Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composers, conducter, theatre director, and polemicist primarily known for his operas. Perhaps the two best-known extracts from his works are the Ride of the Valkyries from the opera Die Walkure, and the Wedding March (Bridal Chorus)  from the opera Lohengrin (opera).

Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works such as The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser which were both in the romantic traditions of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner transformed operatic though through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("Total work of art"). This would achieve the synthesis of all the poetic, visual, musical, and dramatic arts and was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realized this concept most fully in the first half of the monumental four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen.