Richard Wagner (22nd 5th 1813 - 13. 2. 1883) - German composer and conductor. Among his most famous works include tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, opera The Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Rienzi, Parsifal, and more.

Richard Wagner was born as the eighth child in a family of a police officer in Leipzig. His father soon died and the mother with the children and the new spouse Ludwig Geyer moved to Dresden. After the death of his stepfather in 1821 by Richard took care of his uncle Karl Geyer. When Wagner was sixteen years old, watched Beethoven's Fidelio and powerful experience aroused his desire to compose. He studied music at the University of St. Nicholas in Leipzig, where he composed his first serious work: Piano Sonata in B flat major.

As a participant of the revolutionary events in 1848-49 was declared as politically dangerous and had to flee abroad. Exilov� years spent mostly in Switzerland, but stayed in France and Italy.

The special relationship to Wagner grown to Prague, which charmed him and to which they like to come back. In the Czech Republic also found inspiration for the opera Tannh�user.

In 1872 he moved to Bayreuth, where he founded the Festspielhaus opera house. The building is still regularly held festivals of Wagner's music. Author thematically drew primarily from history: among his best-known operas include The Flying Dutchman, Parsifal, Tristan and Isolde, Rienzi or Lohengrin. A separate chapter is operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, which consists of operas Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) Die Walk�re (The Valkyrie), Siegfried and G�tterd�mmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Cycle that Wagner has completed only twenty-six years, was created on the motives of the old Germanic legends and acts in it a number of mythical figures.

Negative impact on the perception of Wagner reference signed by the Nazis, who abused his work for their propaganda. The author is a typical representative of musical romanticism.