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So stürben wir um ungetrennt, Ewig, einig ohne End'. So die that we together blend, Living, loving, without end. |
There are other motives in this stupendous score, but, as I have already intimated, it would be idle for the music-lover to burden his memory with them. Many of them are thematic developments of phrases first heard in the germinal form, and it is in the overwhelming eloquence of these developments that the power of the score is largely to be found. With the themes already given the lover of the true lyric drama should readily understand the purposes of the composer. For the rest, the perfect organic union of text, tone, and action in "Tristan und Isolde" makes it the most directly expressive of all the later dramas. Only those who go to hear it with the conception of an old-fashioned opera in their minds fail to receive its message. "Tristan und Isolde" is a drama of human emotions uttered in tones. As such it must be conceded a place among the mightiest conceptions of the poetic brain.
[DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG]
Opera in Three Acts.
First performed at the Royal Court Theatre, Munich, June 21, 1868.
Original Cast.