Ludwig Geyer

German painter

Ludwig Heinrich Christian Geyer (21 January 1779 – 30 September 1821) was a German actor, playwright, and painter.

Life and career

Born in Eisleben, he was the stepfather of composer Richard Wagner, whose biological father had died some six months after his birth. According to Wagner's biographer Glasenapp, Geyer married Wagner's mother Johanna Rosine (née Pätz) after Wagner's birth; for his first few years Richard went under the surname Geyer. However, it is possible that Geyer and Johanna did not marry legally, as no record of the marriage has been found.^[1]

In his 'Autobiographic Sketch,' Wagner describes him as 'a comedian and a painter; he was also the author of a few stage plays, of which one, ... The Slaughter of the Innocents, had a certain success'. On his deathbed, according to Wagner, Geyer asked his mother 'has he perchance a talent for music?'.^[2]

Geyer grew up in Artern and attended gymnasium in Eisleben. He started studying jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig but had to quit in 1799 when his father died after an accident. Geyer turned his hobby to his profession and earned the living expenses for his family by selling small portrait paintings.

In 1801, he came back to Leipzig where he met (Carl) Friedrich Wagner who cared for him like a father. It was at his advice that Geyer went to the stage. He performed in little theaters in towns such as Magdeburg, Braunschweig, Stettin and Breslau. In Magdeburg, he became a Freemason.^[3] In 1809, Geyer joined the well known Secondasche Gesellschaft in Leipzig, whose members were given the rank of court actors.

Friedrich Wagner died after the Battle of Leipzig of typhus and Geyer married his widow. In 1814, his theatre company became part of the royal ensemble in Dresden where he made a friendship with Carl Maria von Weber. In 1815, Geyer's daughter Augusta Cäcilie was born, who later married the publisher Eduard Avenarius and was the mother of Richard Avenarius and Ferdinand Avenarius.

Later in life, in the course of preparing his autobiography, Mein Leben, Wagner received from his sister Cäcilie a cache of letters written by Geyer that led him to believe that Geyer was his biological father, and possibly (and incorrectly) to believe that Geyer was Jewish;^[4] the correspondence was subsequently lost or, some have suggested, destroyed by Wagner.^[5]^[6] Geyer's relation to Wagner was one of several controversies surrounding the composer during his lifetime and afterward.

Notes

^ Gutman (1990), p.7 and note.
^ Wagner, Richard, tr. W. Ashton Ellis (1993) The Art-Work of the Future and other Works Lincoln and London ISBN 978-0-8032-9752-4
^ Richard Wagner – sein Leben und seine Werke (www.internetloge.de)
^ Gutman(1990) 4-5
^ Conway, David (2002), "'A Vulture is Almost an Eagle' ... The Jewishness of Richard Wagner" Archived 3 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Jewry in Music website, accessed 16 May 2013.
^ Conway, David (2012). Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01538-8

Sources

Gutman, Robert W. (1990), Richard Wagner: The Man, his Mind and his Music, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich ISBN 978-0-15-677615-8

External links

An article that relates Ludwig Geyer to Richard Wagner
My life By Richard Wagner, Andrew Gray, Mary Whittall
Meixner, Elisabeth (1964), "Geyer, Ludwig Heinrich Christian", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 6, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 359–360
Geyer in Dresden

Richard Wagner

Complete operas

Early works	Die Feen Das Liebesverbot Rienzi

Romantic operas	Der fliegende Holländer Tannhäuser Lohengrin

Music dramas

Der Ring des Nibelungen	Das Rheingold Die Walküre Siegfried Götterdämmerung

Non-operatic music

Symphony in C major (1832)

Polonia Overture (1836)

Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (1843)

Faust Overture (1844, rev. 1855)

Wesendonck Lieder (1858)

Siegfried Idyll (1870)

Kaisermarsch

Writings

"Art and Revolution"
"The Artwork of the Future"
"Autobiographic Sketch"
"A Communication to My Friends"
"Das Judenthum in der Musik (Jewishness in Music)"
Leubald
Mein Leben
"Music of the Future"
Opera and Drama

Other opera

Opera excerpts	"Bridal Chorus" "Ride of the Valkyries" "Liebestod"

Unfinished operas	Die Laune des Verliebten (1830) Die Hochzeit (1832) Männerlist größer als Frauenlist (1838) Wieland der Schmied (1850; text only) Die Sieger (1858; text only)