German composer Richard Wagner: The man behind the myth

When it comes to Richard Wagner, one thing has long been clear: He wanted to be in control. The man who invented the idea of "Gesamtkunstwerk," a total synthesis of music, text, drama, scenery and architecture that made him and his operas world-famous, built a festival theater in 1876 to showcase his own operas — and no one else's.

His operas, with their reoccurring leitmotifs, or musical themes, deeply moved audiences, and continue to do so today. Some 60,000 fans still travel every year to what is known as the Bayreuth Festival. 

Wagner, who lived from 1813-1883, carefully cultivated an almost mythic self-image, much in the style of a modern-day influencer.

For instance, he would pose in Renaissance clothing to evoke the idea of an artistic master — something he succeeded in doing, said Sven Friedrich, director of the Richard Wagner Museum in Bayreuth. Wagner's descendants subsequently tried to style the composer as superhuman, an idea that lives on today.

The museum's current exhibition, "Mensch Wagner," or "Wagner, the Man," aims to go beyond the composer's mythical self-styling and show his "human core," explained Friedrich.

Wagner: Not a nice guy

Wagner was a rather ambivalent person. As a young man, he took part in the March Revolution of 1848/49, in which he fought for freedom, democracy and the abolition of nobility. Later on, he welcomed financial support from wealthy citizens and nobles.

He was also a die-hard antisemite. Europe was awash in antisemitism in the mid-19th century. In 1850, Wagner published his pamphlet, "Judaism in Music," in which he denied the ability of Jews to express themselves creatively.

At the start of the next century, his views played straight into the hands of the Nazis: Adolf Hitler idolized Wagner's operas.

Wagner liked to live beyond his means. He was always having money troubles, and even fled overseas several times to avoid his creditors. It was in situations like these that he would gladly accept help from his Jewish colleagues, such as Giacomo Meyerbeer. The well-respected Paris-based opera composer aided Wagner financially and also helped him become known in Paris. Wagner later expressed contempt for the man who had given him so much.

This all made Wagner a very unlikable person. Pianist and composer Clara Schumann is said to have disliked his arrogance and crying laugh. "Wagner was physically small, and a scheming egomaniac," said Friedrich, adding that writer Thomas Mann described the composer as a "sniveling gnome from Saxony with exceptional talent and a mean character."

Wagner: A man of his times

The new exhibition features items from Wagner himself, as well as testimonies from his relatives and acquaintances. Wagner's second wife, Cosima, kept diaries about their shared life, where she wrote about her husband's preferences and also his fears, which often featured in his dreams. He once dreamed that he had apologized to Meyerbeer, whom he despised so much, and that the audience applauded his atonement.

The exhibition organizers want to show Wagner not as a self-styled visionary but as a man of his time and a product of his life circumstances. "That's why we also include objects that make it clear that Wagner had a normal everyday life. Because myth doesn't know the normal everyday," said Friedrich.

Such objects include Wagner's hiking shoes, his pocketbook and notebook, casual poems and medicinal and culinary recipe books. Documents pertaining to Wagner's finances can also be seen for the first time ever.

Wagner's place of retreat

Wagner was very sensitive to noise. He sought out peace and quiet in the Alps, and also at Villa Wahnfried, the countryside residence where he lived with his family starting in 1874. Today, it houses the Richard Wagner Museum.

Wagner loved nature and demonized the urbanization and industrial progress of the 19th century. Yet he, too, sought to profit from advancements like the railroads, which he used to visit potential donors around the country.

He also traveled across Europe to anywhere where he could find a position. In Riga, Latvia, he worked as the music director of the city's German theater. It was there he composed his early opera "Rienzi," which he premiered in Dresden in 1842 and which also led to his Paris breakthrough as an opera composer.

In Paris, he composed, among other things, his opera "The Flying Dutchman," which is part of the 2024 Bayreuth Festival program, with Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv leading the festival orchestra.

Following an uprising in March 1849, Wagner fled to Zurich, where he began to work on the libretto of his multi-opera Ring Cycle; he composed his opera "Tristan and Isolde," about two lovers who are not allowed to be together, at the same time. The Ring Cycle is being presented in its entirety this festival season, with Austrian Valentin Schwarz directing. "Tristan and Isolde" opened on July 25 in a new production by Icelandic dramaturge Thorleifur Orn Arnarsson.

Wagner built a crypt where he was to be buried in the garden of his villa, and died in Venice in 1883. His wife Cosima began running the festival by 1908. Wagner's great-granddaughter, Katharina Wagner, has been festival director since 2008.

The exhibition "Mensch Wagner" can be seen through October 6 at the Richard Wagner Museum in Bayreuth. The Bayreuth Festival runs from July 24 through August 27.

This article was originally written in German.