Вильге́льм Ри́хард Ва́гнер (нем. Wilhelm Richard Wagner, 22 мая 1813, Лейпциг — 13 февраля 1883, Венеция) — немецкий композитор, дирижёр, драматург (автор либретто своих опер), философ. Крупнейший реформатор оперной музыки. Оказал значительное влияние на европейскую культуру рубежа веков, особенно на модернизм и декадентство. Юдофобские взгляды Вагнера явились одним из источников национал-социализма. --
The Faust Overture is a concert overture composed by German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner originally composed it between 1839 and 1840, intending it to be the first movement of a Faust Symphony based on the play Faust by German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Realizing that he would not finish the planned symphony, Wagner revised the piece between 1843 and 1844, incorporating ideas from the other planned movements, and creating instead a single-movement concert overture. He made a final revision in 1855.
References: Westernhagen, Curt von. Wagner: A Biography. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY 1978. Culshaw, John. Wagner: The Man and His Music. Dutton: New York, NY 1978. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music, 1996 ed. Chief editor Michael Kennedy. Everett, Derrick. Richard Wagner: Chronology at the Wayback Machine (archived February 23, 2008), 2004. Wagner, Irmgard. Where is Wagner's Faust? at the Wayback Machine (archived February 5, 2012), American Goethe Society 2004.