Wagner

The London Daily Telegraph - February 14, 1883: « A heavy and altogether unexpected bereavement has befallen musicians of every race, country and degree. We learn by telegraph from Venice that the greatest of contemporary composers, Richard Wagner, the second husband of Cosima Liszt, died there at four o 'clock yesterday afternoon. » One hundred years later, Wagner remains an enigma. His was a rags-to-riches saga with a fairy tale end. He was loved yet hated, admired yet despised, a villain yet a hero who was worshipped, a man whose fame and exploits were the gossip of Europe. Above all, he was an incurable romantic whose love affair with Liszt 's illegitimate daughter rivals that of Romeo and Juliet in excitement and drama. But he was also a dangerous political revolutionary whose influence penetrated the whole fabric of German society in the 19th century, and has continued to do so ever since. He was a scoundrel, joker, philosopher, con-man, poet, refugee, virulent political orator, a legend in his own lifetime, and one of the greatest composers who has ever lived. (pressbook)