List of works for the stage by Richard Wagner
WWV Title Genre and Acts Year of comp Première date Place and theatre Notes
1 Leubald Trauerspiel 5 Acts 1827-28 9 August 1989 Bayreuth , Studiobühne Schützenhaus Childhood attempt to write a grand tragedy based on Shakespearean themes . A version of the text exists , but no music survives
6 Die Laune des Verliebten ( unfinished ) English : The infatuated lover 's caprice Oper ? 1829-30 Unperformed - Based on a play by Goethe . Neither text nor music survives
31 Die Hochzeit ( unfinished ) English : The Wedding Oper 1832 13 February 1938 ( fragments ) Leipzig , Neues Theater Based on a story by J.G.G . Büsching
32 Die Feen English : The Fairies Score Große romantische Oper 3 Acts 1833-34 29 June 1888 Munich , Hoftheater A reworking of La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi
38 Das Liebesverbot English : The Ban on Love Score Große komische Oper 2 Acts 1835-36 29 March 1836 Magdeburg , Stadttheater Loosely based on Shakespeare 's Measure for Measure , and described ( Osborne ) as a not very successful German imitation of Italian opera buffa
40 Die hohe Braut English : The High-born Bride Große Oper 4 Acts 1836-42 1848 ( date not recorded ) Prague Libretto sketched by Wagner in 1836-37 , completed in 1842 , and eventually set to music by Jan Bedrich Kittl under the title Bianca und Giuseppe
48 Männerlist größer als Frauenlist , oder Die glückliche Bärenfamilie ( unfinished ) English : Men are more cunning than women or The Happy Bear family komische Oper 1839 13 October 2007 ( fragments ) London , Linbury Studio , Royal Opera House Based on a tale from One Thousand and One Nights . The libretto was completed but only the first three numbers set to music . These were lost until 1994
49 Rienzi , der letzte der Tribunen English : Rienzi , the Last of the Tribunes Score Große tragische Oper 5 Acts 1839-40 20 October 1842 Dresden , Königliches Opernhaus Based on a drama by Edward Bulwer Lytton
63 Der fliegende Holländer English : The Flying Dutchman Score romantische Oper 3 Acts 1841 2 January 1843 Dresden , Königliches Opernhaus The orchestration was revised by Wagner several times . The opera is sometimes performed in a single act , without intermissions
66 Die Sarazenin English : The Saracen Woman Oper 5 Acts 1841-42 Unperformed - Libretto based on the character Manfred from Lord Byron 's drama , not set to music
68 Die Bergwerke zu Falun English : The Mines of Falun Oper 3 Acts 1842 Unperformed - Sketch of opera , based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann
70 Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf dem Wartburg ( aka Tannhäuser ) English : Tannhäuser and the Song Contest on the Wartburg Score ( Dresden and Paris versions ) Große romantische Oper 3 Acts 1843-45 19 October 1845 ; Revised version : 18 March 1861 Dresden , Königliches Opernhaus ( 1845 ) ; Paris , Opéra ( 1861 ) Wagner did not produce a definitive edition of the score . The Paris premiere was disrupted by political and other demonstrations
75 Lohengrin Score romantische Oper 3 Acts 1846-48 28 August 1850 Weimar , Hoftheater Loosely based on the German legend of Lohengrin , as presented in medieval verse including Wolfram von Eschenbach 's Parzival
76 Friedrich I Oper ? 5 Acts 1848-49 Unperformed - Project on Frederick I of Prussia , possibly intended as a music drama . No libretto or music written
80 Jesus von Nazareth English : Jesus of Nazareth Oper ? 5 Acts 1848-49 Unperformed - Prose draft only for libretto , no music written . Aspects of the sketch may have been used in the writing of Parsifal
81 Achilleus English : Achilles Oper ? 1848-49 Unperformed - Prose sketch , no music written
82 Wieland der Schmied English : Wieland the Smith Heldenoper 3 Acts 1849-50 Unperformed - Prose sketch for a heroic opera , offered to and rejected by Liszt and Berlioz . Eventually adapted by O. Schlemm and set by Ján Levoslav Bella ( premiere Slovak National Theatre , Bratislava , 28 April 1926 )
86A Das Rheingold English : The Rhine Gold Score Bühnenfestspiel Vorabend 1 Act 1853-54 22 September 1869 Munich , Hofoper First part of Der Ring des Nibelungen . First performance as part of complete Ring cycle : 13 August 1876 , at Bayreuth Festspielhaus
86B Die Walküre English : The Valkyrie Score Bühnenfestspiel erster Tag 3 Acts 1854-56 26 June 1870 Munich , Hofoper Second part of Der Ring des Nibelungen . First performed as part of complete Ring cycle : 14 August 1876 , at Bayreuth Festspielhaus
89 Die Sieger English : The Victors Oper ? 1856 Unperformed - Prose outline and music sketches for an opera on a Buddhist subject ; some music may have been used in later works
List of works for the stage
Richard Wagner's works for the stage, representing more than 50 years of creative life, comprise his 13 completed operas and a similar number of failed or abandoned projects. His first effort, begun when he was 13, was a prose drama, Leubald, but thereafter all his works were conceived as some form of musical drama. It has been suggested that Wagner's wish to add incidental music to Leubald, in the manner of Beethoven's treatment of Goethe's drama Egmont, may have been the initial stimulus that directed him to musical composition. Wagner's musical education began in 1828, and a year later he was producing his earliest compositions, writing words and music, since lost, for his first opera attempt, Die Laune des Verliebten. During the subsequent decade he began several more opera projects, none of which was successful although two were completed and one was staged professionally. His first commercial success came in 1842 with Rienzi, by which time he had completed Der fliegende Holländer, in which for the first time he used the device of the leitmotiv, a characteristic that became a feature of all his later works. After accepting the post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony in February 1843, Wagner continued to compose operas and plan various large-scale projects. His political activities forced him to flee the city in 1849, beginning a long period of exile. In Zurich, his first refuge, he wrote the essay Die Kunst und die Revolution (Art and the Revolution), in which he introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, or drama-through-music. This idea was developed in the extended discourse Oper und Drama (Opera and Drama), 1850-51. A different form of verse-setting, which Wagner termed Versmelodie, was proposed, in which the music would grow out of the verse, this unification overriding such traditional operatic considerations as display arias written as showcases for the talents of individual singers. According to Wagner historian Robert Gutman: The orchestra with its many tongues would take over the traditional operatic tasks of the chorus.