My Life — Volume 2

"My Life — Volume 2" by Richard Wagner is a memoir written in the early 20th century. This work provides an intimate look into Wagner's life, particularly focusing on his experiences and relationships during the 1850s. In this volume, the author likely explores themes of personal struggle, artistic ambition, and the tensions within his domestic life. The beginning of "My Life — Volume 2" reveals Wagner's return to Zurich, where he and his wife Minna settle into a modest but comfortable accommodation. The narrative highlights the challenges in their marriage, exacerbated by domestic disputes involving Minna's attitude towards Nathalie, whom Wagner describes as his stepdaughter. As the memoir unfolds, Wagner reflects on his relationships, including a young friend named Karl Ritter, who aspires to a musical career, suggesting a focus on mentorship and artistic development amidst personal turmoil. Through these early chapters, readers gain insight into Wagner's artistic drive, domestic challenges, and the supportive relationships that influence his music. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.