Cirrus@Austlit

Richard Wagner was a German composer, librettist, musician, theatre director and conductor who is best known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. After establishing his reputation as a composer in the romantic tradition, Wagner conceived the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') - whereby his operas attempted to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He initially announced the concept in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852 and then went on to realise his ideas through the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).