Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionized opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesize the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama.

One of Wagner's greatest gifts to music was the leitmotif. Simply put, it's a musical signature designed to represent a particular character or theme, and he uses the device throughout his operas. Modern film composers have since adopted the technique, and examples can be found in countless Hollywood scores.

In 1833, Wagner's brother Albert managed to obtain for him a position as choirmaster at the theatre in Würzburg. That same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). This work, which imitated the romantic style of Carl Maria von Weber, went unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.

Generally known as "Here Comes the Bride" or "Wedding March", Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" is traditionally played during the bride's entrance at weddings throughout the Western world. It was originally composed for his opera Lohengrin and sung by the women of the wedding party as they accompanied the heroine Elsa to her bridal chamber.

As the "preliminary evening" within the cycle, Das Rheingold recounts Alberich's theft of the Rhine gold after his renunciation of love; his fashioning of the all-powerful ring from the gold and his enslavement of the Nibelungs; Wotan's seizure of the gold and the ring, to pay his debt to the giants who have built his fortress Valhalla; Alberich's curse on the ring and its possessors; Erda's warning to Wotan to forsake the ring; the early manifestation of the curse's power after Wotan yields the ring to the giants; and the gods' uneasy entry into Valhalla, under the shadow of their impending doom.

In 1839, the 26-year-old Wagner was employed as a conductor at the Court Theatre in Riga. His extravagant lifestyle plus the retirement from the stage of his actress wife caused him to run up huge debts that he was unable to repay, so he hatched a plan to flee his creditors. But his sea journey was hindered by storms and high seas. The ship at one point took refuge in the Norwegian fjords at Tvedestrand, and a trip that was expected to take eight days took more than three weeks. He would later write, "The voyage through the Norwegian reefs made a wonderful impression on my imagination. The legend of the Flying Dutchman, which the sailors verified, took on a distinctive, strange colouring that only my sea adventures could have given it."

When Elsa kneels and prays for God to send her a champion, a boat drawn by a swan appears on the river. In the boat stands a knight in shining armor, who offers himself as Elsa's champion on one condition--that she never ask his name or where he has come from.

Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love) was Wagner's second opera, and his first to be performed, though it closed before the second performance. It is sometimes referred to as the "forgotten comedy", since only two of Wagner's works are comedies, the other being Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which is a more mature work.

One source of inspiration for Tristan und Isolde was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, notably his The World as Will and Representation, to which Wagner had been introduced in 1854 by his poet friend Georg Herwegh. Wagner later called this the most important event of his life.

Wagner's fortunes took a dramatic upturn in 1864, when King Ludwig II succeeded to the throne of Bavaria at the age of 18. The young king, an ardent admirer of Wagner's operas, had the composer brought to Munich and settled all of his considerable debts. In his correspondence, the king expressed a passionate personal adoration for the composer. When he was forced to send Wagner away following a scandal involving a younger woman, Ludwig considered abdicating his throne to follow his hero into exile, but Wagner quickly dissuaded him.