A genuine passion for Beethoven, while confirmed by such works and the piano transcription of the Ninth Symphony made in 1830–31, was exaggerated in another typical piece of mythification: Wagner‘s account of a supposedly momentous portrayal of Leonore by the soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig in 1829 is undermined by the unavailability of any evidence that the singer gave such a performance. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA OVERTURE ACT ONE PARIS 1861 SERIESBut its fruits were evident in a series of keyboard and orchestral works written by spring 1832 and particularly in the Beethovenian Symphony in C major which followed shortly after. In his autobiographical writings Wagner later played down the significance of his musical education in order to cultivate the notion of the untutored genius. Harmony lessons (initially in secret) with a local musician, Christian Gottlieb Müller (1828–31), were followed by enrolment at Leipzig University (23 February 1831) to study music, and a short but intensive period of study with the Kantor of the Thomaskirche, Christian Theodor Weinlig (about six months from October 1831). On returning to Leipzig with his mother and sisters he entered the Nicolaischule on 21 January 1828, but school studies were less enthusiastically pursued than theatrical and musical interests, which resulted in a ‗vast tragic drama‘ called Leubald and conscientious perusal of Logier‘s composition treatise. Wagner‘s formal education began on 2 December 1822 at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, where his mother and stepfather had moved to enable Geyer to undertake engagements for the Hoftheater. Recent research has further established that Wagner‘s mother Johanna was not the illegitimate daughter of Prince Constantin of Saxe-WeimarEisenach, as previously believed, but his mistress (Gregor-Dellin, 1985). Wagner himself was never sure, though any concern he may have had about Geyer‘s supposed Jewish origins would have been misplaced: Geyer was of incontrovertibly Protestant stock. Richard Wagner‘s ‗official‘ father was the police actuary Carl Friedrich Wagner, but the boy‘s adoptive father, the actor-painter Ludwig Geyer, who took responsibility for the child on Carl Friedrich‘s death in November 1813, may possibly have been the real father. It is both fitting and psychologically congruous that a question mark should hover over the identity of the father and mother of the composer whose works resonate so eloquently with themes of parental anxiety. His programme of artistic reform, though not executed to the last detail, accelerated the trend towards organically conceived, through-composed structures, as well as influencing the development of the orchestra, of a new breed of singer, and of various aspects of theatrical practice.ġ. One of the key figures in the history of opera, Wagner was largely responsible for altering its orientation in the 19th century. Wagner: (1) Richard Wagner (1) (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner (b Leipzig, d Venice, ).
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