Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner transformed opera into music drama, rejecting the old set-piece structure of arias and choruses for a continuous, symphonically driven style built on recurring themes, or leitmotifs. Born in Leipzig, he wrote his own librettos throughout his career, from Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser through Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to the four-opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, for which he built his own theatre at Bayreuth, funded by subscription and a loan from Ludwig II. His music reshaped nineteenth-century harmony, but his prose writings, including virulent antisemitism, remain a lasting stain on his legacy.