Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner, born in Leipzig in 1813, decided that opera should be remade from the ground up, and then spent his life doing it. He wrote his own librettos, drew his plots from myth, and composed music meant to flow continuously rather than stop for applause after each number. His personal life was as turbulent as his art: he fled creditors across Europe, and after supporting a failed uprising in Dresden in 1849 he spent years in political exile.

His largest project, The Ring of the Nibelung, is a cycle of four operas about gods, heroes, and a cursed ring, composed over roughly a quarter century. To stage it properly he built his own opera house in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, funded in part by his devoted patron King Ludwig II, and the festival he founded there still performs his work today. He remains a divisive figure, not least for his published antisemitism, and an unavoidable one.

Start with Das Rheingold, the Ring's compact opening evening, then Die Walküre, home of the Ride of the Valkyries.