Richard Wagner is considered to be the greatest composer of German Opera. He was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Germany. Wagner was the youngest of nine children. His father, Carl Friedrich Wagner, was a police actuary who died when Richard was just six months old. His mother, Johanna, remarried about nine months later to Ludwig Geyer. There is much speculation that Geyer was actually the biological father of Wagner. Geyer was an actor and a painter who moved the family to Dresden, Germany. Then, in 1821, Geyer died. In 1822, Wagner enrolled at Kreuzschule in Dresden using the name Richard Geyer and remained there until 1827, which is when he returned with his family to Leipzig.

Richard Wagner was intrigued by the theatre at an early age. After all, his stepfather was an actor so he got to meet Carl Maria von Weber. Watching Weber conduct had a strong influence on the young Wagner, however, Beethoven had an even greater one. He was also inspired by the works of Goethe and Shakespeare, which led him to creating his first piece of work. It was a spoken tragedy, written in 1828, called Leubald and Adelaide. He then decided that he must write music as well. That same year, he enrolled at Nicolaischule, this time using the name Richard Wagner. Within the next few years, he began composing his own music, including a piano arrangement for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He later studied music at Leipzig University in 1831 and completed his first opera, Die Feen (The Fairys), by 1834.

On November 24, 1836, Wagner married an actress named Minna Planer. The following year, they moved to Riga where he became a music director, only to flee to London and then Paris two years later to escape from creditors. In 1842 he returned to Dresden where his next successful opera, Rienzi, was performed. Over the next six years, some of his most famous works were performed there, including Der fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman),Tannhauser and Lohengrin. These successes came to an abrubt end when Wagner became involved with some political activities.

Wagner participated in the Revolution of 1848. As a result, he was forced to leave his conducting post in Dresden and flee to Switzerland for ten years. It is during this time that he wrote many essays, most notably Operaand Drama in 1851 that defines his aesthetics. Wagner wrote many poems and continued his work on operas, including The Ring. In addition to creating new pieces, Wagner also had two affairs while in Switzerland. One took place in 1850 with Jessie Laussot and another one began in 1852 with Mathilde Wesendonck. The latter lasted for quite sometime and resulted in him and his wife separating. However, they got back together in 1859 and moved to Paris. He finished Tristan und Isolde that same year and was granted permission to return to Germany. In 1862, he separated from his wife indefinitely. Two years later, he wound up fleeing to, of all places, Switzerland in order to once again avoid creditors.

King Ludwig II ended up providing Wagner with a home in Munich. Wagner soon met Cosima vonBulow whom he had an affair with. Over the next five years, they had three children: Isolde, Eva, and Siegfried. In 1870, Cosima finally got a divorce from her husband and married Wagner. He also completed his opera, Siegfried, which he had begun over ten years earlier. The family moved to Bayreuth in 1872 and the construction of Wagner's Festival Theatre began. In 1876, the first performance of The Ring took place at the new theatre and he began another affair, with Judith Gautier. He was forced to give various concerts in order to pay off the huge debt from his first festival. His last piece to be produced was called Parsifal and was performed in 1882, which is also when his health began to deteriorate. On February 13, 1883, he suffered a heart attack and died in Venice. The funeral took place five days later in Bayreuth. He was seventy years old.