All the themes of the overture are taken from the opera itself. The overture begins with a slow introduction, molto sostenuto e maestoso, D major, 4-4. It opens with “a long-sustained, swelled and diminished A on the trumpet,” in the opera, the agreed signal for the uprising of the people to throw off the tyrannical yoke of the nobles. The majestic cantilena of the violins and the violoncellos is the theme of Rienzi’s prayer in the fifth act. The last prolonged A leads to the main body of the overture. This begins allegro energico, D major, 2-2, in the full orchestra on the first theme, that of the chorus, “Gegrüsst sei hoher Tag!” at the beginning of the first finale of the opera. The first subsidiary theme enters in the brass, and it is the theme of the battle hymn (“Santo spirito cavaliere”) of the revolutionary faction in the third act. A transitional passage in the violoncellos leads to the entrance of the second theme—Rienzi’s prayer, already heard in the introduction of the overture—which is now given, allegro, in A major, to the violins. The “Santo spirito cavaliere” theme returns in the brass, and leads to another and joyful theme, that of the stretto of the second finale, “Rienzi, dir sei Preis,” which is developed with increasing force. In the coda, molto più stretto, the “Santo spirito cavaliere” is developed in a most robust manner.
OVERTURE TO “DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER” (“THE FLYING DUTCHMAN”)
The overture to The Flying Dutchman gives the condensed and essential drama. We are relieved of the avaricious father who is delighted at the thought of handing his daughter to the mysterious stranger; nor does one have to hear the bleatings of the saphead lover. No wonder Senta preferred the Dutchman.
Wagner’s overture is a stormy seascape. The Dutchman knew no calm seas. The music that typifies him is one of Wagner’s happiest inventions. Poor Vanderdecken sings nothing so compelling, not even in his monologue. One hears enough of Senta’s ballad in the overture; one is not tempted to laugh at the operatic spinning wheels that stick when they should revolve; one does not find Wagner trying to write with Italian melodiousness.
The overture was sketched at Meudon near Paris in September, 1841, and completed and scored at Paris in November of that year. In 1852, Wagner changed the ending. In 1860 he wrote another ending for the Paris concerts.
It opens allegro con brio in D minor, 6-4, with an empty fifth, against which horns and bassoons give out the “Flying Dutchman” motive. There is a stormy development, through which this motive is kept sounding in the brass. There is a hint at the first theme of the main body of the overture, an arpeggio figure in the strings, taken from the accompaniment of one of the movements in the Dutchman’s first air in Act I. The storm section over, there is an episodic andante in F major in which wind instruments give out phrases from Senta’s ballad of the Flying Dutchman (Act II). The episode leads directly to the main body of the overture, allegro con brio in D minor, 6-4, which begins with the first theme. This theme is developed at great length with chromatic passages taken from Senta’s ballad. The “Flying Dutchman” theme comes in episodically in the brass from time to time. The subsidiary theme in F major is taken from the sailors’ chorus, “Steuermann, lass’ die Wacht!” (Act III). The second theme, the phrase from Senta’s ballad already heard in the andante episode, enters fortissimo in the full orchestra, F major, and is worked up brilliantly with fragments of the first theme. The “Flying Dutchman” motive reappears fortissimo in the trombones. The coda begins in D major, 2-2. A few rising arpeggio measures in the violins lead to the second theme, proclaimed with the full force of the orchestra. The theme is now in the shape found in the allegro peroration of Senta’s ballad. It is worked up energetically.
The overture is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, four horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, kettledrums, harp, strings.
OVERTURE TO TANNHÄUSER
Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, Romantic Opera in three acts, book and music by Wagner, was produced at the Royal Opera House in Dresden, under the direction of the composer, on October 19, 1845.