Answer: Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was one of the world's most influential — and controversial — composers. He is famous for both his epic operas as well as for his anti-semantic writings, which, posthumously, made him a favorite of Adolf Hitler. There is evidence that Wagner's music was played at the Dachau concentration camp to "re-educate" the prisoners.

Wagner's first two operas of The Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, were presented in Munich in 1869 and 1870. The Ring Cycle was finally performed in its entirely—all 18 hours—in 1876. Wagner completed his last opera, Parsifal, in January 1882, and it was performed at the Bayreuth Festival that same year.

Wagner had a tumultuous love life, which involved several scandalous affairs. He died of a heart attack in Venice on February 13, 1883.

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Wilhelm Richard Wagner
Bicentennial of Birth
1538 (2013)