DIFFERENT FROM ORDINARY OPERAS
These seven music dramas differ radically in their structure from what had been known for centuries as operas. Operas are made up of “set numbers”; that is, solo arias, duos, ensembles (ahnsahmbles) for three or four voices, besides choruses, instrumental pieces, and dances. Wagner also himself wrote some operas: “The Fairies,” “Rienzi,” “The Flying Dutchman,” “Tannhäuser” (ton-hoi-ser), and “Lohengrin,” in all of which there are set numbers which are played and sung once and do not recur.
Beginning with the “Flying Dutchman,” however, we have, besides the set numbers which do not recur, others which do recur, and these are the far-famed “motives” (German, leitmotive), usually called “leading motives,” or guiding themes.
LUDWIG II OF BAVARIA
The young king who befriended Wagner and made his plans possible
COSIMA WAGNER
Daughter of Franz Liszt, formerly wife of Hans von Bülow, who now as Wagner’s widow manages the affairs at Bayreuth
RICHARD AND COSIMA WAGNER
From a photograph taken about 1872
A leading motive may be defined as a characteristic melody, or succession of chords like the majestic strains of the Walhall music, the heavy clumsy musical tread of the giants, or the virile, heroic motive of Siegfried, which is sounded by the orchestra whenever in the course of the drama the personage or the dramatic idea with which it is associated comes forward or is referred to in the text.
Today Wagner’s early operas seem simple to all; but the German audiences that first heard them, more than sixty years ago, found them hard nuts to crack. His “Rienzi,” being in the flashy Meyerbeer style much admired at that time, won great favor, although it is the poorest of his works. His next work, “The Flying Dutchman,” was so novel in style that the audiences did not know what to make of it. “Tannhäuser” was still more Wagnerian; while his “Lohengrin” seemed so far beyond the possibility of public approval that he could not get it accepted for performance, even in Dresden, where he was conductor!
This was only one illustration of the hard set conditions of the operatic situation. Wagner had so many reasons for dissatisfaction that he joined the revolutionary uprising in 1849. This uprising was soon crushed, and Wagner, with the aid of Liszt, escaped to Switzerland, the great asylum of political fugitives. Twelve years elapsed before he was allowed to return to Germany.
THE RHINE DAUGHTERS. FROM RHEINGOLD. Photographed from the stage performance
For six years he did not compose another opera, devoting his time instead to writing essays in which he tried to explain the aim of his “Artwork of the Future.” Nobody paid any attention to these essays. The consequence was that, as he wrote to Liszt, “I lead here entirely a dream life: if I awake, it is to suffer.” He suffered because, among other things, he heard from many sources that the performances of his operas given in German cities were so bad that it was hard to understand how anyone could possibly enjoy them.