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Parsifal is on his way to the temple of the Grail Knights and says: “I hardly move, yet far I seem to have come”, and the all-knowing Gurnemanz replies: “You see, my son, time turns here into space
— Richard Wagner
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RW
Richard Wagner
composer, librettist, conductor, essayist, theatrical director, autobiographer, poet, pianist, music critic, diarist, writer
1813 – 1883
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas—although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionized the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In this approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined these ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
All Quotes by Richard Wagner
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I believe in God; and Mozart, and Beethoven as his only sons.
— Richard Wagner
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It is necessary for us to explain the involuntary repugnance we possess for the nature and personality of the Jews … The Jews have never produced a true poet. Heinrich Heine reached the point where he duped himself into a poet, and was rewarded by his versified lies being set to music by our own composers. He was the conscience of Judaism, just as Judaism is the evil conscience of our modern civilization.
— Richard Wagner
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The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the End of expression (the Drama) has been made a means.
— Richard Wagner
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The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.
— Richard Wagner
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Though physiologists are still divided as to whether Man was meant by Nature to feed exclusively on fruits, or also upon flesh-meat, from its first faint glimmerings History shews Man's constant progress as a beast of prey. As such he conquers every land, subdues the fruit-fed races, founds mighty realms by subjugating other subjugators, forms states and sets up civilisations, to enjoy his prey at rest.
— Richard Wagner
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Attack and defence, want and war, victory and defeat, lordship and thraldom, all sealed with the seal of blood: this from henceforth is the History of Man.
— Richard Wagner
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This is Alberich's dream come true — Nibelheim, world dominion, activity, work, everywhere the oppressive feeling of steam and fog.
— Richard Wagner
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I am writing Parsifal only for my wife — if I had to depend on the German spirit, I should have nothing more to say.
— Richard Wagner
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Certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled.
— Richard Wagner
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Oh, I hate the thought of all those costumes and grease paint! When I think that characters like Kundry will now have to be dressed up, those dreadful artists' balls immediately spring into my mind. Having created the invisible orchestra, I now feel like inventing the invisible theatre!
— Richard Wagner
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It should not be presumed that these people (the Jews), who are so separated from us by their religion, have any right to make our laws. But why blame the Jews? It is we who lack all feeling for our own identity, all sense of honour.
— Richard Wagner
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Music has taken a bad turn; these young people have no idea how to write a melody, they just give us shavings, which they dress up to look like a lion's mane and shake at us... It's as if they avoid melodies, for fear of having perhaps stolen them from someone else.
— Richard Wagner
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Divorce is one of the most financially traumatic things you can go through. Money spent on getting mad or getting even is money wasted.
— Richard Wagner
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Joy is not in things; it is in us
— Richard Wagner
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Imagination creates reality.
— Richard Wagner