"part of the new German Empire led by Prussia. Though Bavaria retained a degree of autonomy on some matters within the new German Reich, Ludwig increasingly withdrew from day-to-day affairs of state in favour of extravagant artistic and architectural projects. He commissioned the construction of two lavish palaces and Neuschwanstein Castle, and he was a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig spent all his royal revenues (although not state funds) on these projects, borrowed extensively, and defied all attempts by his ministers to restrain him. This extravagance was used against him to declare him insane, an accusation which"
"age of 79. Marie Haupt Marie Haupt (18 April 1849 – 1928) was a German operatic soprano who had an active career during the latter half of the 19th century. She is best remembered today for portraying several roles in the first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's ""The Ring Cycle"" at the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Born in Danzig, Germany (now Gdańsk, Poland), Haupt studied in Berlin with the great prima donna Pauline Viardot and renowned pedagogue Eduard Mantius. She made her professional opera debut in 1870 at the Court Theater of Neustrelitz. Subsequent engagements took her to"
"until several years later. Wagner abandoned his original plan to hold a second festival the following year, and travelled to London to conduct a series of concerts in an attempt to make up the deficit. Although the festival was plagued by financial problems in its early years, it survived through state intervention and the continued support of influential Wagnerians, including King Ludwig II of Bavaria. From its inception, the festival has attracted leading conductors and singers, many of whom performed without pay. Among these was Hans Richter, who conducted the premiere of the Ring Cycle in 1876. Another was the"
"Marquard, the Secretary of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Council of State Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister, appeared with a mission to explore the residence of Richard Wagner and return with him to Munich. When crown Prince Ludwig II listened to Wagner's ""Lohengrin"" he said: ""When I am crowned, I want to show the world how much I know of the genius of Wagner."" He was seeking a way to maintain his self-given promise. As Wagner's most ardent admirer, he wanted to give him the opportunity to finish his ""Der Ring des Nibelungen."" So, instead of the rough journey to the"
"Jahrhundertring The Jahrhundertring (""Centenary Ring"") was the production of Richard Wagner's ""Ring Cycle"", ""Der Ring des Nibelungen"", at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle. The festival was directed by Wolfgang Wagner and the production was created by the French team of conductor Pierre Boulez, stage director Patrice Chéreau, stage designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Jacques Schmidt and lighting designer André Diot. The cycle was shown first in 1976, then in the following years until 1980. It was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980. While the"
"Josephine Schefsky Josephine Schefsky (sometimes spelled Schefzky) (1843 – 11 November 1912) was a German opera singer who had an active career during the latter half of the 19th century. Possessing a powerful voice with a wide vocal range, she tackled roles from both the soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoires. She is best remembered today for portraying several roles in the first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's ""The Ring Cycle"" at the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Schefsky made her professional opera debut in 1868 at the Bavarian State Opera as Orfeo in Christoph Willibald Gluck's ""Orfeo ed Euridice"". She"
"Ludwig II (sculpture) Ludwig II is a sculpture of King Ludwig II of Bavaria by sculptor Elisabet Ney. Completed in 1870, the piece is a portrait statue rendered in plaster. The statue was modeled and carved in Germany, but it is now held by the Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, Texas; a marble version, completed by another sculptor, is installed in the Herrenchiemsee Palace in Bavaria. As a young woman, Elisabet Ney had studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, becoming the Academy's first female graduate in 1854. She next returned to the city in 1867, when"
"Ludwig II (sculpture) Ludwig II is a sculpture of King Ludwig II of Bavaria by sculptor Elisabet Ney. Completed in 1870, the piece is a portrait statue rendered in plaster. The statue was modeled and carved in Germany, but it is now held by the Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, Texas; a marble version, completed by another sculptor, is installed in the Herrenchiemsee Palace in Bavaria. As a young woman, Elisabet Ney had studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, becoming the Academy's first female graduate in 1854. She next returned to the city in 1867, when"
