe. Neither text nor music survives. | ||
| 31 | Die Hochzeit (unfinished) English: The Wedding | Oper | 1832 | 13 February 1938 (fragments) | Leipzig, Neues Theater | Based on a story by J.G.G. Büsching | [12] [13] [14] [15] | |
| 32 | Die Feen English: The Fairies Score[16] | Große romantische Oper 3 Acts | 1833–34 | 29 June 1888 | Munich, Hoftheater | A reworking of La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi | [17] | |
| 38 | Das Liebesverbot English: The Ban on Love Score[18] | Große komische Oper 2 Acts | 1835–36 | 29 March 1836 | Magdeburg, Stadttheater | Loosely based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and described (Osborne) as "a not very successful German imitation of Italian opera buffa." | [19] | |
| 40 | Die hohe Braut English: The High-born Bride | Große Oper 4 Acts | 1836–42 | 1848 (date not recorded) | Prague | Libretto sketched by Wagner in 1836–37, completed in 1842, and eventually set to music by Jan Bedrich Kittl under the title Bianca und Giuseppe. | [20] | |
| 48 | Männerlist größer als Frauenlist, oder Die glückliche Bärenfamilie (unfinished) English: Men are more cunning than women or The Happy Bear family | komische Oper | 1839 | 13 October 2007 (fragments)[21] | London, Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House | Based on a tale from One Thousand and One Nights. The libretto was completed but only the first three numbers set to music. These were lost until 1994. | ||
| 49 | Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen English: Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes Score[22] | Große tragische Oper 5 Acts | 1839–40 | 20 October 1842 | Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus | Based on a novel by Edward Bulwer Lytton | [23] | |
| 63 | Der fliegende Holländer English: The Flying Dutchman Score[24] | romantische Oper 3 Acts | 1841 | 2 January 1843 | Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus | The orchestration was revised by Wagner several times. The opera is sometimes performed in a single act, without intermissions | [25] [26] | |
| 66 | Die Sarazenin English: The Saracen Woman | Oper 5 Acts | 1841–42 | Unperformed | – | Libretto based on the character "Manfred" from Lord Byron's drama, not set to music | [27] [28] | |
| 68 | Die Bergwerke zu Falun English: The Mines of Falun | Oper 3 Acts | 1842 | Unperformed | – | Sketch of opera, based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann | ||
| 70 | Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (aka Tannhäuser) English: Tannhäuser and the Song Contest at Wartburg Score (Dresden and Paris versions)[29] | Große romantische Oper 3 Acts | 1843–45 | 19 October 1845; Revised version: 18 March 1861 | Dresden, Königliches Opernhaus (1845); Paris, Opéra (1861) | Wagner did not produce a definitive edition of the score. The Paris premiere was disrupted by political and other demonstrations. | [30] | |
| 75 | Lohengrin Score[31] | romantische Oper 3 Acts | 1846–48 | 28 August 1850 | Weimar, Hoftheater | Loosely based on the German legend of Lohengrin, as presented in medieval verse including Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival | [32] [33] | |
| 76 | Friedrich I | Oper? 5 Acts | 1848–49 | Unperformed | – | Project on Frederick I of Prussia, possibly intended as a music drama. No libretto or music written | ||
| 80 | Jesus von Nazareth English: Jesus of Nazareth | Oper? 5 Acts | 1848–49 | Unperformed | – | Prose draft only for libretto, no music written. Aspects of the sketch may have been used in the writing of Parsifal | [34] | |
| 81 | Achilleus English: Achilles | Oper? | 1848–49 | Unperformed | – | Prose sketch, no music written | [35] | |
| 82 | Wieland der Schmied English: Wieland the Smith | Heldenoper[36] 3 Acts | 1849–50 | Unperformed | – | Prose sketch for a heroic opera, offered to and rejected by Liszt and Berlioz. Eventually adapted by O. Schlemm and set by Ján Levoslav Bella (premiere Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava, 28 April 1926)[37] | [38] | |
| 86A | Das Rheingold English: The Rhine Gold Score[39] | Bühnenfestspiel Vorabend[40] 1 Act | 1853–54 | 22 September 1869 | Munich, Hofoper | First part of Der Ring des Nibelungen. First performance as part of complete Ring cycle: 13 August 1876, at Bayreuth Festspielhaus | [41] | |
| 86B | Die Walküre English: The Valkyrie Score[42] | Bühnenfestspiel erster Tag[43] 3 Acts | 1854–56 | 26 June 1870 | Munich, Hofoper | Second part of Der Ring des Nibelungen. First performed as part of complete Ring cycle: 14 August 1876, at Bayreuth Festspielhaus | [44] | |
| 89 | Die Sieger English: The Victors | Oper? | 1856 | Unperformed | – | Prose outline and music sketches for an opera on a Buddhist subject; some music may have been used in later works. | ||
| 90 | Tristan und Isolde English: Tristan and Isolde Score[45] | Handlung[46] 3 Acts | 1857–59 | 10 June 1865 | Munich, Hofoper | Based in part on Gottfried von Strassburg's medieval epic, also believed to be an idealisation of Wagner's love for Mathilde Wesendonck | [47] [48] | |
| 96 | Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg English: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Score[49] | Oper 3 Acts | 1861–67 | 21 June 1868 | Munich, Hofoper | Wagner's only mature attempt at a comic opera, based on a draft originally written in 1845 | [50] | |
| 99 | Luthers Hochzeit English: Luther's Wedding | Oper? | 1868 | Unperformed | – | A sketch play/libretto about Martin Luther and his decision to marry Katherina von Bora | [51] | |
| 86C | Siegfried Score[52] | Bühnenfestspiel zweiter Tag [53] 3 Acts | 1856–71 | 16 August 1876 | Bayreuth Festspielhaus | Third part of Der Ring des Nibelungen. The composition was interrupted for 12 years between 1857 and 1869. | [54] | |
| 86D | Götterdämmerung English: Twilight of the Gods Score[55] | Bühnenfestspiel dritter Tag[56] 3 Acts | 1871–74 | 17 August 1876 | Bayreuth Festspielhaus | Fourth part of Der Ring des Nibelungen. | [57] | |
| 102 | Eine Kapitulation English: A Capitulation | Lustspiel in antiker Manier[58] | 1871 | Unperformed | – | A farce based on the siege of Paris, 1870. Wagner unsuccessfully asked Hans Richter to set it to music | [59] | |
| 111 | Parsifal Score[60] | Bühnenweihfestspiel[61] 3 Acts | 1877–82 | 26 July 1882 | Bayreuth Festspielhaus | Under an agreement between Wagner and King Ludwig, Parsifal was only to be performed at Bayreuth, "never desecrated by contact with any profane stage". | [62] [63] |