Richard Wilhelm Wagner, famed conductor and composer, was a sucker for animals, and had a particular weak spot for dogs. As a child, he and his sister would save unwanted puppies from being drowned, and that affection endured throughout his life.

As an adult, Wagner owned four Newfoundlands, and the first of them was “Robber,” a dog the musician often visited in a shop in Riga, a provincial capital of the Russian Empire at the time. The visits inevitably turned to deeper affection between the two, and ultimately, Wagner came to own the dog. Unfortunately, Robber didn’t come with a cash-filled pouch dangling from his neck. The Wagners were awash in debt, Richard’s passport had been confiscated, and he was potentially facing jail. Escaping debt collectors by escaping Riga seemed the only way out, and so it was that Wagner, his wife, and all 160 pounds of Robber made a run for it.

In his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben, Wagner recounted the turbulent sea crossing they made from Riga to London. Both Robber and Wagner suffered excruciating seasickness, but it ultimately inspired Wagner’s opera, The Flying Dutchman.  Below are ten minutes of the two hour plus opera:

Our favorite anecdote about “Robber” and Wagner has to do with Wagner’s position as music director of the Riga opera. It wasn’t at all unusual for Robber to accompany his master to work, and on one occasion at a rehearsal,the bass player accidentally poked Robber in the eye with his bow as he was playing. Understandably, Robber snarled. The bass player exclaimed something, but an undisturbed Wagner merely said, “The dog is a fine critic. He is merely telling you that playing this passage requires more delicacy.”

Image: Painting by Georg Papperitz (1846-1918) shows Franz von Lenbach, Siegfried Wagner, Cosima Wagner, Mrs Materna, Richard Wagner, Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, and Franz Liszt (at the piano), and of course, “Robber.” Shared from the public domain.