"Schloss Ringberg The castle was the creation of Luitpold Emanuel Ludwig Maria, Duke in Bavaria (1890-1973) and his friend Friedrich Attenhuber (1877-1947), a Munich painter. The Duke was a member of the Wittelsbach family, former rulers of Bavaria. Like his famous relative, King Ludwig II, the Duke was obsessed with building fantastical structures. Indeed, Ludwig's Schloss Neuschwanstein inspired Schloss Ringberg. The Duke dedicated his life to building the castle. The two men met at Munich University, where from 1910-14 the Duke studied philosophy and the history of art. Attenhuber first gave painting lessons to the Duke, then traveled through Europe"
"Marie Haupt Marie Haupt (18 April 1849 – 1928) was a German operatic soprano who had an active career during the latter half of the 19th century. She is best remembered today for portraying several roles in the first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's ""The Ring Cycle"" at the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Born in Danzig, Germany (now Gdańsk, Poland), Haupt studied in Berlin with the great prima donna Pauline Viardot and renowned pedagogue Eduard Mantius. She made her professional opera debut in 1870 at the Court Theater of Neustrelitz. Subsequent engagements took her to the Municipal Theater"
"watching it together"". Three ""Ring"" cycles were performed in the first Bayreuth Festival. The stage designs used in ""Die Walküre"", and the other operas, were based on sketches by Josef Hoffman which were converted to stage sets by the Brückner brothers from the Coburg State Opera. These designs, and Carl Döpler's costumes, influenced productions well into the 20th century. After the 1876 festival, ""Die Walkure"" was not seen again at Bayreuth for 20 years, until Cosima revived the ""Ring"" cycle for the 1896 festival. It was quickly taken up by other opera houses: Vienna and New York in 1877, Rotterdam"
"Ring cycle, is a set of four operas based loosely on figures and elements of Germanic mythology—particularly from the later Norse mythology—notably the Old Norse ""Poetic Edda"" and ""Volsunga Saga"", and the epic poem ""Nibelungenlied"". English authors from the 16th century had been aware of the Viking impact on the countryside, though the numerous placenames of ""Danes Camp"" is better explained as a modification of ""dene"", or hollow. Following the 17th-century first flowering of Anglo-Saxon studies, there was a similar wave of enthusiasm for Northern culture in Britain, identifying as Viking remains Iron Age hill forts and even Stonehenge and"
"ensemble singing. As with ""Das Rheingold"", Wagner wished to defer any performance of the new work until it could be shown in the context of the completed cycle, but the 1870 Munich premiere was arranged at the insistance of his patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. More so than the other ""Ring"" dramas, ""Die Walküre"" has achieved some popularity as a stand-alone work, and continues to be performed independently from its role in the tetralogy. The story of ""Die Walküre"" is based on the Norse mythology told in the ""Volsunga Saga"" and the ""Poetic Edda"". In this version the Volsung"
"Christa Mayer Christa Mayer is a German operatic mezzo-soprano. She is particularly known for her portrayal of Erda in Richard Wagner's ""Ring Cycle""; a role which she has performed several times at the Bayreuth Festival and recorded on the BBC Legends Record Label. Christa Mayer was born in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany in Bavaria. After graduating from the Bavarian Academy of Singing, she pursued further studies at the Munich Academy of Music where she was a pupil of tenor Thomas Moser. She won several notable singing competitions, including prizes in the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the International Robert Schumann"
"signed by Ludwig I, Klenze, the sculptor Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler and the metal founder Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and his nephew, Ferdinand von Miller. Ludwig I and the participating artists were certainly aware of the plans for Arminius statues in Teutoburg Forest dating from the 1920s, although these were carried out after the Bavaria statue. In contrast to Klenze, who was influenced by Classical Antiquity, Schwanthaler was a disciple of the Romantic Movement and a member of several Munich medieval circles, all of which were enthusiastic about anything “patriotic” and rejected foreign impulses, especially those from Classical Antiquity. It was apparently"
"when striking the foundation-stone with a hammer. By 1874, Wagner had mentally settled on Niemann for the role of Siegmund in the complete ""Ring cycle"" as it was to be performed at Bayreuth. Wagner had involved Niemann in his discussions about the casting of the ""Ring,"" but Niemann (who had agreed to participate without remuneration), in dudgeon because Wagner wanted a younger man for the role of Siegfried, arrived at Wahnfried in 1875 for rehearsals and within three days had stormed out and injected poison into the atmosphere of exhilaration at Bayreuth. However, his departure gave Wagner the opportunity to"
"Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (; ; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or (""the Fairy Tale King""). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, and Duke in Swabia. He succeeded to the throne aged 18. Two years later Bavaria and Austria fought a war against Prussia, which they lost. However, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 Bavaria sided with Prussia against France, and after the Prussian victory it became"
"amply discussed in his essay ""Oper und Drama"". The first two components of the ""Ring"" cycle were ""Das Rheingold"" (""The Rhinegold""), which was completed in 1854, and ""Die Walküre"" (""The Valkyrie""), which was finished in 1856. In ""Das Rheingold"", with its ""relentlessly talky 'realism' [and] the absence of lyrical 'numbers, Wagner came very close to the musical ideals of his 1849–51 essays. ""Die Walküre"", which contains what is virtually a traditional aria (Siegmund's ""Winterstürme"" in the first act), and the quasi-choral appearance of the Valkyries themselves, shows more ""operatic"" traits, but has been assessed by Barry Millington as ""the music"
"god, following his death... the cult of 'Maximin' became an integral part of the George circle’s practice…"" The ""Maximin-Erlebnis"" provided George with inspiration for his work in subsequent years. Robert Boehringer, head of the Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceutical company, joined the circle in 1905; he later became George's literary executor. Still in 1919, George befriended the young historian Ernst Kantorowicz and guided him to write his biography on Emperor Frederick II. The Circle presented itself as an assembly of young elitist writers with George as undisputed head, mentor and saviour, similar to the esoteric circle around Albert von Schrenck-Notzing or other"
"serious consequences had not King Maximilian I of Bavaria become the artist's patron (1808). Frank's execution of the royal Bavarian coat of arms made a good impression on the king and the latter not only paid him generously, but turned over to him for factory purposes the building called the Zwinger, in Nuremberg. Henceforth Frank produced many works for King Maximilian, such as the ""Circumcision"", after Hendrick Goltzius; the ""Nativity""; the ""Passion"", six parts after Lucas van Leyden; the Mosque of Cordoba; ""St. Barbara"", after Holbein; the ""Judgment of Solomon"", after Raphael; the ""Magi"", after Rubens. For King Louis I,"
"legendary Nibelungs. This led him to consider Siegfried as a possible subject for a new opera, and by October 1848 the entire ""Ring"" cycle had been conceived. This rather straightforward account of the ""Ring's"" origins, however, has been disputed by a number of authorities, who accuse Wagner of deliberately distorting the facts so as to bring them into harmony with his own private version of history. The actual sequence of events, it seems, was not nearly as clear-cut as he would have us believe. It was in October 1846 – some sixteen months ""before"" the February Revolution – that he"
"Hermann Zumpe Hermann Zumpe (9 April 1850 – 4 September 1903) was a German conductor and composer. Born in Oppach, Saxony, Zumpe grew up in Taubenheim in Sohland an der Spree. He was educated at the teachers' seminary at Bautzen, was a schoolmaster at Weigsdorf in Cunewalde from 1870 to 1871, from thence going to Leipzig, and playing the triangle in the municipal theatre there. He was one of those who helped Richard Wagner in the preparation of the ""Ring"" cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in the years 1873 to 1875, and after this he conducted in the theatres of"
"II features strongly in the 1995 computer game ""."" Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (; ; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or (""the Fairy Tale King""). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, and Duke in Swabia. He succeeded to the throne aged 18. Two years later Bavaria and Austria fought a war against Prussia, which they lost. However, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 Bavaria sided with Prussia"
"at Munich. Wagner was responsible for several theatrical innovations at Bayreuth; these include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience. The Festspielhaus finally opened on 13 August 1876 with ""Das Rheingold"", at last taking its place as the first evening of the complete ""Ring"" cycle; the 1876 Bayreuth Festival therefore saw the premiere of the complete cycle, performed as a sequence as the composer had intended. The 1876 Festival consisted of three full ""Ring"" cycles (under the baton of Hans Richter). At the end, critical reactions ranged between that"
"from King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who spent much of his family’s fortune on mysterious castles and art. His most noted structure is Neuschwanstein Castle, which DarKastle is loosely based on. He reigned from 1864 to his mysterious death in 1886. When Ludwig reached a debt of 14 million marks, he was deemed insane and was taken into custody. He was found in a lake at Berg Castle soon after, and it was ruled a suicide by drowning, though there was no water in his lungs and he was a strong swimmer. In the off-season after the ride's first year"
"Max Planck Society. Schloss Ringberg The castle was the creation of Luitpold Emanuel Ludwig Maria, Duke in Bavaria (1890-1973) and his friend Friedrich Attenhuber (1877-1947), a Munich painter. The Duke was a member of the Wittelsbach family, former rulers of Bavaria. Like his famous relative, King Ludwig II, the Duke was obsessed with building fantastical structures. Indeed, Ludwig's Schloss Neuschwanstein inspired Schloss Ringberg. The Duke dedicated his life to building the castle. The two men met at Munich University, where from 1910-14 the Duke studied philosophy and the history of art. Attenhuber first gave painting lessons to the Duke, then"
"with the traveling Wagner Theater and the impresario Angelo Neumann. Two daughters of the singer couple had singing careers: Ada von Westhofen-Robinson (1878–1914) and Louise Robinson (1884–1934). Adolf Robinson Adolf Robinson (1838–1920) was an Austrian baritone who had a major opera career during the second half of the 19th century. His extensive stage repertoire contained numerous Wagnerian roles such as Wotan in ""The Ring Cycle"" and Hans Sachs in ""Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"". Other highlights of his career included the title characters in Rossini's ""William Tell"", Mozart's ""Don Giovanni"", Verdi's ""Rigoletto"", Hérold's ""Zampa"", and Heinrich Marschner's ""Der Templer und die"
"""Ring"" music in its proper sequence. Having completed the music for ""Das Rheingold"" in May 1854, he began composing ""Die Walküre"" in June, and finished the full orchestral score nearly two years later, in March 1856. This extended period is explained by several concurrent events and distractions, including Wagner's burgeoning friendship with Mathilde Wesendonck, and a lengthy concert tour in London at the invitation of the Royal Philharmonic Society, when he conducted a full season amid some controversy, although his own ""Tannhäuser"" overture was well received. The system of leitmotifs, integral to the ""Opera and Drama"" principles, is used to"
"Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria () (12 March 1821 – 12 December 1912), was the ""de facto"" ruler of Bavaria from 1886 to 1912, due to the incapacity of his nephews, King Ludwig II for three days and King Otto for 26 years. Luitpold was born in Würzburg, the third son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife, Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. He was the younger brother of King Maximilian II of Bavaria and of King Otto of Greece. Luitpold was in line to succeed to the throne of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and"
"invitation of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. For this patron he executed at Munich and Carrara a large number of busts, including those of the Prince himself, of Schelling, of Alexander von Humboldt, and of his brother Ludwig. In 1819 he began his celebrated series of mythological sculptures for the Royal Theatre at Berlin, and in 1820 he was made professor at the Berlin Academy, designing statues of genii for the National Monument for the Liberation Wars. This work occupied him until 1829, when he began the series for the Berlin Museum, which include the bronze group of “Horse Tamers”"
"work on it and concentrated instead on ""Tristan und Isolde"" and ""Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"", and on a revised version of Tannhäuser. However, King Ludwig of Bavaria, to whom Wagner had sold the copyrights to the ""Ring"" works, was insistent that the two completed ""Ring"" operas be staged, and over Wagner's bitter protests arranged for them to be performed at the Munich Hofoper, ""Das Rheingold"" on 22 September 1869 and ""Die Walküre"" on 26 June 1870. The core of Wagner's objection to a Munich performance was his relationship with the married Cosima von Bülow, with whom he was cohabiting in"
"also the title of a poem published in George's late work ""Das Neue Reich"" (""The New Empire"") in 1928, in which he proclaimed a new form of an intellectual and spiritual aristocracy, to some extent obliged to Schiller's ""On the Aesthetic Education of Man"". The transfiguration of a 'German mind' below the surface of a real-existing, profane German nation state has later been described as a model for the conservative German resistance to Nazism, culminating in the 20 July plot. Indeed Alexander and Berthold von Stauffenberg had become acquainted with the Circle in 1923, shortly afterwards also their brother Claus"
"who wanted to create an enduring legacy, strongly favored bronze. The king therefore supported the Munich metal founder Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and his nephew Ferdinand von Miller and revived the long tradition of bronze casting in Munich by setting up a new foundry, the Royal Metal Foundry (""Königliche Erzgießerei""), which went into operation on Munich’s Nymphenburger Strasse in 1825. From the end of 1839 on, Schwanthaler and numerous assistants were engaged in producing a full-sized plaster model of the ""Bavaria"" statue. In 1844 an initial, four meter high auxiliary model had been completed. In late summer 1843 the finished full-size"