[score excerpt]
Act III., Scene 2 (page 291).
[score excerpt]
Elsa: Fuhl' ich zu Dir so susz mein Herz entbrennen.
Grand and perfect repose is here the chief thing. In singing the
passage, I found that I paused a little on the second and fourth
part of the bar, but of course in such a manner as to be scarcely
perceptible in a rhythmical sense, only as a matter of
expression.
[score excerpt]
Lohengrin: Ath-mest Du nicht mit mir die suss-en. Page 39.
[score excerpt]
Dein Lie-ben muss mir hoch ent - gel - - ten.
(Here the tempo becomes a little slower.)
But enough, perhaps too much already. With all these indications,
I appear mean before you. You will do it all right, perhaps
better than I should. Only see that we soon meet again; I long to
be with you. Or do you find me too effusive? No! Farewell, my
dear, good Liszt. Write to me soon.
Yours,
RICHARD WAGNER.
ZURICH, August 16th, 1850. (Abendstern-Enge, Zurich.)
38.
At this moment, dearest friend, after having closed the letter
already, I begin to feel a doubt whether you have received my
last letter, which I sent you about eighteen days ago. I am
uncertain because you make no mention of its contents, which
were--
1. A letter from me to Zigesar.
2. One bar of music (full score), which was to be added at the
end of Lohengrin's tale in Act III. (the cut which I want in this
scene--omission of the second part of Lohengrin's tale--you also
do not mention; I assume that you agree).
3. My asking you to send me a proof of the libretto (now too
late).
If you have not received this letter, kindly let me know at once,
because in that case I should like to send you the aforementioned
additional bar, which might still arrive in time for the general
rehearsal.
R. W.
39.
DEAR LISZT,
The bearer of this greeting is my young friend Karl Ritter, whose
visit I announced to you in my last letter. His family has
migrated from Russia, where they formerly lived, to Dresden; and
their intention is later on to settle in Switzerland near me.
Karl has preceded them in any case, and will stay for the summer
with me. He is thoroughly cultured and full of talent, and his
musical gift especially is considerable. He was unable to resist
the desire to hear my Lohengrin, the score of which he knows
thoroughly, under your direction; and therefore he has journeyed
to Weimar, to return to me after the second representation. I
need scarcely ask you to be kind to him, for I know that it is
your nature to be amiable. Please take him with you to the
general rehearsal and see that he gets a good place at the
performances, which his family from Dresden also will attend. I
thank you in advance for this kindness.
I shall spend the day and evening of the 28th with my wife alone
on the Righi. This little trip to the Alps, which has been made
possible by your kindly care, will, I hope, benefit my bodily and
mental condition, especially in these days, when I am naturally
moved by many feelings. Farewell, dear friend. Write soon, and be
always sure of my most devoted love.
Your
RICHARD WAGNER.
ZURICH, August 22nd, 1850.
40.
DEAREST FRIEND,
Your "Lohengrin" is a sublime work from one end to the other. The
tears rose from my heart in more than one place. The whole opera
being one indivisible wonder, I cannot stop to point out any
particular passage, combination, or effect. A pious ecclesiastic
once underlined word for word the whole "Imitatio Christi;" in
the same way I might underline your "Lohengrin" note for note. In
that case, however, I should like to begin at the end; that is,
at the duet between Elsa and Lohengrin in the third act, which to
my thinking is the acme of the beautiful and true in art.
Our first representation was, comparatively speaking,
satisfactory. Herr von B., who will see you soon, will bring you
very accurate news. The second performance cannot take place
before ten or twelve days. The court and the few intelligent
persons in Weymar are full of sympathy and admiration for your
work; and as to the public at large, they will think themselves
in honour bound to admire and applaud what they cannot
understand. As soon as I have a little rest I shall begin the
article which will probably appear in the "Debats"; in the
meantime Raff, about whom B. will speak to you, will write two
notices in the journal of Brockhaus and in the "Leipzig
Illustrirte Zeitung". Uhlig will look after Brendel's paper, etc.
If you have a moment, do not forget to write to Genast, who has
very warmly interested himself in the success of "Lohengrin". You
may be quite assured of the fate of the masterpiece in Weymar,
which is, no doubt, a little surprised at being able to produce
such things. Before the end of the winter "Lohengrin" will
certainly become a "draw."
When shall we have "Siegfried"? Write to me soon, and always
count on your devoted friend and servant,
F. LISZT.
WEYMAR, September 2nd.
41.
DEAR FRIEND,
I can no longer delay writing to you, although I should have
preferred to wait for another letter from you, so as to answer
any possible questions of yours. As far as I can at present form
an opinion of the character of the "Lohengrin" performance at
Weimar from the accounts that have reached me, there is one thing
that stands forth in the surest and most indubitable manner,
viz., your unprecedented efforts and sacrifices in favour of my
work, your touching love for me, and your marvelous faculty of
making the impossible possible. I can see after the event quite
clearly what a gigantic task you have undertaken and performed.
How can I ever reward you? I should scarcely have anything to
communicate to you beyond these exclamations of gratitude if I
had not discovered in Herr von Zigesar's letter (received the day
before yesterday, together with the honorarium) a certain
disappointment--the disappointment involuntarily expressed by one
who does not see his warmest zeal for a beloved cause crowned by
the desired success, and who therefore assumes a certain pensive
and doubtful attitude. Zigesar is doubtful whether the success of
my opera is certain; he professes the warmest desire to work for
that certainty with all his might, but appears to hesitate as to
the best means for the purpose. Knowing that your zeal in the
same cause is more active and energetic than that of any one
else, I must turn to you alone in considering the means which may
bring about our common desire.
So much is certain: that the performance has caused fatigue by
the length of its duration. I confess I was horrorstruck when I
heard that the opera had lasted until close upon eleven at night.
When I had finished the opera, I timed it exactly, and according
to my calculation the first act would last not much over an hour,
the second an hour and a quarter, the third again a little more
than an hour, so that, counting the entr'actes, I calculated the
duration of the opera from six o'clock to a quarter to ten at the
latest. I should have been doubtful whether you had taken the
tempi according to my calculation if musical friends, well
acquainted with the opera, had not assured me particularly that
you had taken the tempi throughout as they knew them from me, and
now and then rather a little quicker than slower. I must
therefore assume that the dragging took place where you, as
conductor, lost your immediate power, viz., in the recitatives. I
have been assured that the recitatives were not attacked by the
singers as I had performed them to my friends at the piano. Allow
me to explain myself a little more particularly, and forgive my
mistake of not having done so before.
Owing to the deplorable fact that at our German theatres scarcely
anything but operas translated from a foreign language is given,
our dramatic singers have been most thoroughly demoralized. The
translations of French and Italian operas are generally made by
blunderers, or at least scarcely ever by people who would be able
to effect between the music and the translation a similar
concordance to that which existed in the original version, as,
for example, I tried to do in the most important parts of Gluck's
"Iphigenia". The result has been in the course of time that the
singers got into the way of neglecting altogether the connection
between word and tone, of pronouncing an unimportant syllable to
an accentuated note of the melody, and of putting the important
word to a weak part of the bar. In this way they gradually became
accustomed to the most absolute nonsense, to such an extent that
it was frequently quite indifferent whether they pronounced at
all or not. It is most amusing to hear German critics boast that
only Germans understand dramatic music, while experience teaches
that every bad Italian singer in the worst Italian opera declaims
more naturally and expressively than the best Germans can do. The
recitative has fared worst; in it singers have become accustomed
to see only a certain conventional sequence of tonal phrases,
which they can pull about and draw out according to their sweet
will. When in opera the recitative commences, it means to them,
"The Lord be praised, here is an end to that cursed tempo, which
off and on compels us to a kind of rational rendering; we can now
float about in all directions, dwell on any note we like until
the prompter has supplied us with the next phrase; the conductor
has now no power over us, and we can take revenge for his
pretensions by commanding him to give us the beat when it suits
us," etc. Although perhaps not all singers are conscious of this
privilege of their genius, they, as a rule, involuntarily adopt
this free-and-easy method, which confirms them in a certain
natural laziness and flabbiness. A composer writing for German
singers has therefore to take every care in opposing an artistic
necessity to this lazy thoughtlessness. Nowhere in the score of
my "Lohengrin" have I written above a vocal phrase the word
"recitative;" the singers ought not to know that there are any
recitatives in it; on the other hand, I have been intent upon
weighing and indicating the verbal emphasis of speech so surely
and so distinctly that the singers need only sing the notes,
exactly according to their value in the given tempo, in order to
get purely by that means the declamatory expression. I therefore
request the singers particularly to sing all declamatory passages
in my operas at first in strict tempo, as they are written. By
pronouncing them throughout vividly and distinctly much is
gained. If, proceeding from this basis with reasonable liberty
and accelerating rather than holding back, they manage to
obliterate the painful effect of the tempo altogether, and
produce an emotional and poetic mode of speech, then all is
gained.
