Richard Wagner was a German musician who lived in the mid-19th century. He gained fame by writing operas, a form of performance combining singing, music on instruments , and drama. Wagner's lif'e and work have been very controversial(引起争议的). While he wrote excellent music, many people think his operas are too dark and serious,lacking the fun in most operas written before his time. Wagner,on the other hand, thought the opera of his time was too simple. He wanted to make opera a serious form of art that combined drama and music to telldeepstories that would have a strong effect on the audience. Some people thought Wagner's new kind of music was too different from the operas they were used to hearing. Wagner agreed with them. In fact, he didn't call his works "operas" at all but using a German word that means " Musical Festival" or " Musical Play" . While many people today still do not like Wagner's operas,they cannot deny that Wagner has had a lot of influence on opera as a form of art. Wagner invented the tradition of turning off the lights before starting a play. He also was the first person to make the whole audience sit down for an entire play. Today, almost all operas are performed in this manner. Wagner as a man was even more controversial than Wagner as a writer of music. He hated Jewish people , slept with his friends' wives,and made many people angry-lots of things we would today think of as evil. Some would say he was a good musician, while others hold that he was a bad musician. But it would be difficult to say he was not an important person in music: and in the world. |