1813 Wilhelm Richard Wagner born Leipzig 22 May.
1814 His mother Johanna Rosine marries Ludwig Geyer and family moves to Dresden.
1821 After Ludwig Geyer’s death, Wagner boards with his stepfather’s brother Carl in Eisleben.
1822–26 Attends Kreuzschule, Dresden, as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. Shows interest in ancient mythology and music. Remains in Dresden when his mother and sisters move to Prague. There his sister Rosalie begins her stage career.
1828 After rejoining his family in Leipzig, attends the Nikolai Gymnasium, reassuming the name Wagner. Studies composition with Christian Gottlieb Müller.
1830 After leaving Nikolai Gymnasium, attends the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
1831 Studies music at Leipzig University for a time. Studies composition with Christian Theodor Weinlig, Cantor at the Thomasschule.
1832 Works on many compositions, including his first opera Die Hochzeit, which he later abandons. Travels to Vienna and Prague, where his Symphony in C major is performed, and returns to Leipzig.
1833 Begins work on his first completed opera Die Feen. Symphony in C major is performed in Leipzig. Employed as chorus master at Würzburg theatre.
1834 Completes Die Feen. Leaves his post at Würzburg and returns to Leipzig where he begins work on his next opera Das Liebesverbot. While working as musical director of a travelling theatre company at Lauchstädt, he meets the actress Minna Planer. Appointed musical director at Magdeburg theatre.
1836 Das Liebesverbot is completed and performed for the first time at Magdeburg. Travels to Königsberg in search of work and marries Minna Planer, who is performing there.
1837 Obtains post as musical director at Königsberg theatre. Begins libretto of Rienzi. To escape creditors, flees to Riga, where he takes up post as conductor and is joined by Minna.
1838 Completes libretto and begins composing Rienzi. Conducts several of his own works at successful series of concerts at Riga.
1839 Sacked from his post as conductor and hounded by creditors again, crosses border into Russia, together with Minna and their Newfoundland dog Robber, and sails for London. After a short stay, travels to France and takes up lodgings in Paris. Meets Giacomo Meyerbeer for the first time.
1840 Debts force him into musical hack work and journalism, but he manages to complete Rienzi. First meeting with Franz Liszt.
1841 On Meyerbeer’s recommendation, Dresden Opera accept Rienzi. Completes Der fliegende Holländer.
1842 Leaves Paris for Dresden and visits family in Leipzig. Begins work on Tannhäuser. First performance of Rienzi in Dresden is a great success.
1843 Directs the first performance of Der fliegende Holländer at Dresden. Appointed conductor of the Dresden court opera.
1845 Tannhäuser completed and performed under Wagner at the Dresden court theatre. Begins work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Lohengrin.
1846 Meets Hans von Bülow for the first time. Receives large grant from Dresden opera authorities enabling him to pay off his debts.
1848 Wagner’s mother dies aged 74. Completes Lohengrin and begins work on the libretti of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Götterdämmerung.
1849 Takes part in Dresden uprising and forced to flee first to Liszt in Weimar then into exile in Switzerland, where Minna eventually joins him. Writes essays The Art-work of the Future and Art and Revolution.
1850 Love affair with Jessie Laussot in Bordeaux ends with his return to Minna in Zurich. His essay Judaism in Music is published anonymously. At Weimar, Liszt produces the first performance of Lohengrin which the exiled Wagner cannot attend.
1851 Writes Opera and Drama and the autobiographical A Communication to My Friends and completes the first version of the poem for Siegfried.
1852 Meets Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck. Completes the first versions of the poems for Die Walküre and Das Rheingold and reads all four poems of Der Ring des Nibelungen to friends at Zürich.
1853 Composes a polka and a piano sonata for Mathilde Wesendonck and begins composing Das Rheingold. In Paris sees Liszt’s daughter Cosima, then aged 16, for first time.
1854 Begins composing Die Walküre and finishes Das Rheingold.
1855 Travels to London where he conducts eight concerts popular with audiences but not with music critics.
1856 Completes Die Walküre. The first act is performed privately on Liszt’s birthday, with Liszt at the piano and Wagner singing several parts. Begins composing Siegfried.
1857 Moves into Asyl, villa on Wesendonck estate near Zürich. Hans von Bülow and Cosima Liszt are married and spend part of honeymoon with Wagners. Completes first version of poem for Tristan und Isolde and gives it to Mathilde Wesendonck with whom he is in love. Begins composing Tristan und Isolde. Also composes a cycle of lieder, settings of poems by Mathilde. Their relationship imposes increasing strains on his marriage and leads to a separation from Minna, who leaves for Germany. Wagner travels to Geneva and Venice where he continues to work on Tristan und Isolde.
1859 Travels to Milan and Lucerne, where, after several visits to the Wesendoncks, he completes Tristan und Isolde. To further plans for a performance of Tannhäuser, Wagner travels to Paris, where he is joined by Minna. He conducts three concerts featuring music from his operas and attended by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Auber and Gounod. After receiving a partial amnesty, travels through Germany, eventually returning to Paris with Minna. Writes essay Music of the Future and begins rehearsing Tannhäuser at Paris Opéra. After three performances, he withdraws it because of hostile reception. Attends performance of Lohengrin at Vienna and receives ovation.