Dingelstedt's sympathetic and clever notice of the performance of
my "Lohengrin" has impressed me very much. He owns that
previously he had known nothing by me, and chiefly attributes to
this circumstance a certain puzzled feeling which the first
performance of "Lohengrin" has produced in him. That puzzled
feeling he transfers to the character of the work itself,
speaking of numberless intentions crossing each other, with which
he supplies me, but never guessing, as far as I can see, the only
intention which guided me--I mean the simple and bare intention
of the drama. He speaks of the impression which flutes, violins,
kettledrums, and trumpets made on him, but nowhere of the
dramatic representatives in whose stead, as he puts it, those
instruments spoke. From this I conclude that at the performance
the purely musical execution preponderated, that the orchestra--
as connoisseurs have also told me--was excellent, and that friend
Liszt, together with all that immediately depended on him, was
the real hero of the performance. If we consider honestly and
unselfishly the essence of music, we must own that it is in large
measure a means to an end, that end being in rational opera the
drama, which is most emphatically placed in the hands of the
representatives on the stage. That these representatives
disappeared for Dingelstedt, that in their stead he only heard
the utterance of orchestral instruments, grieves me, for I see
that, as regards fire and expression, the singers remained behind
the support of the orchestra. I own that a singer supported by
the orchestra in such a manner as is here the case must be of the
very highest and best quality, and I fully believe that such
singers could not easily be found in Weimar, and in Germany
generally. But what is really the essential and principal thing
here? Is it voice only? Surely not. It is life and fire, and in
addition to that earnest endeavour and a strong and powerful
will. In Dresden I made the experience with our best singers
that, although they had the most laudable intentions and the
greatest love for their tasks, they were unable to master a
certain flabby laziness, which in our actual artistic muddle
appears to be the characteristic trait of all our operatic
heroes. I there caused all the remarks in the score of
"Tannhauser" to be inserted in the parts of the singers with the
utmost accuracy--I mean the remarks which had reference to the
meaning of the situation and the dramatic action. At the
performance I perceived with dismay that all these had remained
unnoticed, and I had to see--imagine my horror!--for example,
that my Tannhauser in the contest of the singers shouted the hymn
of Venus--
"Wer dich mit Gluth in seine Arme geschlossen, Was Liebe ist,
weiss der, nur der allein!"
at Elizabeth, the chastest of virgins, before a whole assembly of
people. The only possible result could be that the public was, to
say the least, confounded, and did not know what to make of it.
Indeed, I heard at Dresden that the public became acquainted with
the dramatic meaning of the opera only by reading the book in
extenso; in other words, they understood the performance by
disregarding the visible performance and making additions from
their own imagination. Are your singers at Weimar more advanced
than our famous people of Dresden? I think not. Probably they
also will, in the first instance, be satisfied with getting over
the difficulty of hitting the notes and committing their parts to
memory, and on the stage they will at best take notice only of
what the stage-manager tells them in the most general way.
