Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, and polemicist whose operas reshaped nineteenth-century music drama. His major works include *The Flying Dutchman*, *Tannhäuser*, *Lohengrin*, *Tristan und Isolde*, the four-part *Ring* cycle, and *Parsifal*. He also helped establish Bayreuth as a center for performances of his works and oversaw the creation of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.