Life as Opera - Timeline
- 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