Genast, however, was always one of those artists who do not rely
upon the stage-manager for the comprehension of their parts; he
who has heard him and seen him knows so much. Being now a stage-
manager himself, he probably thinks it unnecessary to play for
the singers the schoolmaster, whom he, as a singer, never wanted.
In this, however, he is mistaken; the present generation has run
wild from its birth. I also can understand too well that, in his
friendly zeal for my work, he remained entirely on the proper
standpoint of the stage-manager, who arranges things in a general
way, and justly leaves it to the individual actors to find out
for themselves what concerns them only. In spite of this, I ask
him now to interfere even there, where the power and the natural
activity of the stage-manager ceases; let him be the trustee of
infant actors. At the rehearsal of my "Tannhauser" in Weimar I
had occasion to point out the neglect of some scenic indications
on the part of individual singers. Elizabeth, for example, during
the postlude of the duet with Tannhauser in the second act, has
to justify the re-entry of the tender theme in the clarinet in
slower tempo by looking--as is indicated in the score--after
Tannhauser in the court of the castle and by beckoning to him. By
neglecting this and merely standing in front, waiting for the
conclusion of the music, she naturally produces an unbearable
feeling of tedium. Every bar of dramatic music is justified only
by the fact that it explains something in the action or in the
character of the actor. That reminiscence of the clarinet theme
is not there for its own sake as a purely musical effect, which
Elizabeth might have to accompany by her action, but the beckoned
greeting of Elizabeth is the chief thing I had in my eye, and
that reminiscence I selected in order to accompany suitably this
action of Elizabeth. The relations of music and action must
therefore be deplorably perverted where, as in this instance, the
principal thing--i.e., the dramatic motive--is left out, while
the lesser thing--i.e., the accompaniment of that motive--alone
remains. Of the performance of "Lohengrin" one fact has been
related to me which, although it may appear of little
consequence, must serve me to show how important, nay decisive,
for a proper understanding such individual cases may be.
When I conceived and wrote the second act, it had not escaped me
how important it would be for the proper mood of the spectator to
show that Elsa's contentment at the last words of Lohengrin is
not really complete and genuine; the public should feel that Elsa
violently forces herself to conquer her doubt, and we should in
reality fear that, having once indulged in brooding over
Lohengrin, she will finally succumb and ask the prohibited
question. In the production of this general feeling of fear lies
the only necessity for a third act in which that fear is
realized; without it the opera should end here, for the chief
problem would not only have been mooted, but satisfactorily
solved. In order to produce this feeling very distinctly and
tangibly, I invented the following dramatic point: Elsa is led by
Lohengrin up the steps on the minster; on the topmost step she
looks downwards with timid apprehension; her eye involuntarily
seeks Frederick, of whom she is still thinking; at that moment
her glance falls on Ortrud, who stands below, and raises her hand
in a threatening manner. At this moment I introduce in the
orchestra in F minor ff. the warning of Lohengrin, the
significance of which has by this time been distinctly impressed
upon us, and which, accompanied by Ortrud's impressive gesture,
here indicates with absolute certainty, "Whatever happens, you
will disobey the command in spite of all." Elsa then turns away
in terror, and only when the king, after this interruption, once
more proceeds towards the entrance of the minster with the bridal
pair, does the curtain drop. What a pity then that that dramatic
point was not made on the stage, and that the curtain dropped
before the entry of the reminiscence in F minor! This not
unimportant mistake was, no doubt, caused by the probably
accidental neglect of a remark in the full score which, according
to my previous wish, should, like similar other remarks, have
been extracted for the benefit of the actors. I must fear that
several other things have also remained unnoticed and unexecuted,
and nothing confirms me so much in this fear as the account of
Dingelstedt, who, in spite of his unmistakable goodwill, has
evidently not taken in my opera because of the music.
