SOME FACTS ABOUT RICHARD WAGNER

Read these facts about Richard Wagner and try to write his story out of them, using your own words. When your story is finished, ask your mother or your teacher to read it. When you have made it, copy it on pages 14, 15 and 16.

1. Richard Wagner wrote operas.

2. He was born May 22nd, 1813.

3. How long did Wagner study music?

4. His operas, like the novels of Charles Dickens, are full of wonderful characters.

5. Besides people of every day kind there are gods and goddesses, and giants, and other strange beings in his operas.

6. As a boy Richard Wagner went to a classical school.

7. He was always fond of music.

8. He could translate Greek when he was only thirteen years old.

9. Even as a little boy he said: I intend to become a poet.

10. He wrote plays and he read the plays of Shakespeare in English.

11. As a boy he studied the piano and was fond of the music of Von Weber.

12. Among the books that Richard Wagner read as a boy were the story of Die Meistersinger and the story of Tannhäuser.

13. He always kept these stories in mind.

14. When he became a composer he wrote an opera upon each of these stories.

15. Tell something about Wagner and animals.

16. Richard Wagner died at Venice on Feb. 13, 1883.

SOME QUESTIONS

1. What kind of music did Richard Wagner compose?

2. When was he born?

3. Can you name some of the musicians who lived when Richard Wagner was a boy?

4. How many characters from the Dickens' novel can you name from memory?

5. In what opera by Richard Wagner is The Prize Song?

6. Who sings it?

7. Tell what kind of a man Beckmesser is.

8. Who was the jolly cobbler singer?

9. What happened to Beckmesser in the contest with Walter?

10. What sort of characters occur in the operas?

11. See if you can describe each of these: Donner, Fafner, Mime, Freia, Wotan.

12. What is the name of the house in which Richard Wagner was born?

13. Tell some of the things he did when he was a boy.

14. Who composed Oberon?

15. What other opera did this composer write?

16. What should we remember about childhood thoughts?

THE STORY OF WAGNER

Written by.............................

On (date).............................

Write a short story about Wagner and copy it on these pages.