Sorge Dich Nicht

The brief heyday of the Anhaltinische Hof in Zerbst (Saxony-Anhalt) coincided with the work of its court Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Fasch. The benevolent and prudent Prince Johann August von Anhalt-Zerbst (1677-1742) expanded his court orchestra and engaged outstanding musicians for this purpose.

Richard Wagner was one of the most revolutionary figures in the history of music, a composer who made pivotal contributions to the development of harmony and musical drama that reverberate even today. Indeed, though Wagner occasionally produced successful music written on a relatively modest scale, opera – the bigger, the better – was clearly his milieu, and his aesthetic is perhaps the most grandiose that Western music has ever known. Early in his career, Wagner learned both the elements and the practical, political realities of his craft by writing a handful of operas which were unenthusiastically, even angrily, received. © Rovi Staff /TiVo