Life as Opera - Timeline

Life as Opera - Timeline
Racist and imperialist French newspaper cover from 1911. It suggests that France Suggesting That France Will Bring Civilization, Wealth and Peace to Morocco.
  • 1813 Richard Wagner born in Leipzig
  • 1821 Lola Montez born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in Ireland
  • 1824 La Mogador born as Céleste Vénard in Paris
  • 1825 Prosper Mérimée’s Clara Gazul published
  • 1830 Mérimée hears Carmen story
  • 1833 George Sand/Mérimée fiasco
  • 1838 Georges Bizet born in Paris
  • 1842 Rienzi launches Wagner’s career and Verdi’s career is launched. Jules Massenet born in the Loire.
  • 1843 Mérimée’s Carmen
  • 1843 Lola introduces “Spanish” dancing in England (it was then in vogue of course)
  • 1844 Lola meets Wagner when with Liszt in Dresden; the French navy bombards Mogador in Morocco and "La Mogador" gets her name
  • 1845 Wagner’s Tannhauser
  • 1846 Lola goes to Bavaria
  • 1848 Lola flees Bavaria and Wagner is on the barricades in Dresden (he flees the next year)
  • 1852 Dumas’ Our Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s La Traviata the following year
  • 1855 Lola in Sydney and Melbourne; departs 1856 – now aged 35
  • 1858 Giacomo Puccini born in Lucca; la Mogador’s husband dies
  • 1859 Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde finished
  • 1861 Lola dies in America
  • 1864 Wagner invited to Munich by Ludwig II
  • 1865 Bizet and La Mogador first meet on the train; Tristan and Isolde first performed; Wagner forced to flee in December
  • 1866 Bismarck’s Prussia defeats Ludwig’s Bavaria
  • 1871 Verdi’s Aida
  • 1875 Carmen performed; Bizet dies aged 36
  • 1876 George Sand dies
  • 1882 Wagner’s Parsifal
  • 1883 Wagner dies in Venice
  • 1884 Massenet’s Manon
  • 1885 Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado
  • 1893 Puccini’s Manon Lescaut
  • 1896 Puccini’s La Bohème
  • 1903 Puccini living in Monte Carlo, Mata Hari first performs under that name and arrives in Paris. Some say she really appears as Mata Hari in 1905.
  • 1904 Puccini’s Madame Butterfly opens to disaster
  • 1905 Richard Strauss’ Salomé
  • 1906 Mata Hari at Monte Carlo opera house dancing in Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore and in April is divorced so she can remarry.
  • 1917 Mata Hari executed
  • 1924 Puccini dies
  • 1926 Puccini’s unfinished Turandot first performed