Leubald was an attempt by the youthful
Richard Wagner to write a tragic drama in the
Shakespearean genre. It occupied him during the years 1827-28 while he was at school, first in
Dresden and later in
Leipzig. The play combines elements of
Hamlet,
King Lear,
Macbeth and
Richard III, with influences from
Goethe and
Heinrich von Kleist. The critic
Theodor Adorno has noted:
Leubald [and Wagner's other early writings] are all of a piece with those plays of which high-school pupils are wont to write in their exercise books the title, the Dramatis Personae, and the words 'Act I'.