Richard Wagner’s Residence on Lake Lucerne, where the “Meistersinger,”
“Rheingold,” and “Götterdämmerung” were composed.
]
His opera, “Lohengrin,” was produced by Liszt at Weimar, Aug. 28, 1850,
with the following cast: Lohengrin, Beck; Telramund, Milde; King Henry,
Höfer; Elsa, Frl. Agthe; Ortrud, Frl. Faisstlinger. It was received very
much as “Tannhäuser” had been, but it gradually won its way through
Germany, being brought out at Wiesbaden in 1853, Leipzic, Schwerin,
Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Breslau, and Stettin, in 1854; Cologne, Hamburg,
Riga, and Prague, 1855; Munich and Vienna, in 1858; Berlin and Dresden,
1859. In the mean time Wagner was laboring on the largest, if not the
greatest, of his works, “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (“The Nibelung’s
Ring”). In 1848 he had considered two subjects, the story of Frederick
Barbarossa and that of Siegfried, the hero of the “Nibelungen Lied.” The
latter was his choice, and he wrote an essay entitled “Der Nibelungen
Mythus als Entwurf zu einem Drama” (“The Nibelung Myth as Subject for a
Drama”). Immediately afterward, in the fall of 1848, he wrote
“Siegfried’s Tod” (“Siegfried’s Death”) in three acts and a prologue,
and even conceived some of the musical ideas for the setting. In May,
1850, he had this poem printed and read parts of it as illustrations in
a lecture on the music-drama delivered at Zurich. The prospects of
“Lohengrin” moved him to take it up again, and we find him writing to
Liszt thus:—
“You offer to me the artistic association which might bring ‘Siegfried’
to light. I demand representatives of heroes, such as our stage has not
yet seen; where are they to come from? Not from the air, but from the
earth, for I believe you are in a good way to make them grow from the
earth by dint of your inspiring care.... Well, then, as soon as you have
produced ‘Lohengrin’ to your own satisfaction, I shall also produce my
‘Siegfried,’ but only for you and for Weimar. Two days ago I should not
have believed that I should come to this resolution; I owe it to
you.”[2]
[Illustration: