The man who Nietzsche called «Wagner, my God» was born in Leipzig on May 13, 1813.

None of modern times artists arised as much hate and love as Richard Wagner did. His life has been a fabulous adventure which, with his destiny and his will he transformed in a myth. Despite all the mockeries, desillusions, humiliations, he never gave up. He was animated by an undominatable strengh and a vital impulse which helped him overthrow all the opositions. Both tied around him a long chain of adventurous and wandering years, from Sicilia to Saint- Petersbourg, including London, Paris, Venezia, Berlin and Vienna. During 30 years, Wagner travelled from one city to another, from a country to another as a fugitive or as a conqueror, following his employements, his desires, his ambitions, his illusions.

And, as destinity was generous to him, it placed on his road the three people he needed : Nieztsche, Cosima and Ludwig II of Bavaria.

If his human qualities have been disaointing, his works never did. Wagner’s opera has conquered the world : they are played all over the world, including even Israël, and every year thousands of faithful gather on the Holy Hill, the Festpielhaus in Bayreuth. Two hundred years after, the myth is still alive.

Published in Paris Match