Dearest Liszt, was I right when in the preface of my "Kunstwerk
der Zukunft" I wrote that not the individual, but the community
alone, could create genuine works of art? You have done the
impossible, but, believe me, all must nowadays do the impossible
in order to achieve what is really possible. What delights me
more than all is to hear that you have not lost courage, and are
going to try everything in order to support the opera, in spite
of a certain disappointment around you, and even to put it on its
legs. To assist you in this most laudable zeal I give you the
following advice: Let Genast, whom I cordially thank for his
friendship, before the resumption of "Lohengrin", call the whole
personnel to a reading rehearsal; let the singers read their
parts in connection, distinctly and expressively, from the
printed libretto, in which there are unfortunately many
misprints. Let Genast take the score, and from the remarks
therein inserted explain to the singers the meaning of the
situations and their connection with the music bar by bar. The
devil must be in it if the matter could not then be put right,
provided the intentions of the actors are good. Once more, let
Genast go beyond his position as stage-manager, which, no doubt,
he fills as well as any one, and let him become the guardian of
the infants and the neglected.
By these words I by no means wish to express a definite doubt as
to your singers in general or their achievements in this
particular case. The fact that in a purely musical sense they
took such care of their parts that you ventured with them upon
the performance of this enormously difficult, because unfamiliar
music is an excellent testimony in their favour. In the above I
asked them for something which perhaps they have never been asked
for before. I hope Genast will find it worth his while to explain
this most specially to them, and that he will succeed in making
them do justice to my demand. In that case he may boast of having
been the chief participant in a revolution which will lift our
theatrical routine out of its grooves.
The representative of Lohengrin alone appears, according to all
accounts, really incapable. Would it not be possible to make in
this instance a change of persons? To my mind everybody ought to
be glad when Lohengrin enters, instead of which it appears that
people were more pleased when he left the stage. At this moment I
receive your letter, assuring me of your joy and friendship. What
good spirits you are in!
I will close this long letter, which must have bored you very
much, by comprising all the single points I have mentioned to you
in a final and weighty bundle of prayers.
1. Arrange by the intervention of Genast that before the second
performance the singers have another rehearsal according to the
above indications. Let no scenic remark remain unnoticed.
2. Insist firmly and sharply that the singers perform in decisive
and lively tempo what they take to be recitatives in my opera. By
this means the duration of the opera will, according to my
experience, be shortened by nearly an hour.
3. Further, I desire that, with the exception of the second part
of Lohengrin's tale, which I determined from the beginning to
cut, my opera should be given as it is, without any omissions.
If cuts are made, the chain of comprehension will be torn
asunder, and my style, which the public are only just beginning
to take in, so far from being made more accessible, will be
further removed from the public and the actors. To capitulate to
the enemy is not to conquer; the enemy himself must surrender;
and that enemy is the laziness and flabbiness of our actors, who
must be forcibly driven to feel and think. If I do not gain the
victory, and have to capitulate in spite of my powerful ally, I
shall go into no further battles. If my "Lohengrin" can be
preserved only by tearing its well-calculated and artistic
context to pieces, in other words if it has to be cut owing to
the laziness of the actors, I shall abandon opera altogether.
Weimar in that case will have no more interest for me, and I
shall have written my last opera. With you, dear Liszt, who have
so bravely accepted my battle, it lies to gain a complete victory
for me. I do not know what more I could say; to you I have said
enough. To Genast, for whom also this letter is intended, I shall
write separately as soon as I know that my demand has not
offended him. To Zigesar I write tomorrow.
In the meantime I post this letter in order not to incur the
reproach of delay.
Farewell, then, dearest, splendid friend. You are as good as
refreshing summer rain. Farewell. Be thanked, and greet my
friends.
Always your most obliged
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, September 8th, 1850
One thing more: as you have no organ and no harmonium
(physharmonika), I want you to let the short organ-passage at the
end of the second act be played by wind instruments behind the
scenes.
