Richard Wagner

Wagner's Ring comprises four linked music dramas whose story follows a struggle over power, promises, and a gold ring. Recurring musical ideas connect characters, objects, and changing situations across an...

Wagner's C-major Symphony is an early orchestral work from before the music dramas that dominate his later reputation. Its four movements follow the symphonic tradition he knew through Beethoven, including a slow...

Wagner's Tannhauser combines a singers' contest with a story of desire, transgression, and hoped-for redemption. The score contrasts the world of Venus with the public and religious life surrounding the Wartburg....

Wagner's three-act drama concentrates on Tristan and Isolde's love and the conflict between inward desire and the surrounding social world. Recurring motives and prolonged harmonic tension connect the prelude with...