Wagner in his century

2013 marks the 200th birthday of musical giant Richard Wagner. In commemoration, the Music Library offers on display a selection of 19th century items related to Wagner, including an 1860 edition of the overture to Rienzi, his first successful opera; the sheet music for “Les deux grenadiers” (1843), an early song Wagner published in the hope of making a name for himself in Paris (he failed); the dedication page for the score of the Ring cycle (1875), which salutes Wagner’s champion King Ludwig II of Bavaria; and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin und Tannhäuser (1852), by Franz Liszt, commentaries on Wagner’s “système dramatique”, his approach to composition in which the interplay of words and music supports a deeper quality of expression in service to the drama. Through December.