1862 Moves to Biebrich, where he is briefly joined by Minna. Granted full amnesty by King of Saxony. Resumes work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Visited by Hans and Cosima von Bülow. Conducts Lohengrin for the first time at Frankfurt. Visits Minna in Dresden and they finally separate.
1863 Conducts series of successful concerts during tours of main cities of Austro-Hungary, Germany and Russia. Moves to Penzing, near Vienna. Spends extravagantly on luxurious furnishings for new home. During visit to the Bülows in Berlin, he and Cosima vow to belong to each other only.
1864 Pursued by creditors, but saved from debtors’ prison by meeting and subsequent friendship with newly crowned Ludwig II of Bavaria who pays his debts and provides him with income and house. Ludwig commissions Der Ring des Nibelungen and appoints Hans von Bülow court pianist. Wagner conducts the first performance of Der fliegende Holländer at Munich for Ludwig.
1865 Isolde, Cosima’s first child by Wagner, born in April. Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Bülow and performed before Ludwig for the first time, is successful with the public but not the press. Their attacks on Wagner force Ludwig to advise him to leave Munich and he moves to Switzerland.
1866 Minna Wagner dies in Dresden in January. At Ludwig’s expense, Wagner moves into Tribschen by Lake Lucerne, where he is visited by Hans and Cosima von Bülow, separately and together, and by Ludwig. Works on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
1867 Second child born to Wagner and Cosima in February. Hans von Bülow is appointed court conductor and director of the Royal Music School. Wagner completes Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and presents score to Ludwig as Christmas gift.
1868 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg receives its first performance at Munich, conducted by Bülow, before Ludwig accompanied by Wagner. Nietzsche and Wagner meet for the first time. After much toing and froing between her husband and Wagner, Cosima and the children finally settle in Tribschen. Wagner presents Rienzi score to Ludwig as Christmas gift.
1869 Returns to composing Siegfried after twelve years. Cosima begins her diaries of their life together and gives birth to their third child Siegfried in June. First visit of Nietzsche to Tribschen. Ludwig orders first performance of Das Rheingold despite Wagner’s objections to the splitting of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Works on composition of Götterdämmerung.
1870 Ludwig orders first performance of Die Walküre again despite Wagner’s protests. Wagner and Cosima are married in August after her divorce from Hans von Bülow in July. Composes Siegfried Idyll which is performed at Tribschen for Cosima on her thirty-third birthday.
1871 Completes Siegfried. Conducts concert in Berlin before the German Emperor. Plans to build his own theatre at Bayreuth for which town council donate land.
1872 Moves to Bayreuth. Lays foundation stone of theatre and conducts performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at ceremony. Liszt visits Bayreuth.
1873 Reads poem of Götterdämmerung to friends and patrons in Berlin and conducts concerts there and at Hamburg and Cologne. Bruckner visits Bayreuth and dedicates his Third Symphony to Wagner.
1874 Ludwig provides financial backing for the building of the Bayreuth theatre after crisis over lack of funds. Wagner and family move into Haus Wahnfried, their newly built home at Bayreuth. Under the conductor Hans Richter, the first group of singers begins rehearsing the Ring cycle which, as Wagner finishes composing Götterdämmerung, is complete 26 years after its inception.
1875 Conducts concerts in Vienna, Budapest and Berlin in aid of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus building fund. Produces and attends performances of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin conducted by Richter in Vienna.
1876 Tristan und Isolde performed in Vienna in aid of the Bayreuth fund. At Bayreuth intensive rehearsals of the Ring culminating in a dress rehearsal attended by Ludwig. The joy of Wagner and Cosima over the artistic success of the first performance of the Ring cycle at the Festspielhaus, attended by several crowned heads and other leading composers, is marred by its financial failure.
1877 Festspielhaus programme cancelled because of financial problems. Continues composing Parsifal. Conducts eight concerts in London and is received at Windsor by Queen Victoria. Returns to Germany and reads Parsifal poem to friends at Heidelberg.
1878 Breach between Nietzsche and Wagner. Conducts private performance of Parsifal Prelude for first time at Wahnfried.
1879 Continues composing Parsifal. The Festspielhaus programme for 1880 in jeopardy.
1880 Wagner and family in Italy for most of year. Ludwig puts his court orchestra and opera chorus at Wagner’s disposal for next Festspielhaus season. At their last meeting, Wagner conducts a performance of the Parsifal Prelude at Munich for Ludwig alone. Continues working on Parsifal.
1881 Wagner and Cosima attend first performances of the Ring in Berlin. Illness delays the completion of Parsifal. Wagner and family stay in Italy from late 1881 to early 1882.
1882 Completes Parsifal in Palermo in January. Returns to Bayreuth in May for rehearsals of Parsifal in Festspielhaus. Hermann Levi and Franz Fischer conduct 16 performances of Parsifal with Wagner conducting the last scene of the final performance.
1883 Wagner dies on 13 February and is buried in the grounds of Wahnfried on 18 February.
1884–1906 Cosima continues as director of the Festspielhaus.