Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). He revolutionized the musical language and form of opera with his innovations in harmony, leitmotif, chromaticism, and tonality. He also influenced the development of symphonic music, instrumental music, and music drama. His operas are considered among the most influential and important works of the 19th century and beyond. Some of his most famous operas include The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, The Ring of the Nibelung, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal. He also wrote numerous essays and articles on music, art, politics, and philosophy. He was a controversial figure in his time and later, due to his antisemitic views, his association with German nationalism, and his appropriation by the Nazi regime. He died of a heart attack in Venice in 1883 and was buried in Bayreuth, where his festival theatre still hosts annual performances of his operas.