Lohengrin should sing the words "Heil dir, Elsa! nun lass vor
Gott uns gehen!" with tender emotion.
42.
(TO HERR VON ZIGESAR.)
MOST ESTIMABLE HERR INTENDANT,
On my return from a little trip to the Alps, I find the copies of
the libretto of "Lohengrin" which you have kindly sent to me, and
have every reason to rejoice heartily at the remarkable care with
which you have had it done. This is another ocular proof of the
sympathy with which you have gone to work in everything
concerning my last opera, and I must not omit to express my
warmest thanks to you. Your last letter, in which you kindly
enclosed the honorarium for my "Lohengrin," tells me of the
success of all your extraordinary exertions for the performance
of the opera, and I see with regret from your friendly
communication that satisfaction, in the measure desired by you,
has not been the result, and that a permanent success appears
doubtful to you. As with this statement you combine no objection
to the work itself, but, on the contrary, assure me that to the
best of your intention and power you will try to secure that
desired success for my opera, I feel bound to add to the
expression of my gratitude for your kind feeling my opinion as to
how our mutual wishes might be realized.
Most esteemed Herr Intendant, with full knowledge of the matter
at stake, you have undertaken by its performance at your theatre
to give life to a dramatic work the essence of which is that it
is in all its parts a continuous whole, and not something
incongruous, made up of many different parts. The author of this
work does not wish to shine by the effect of single musical
pieces; music to him is altogether no more than the most exalted
and most comprehensive mode of expression of what he desired to
express--the drama. Even where music became a mere ornament I
remained conscious of having acted in accordance with a certain
artistic necessity, and each necessary effect was brought about
only by the fact that, like the link of a well-forged chain, it
derived its significance from the preceding links. If this chain
were torn asunder by the removal of the whole, or a half, or a
quarter of a link, the whole context would be torn along with it,
and my intention would be destroyed. You admitted to me yourself
that in certain cases about which at first you had doubts you had
been finally convinced of the necessity of this concatenation,
but the impression made upon you by the performance has again
renewed this doubt, to the extent, at least, that you think it
advisable, in consideration of the public, to consent to certain
omissions in my opera. Permit me to think a little better of the
public. An audience which assembles in a fair mood is satisfied
as soon as it distinctly understands what is going forward, and
it is a great mistake to think that a theatrical audience must
have a special knowledge of music in order to receive the right
impression of a musical drama. To this entirely erroneous opinion
we have been brought by the fact that in opera music has wrongly
been made the aim, while the drama was merely a means for the
display of the music. Music, on the contrary, should do no more
than contribute its full share towards making the drama clearly
and quickly comprehensible at every moment. While listening to a
good--that is, rational--opera, people should, so to speak, not
think of the music at all, but only feel it in an unconscious
manner, while their fullest sympathy should be wholly occupied by
the action represented. Every audience which has an uncorrupted
sense and a human heart is therefore welcome to me as long as I
may be certain that the dramatic action is made more immediately
comprehensible and moving by the music, instead of being hidden
by it. In this respect the performance of my "Lohengrin" at
Weimar does not as yet seem to have been adequate, in so far as
the purely musical part was much more perfect than the dramatic,
properly so called, and the fault I attribute solely to the
general state of our opera, which from the outset has the most
confusing and damaging influence on all our singers. If during
the performance of my "Lohengrin" the music only was noticed, yea
almost only the orchestra, you may be sure that the actors
remained far behind their task. Yesterday I wrote at length to my
incomparable friend Liszt about this, and explained to him my
views as to how the matter might be managed so as to place the
performance in the right light. If in future the so-called
recitatives are sung as I have asked Liszt to insist upon their
being sung, the halting and freezing impression of whole, long
passages will disappear, and the duration of the performance will
be considerably shortened. If cuts were resorted to, you would
gain comparatively little time, and would sacrifice to our modern
theatrical routine every possibility of thorough reform. I can
imagine, for instance, that the speeches of the king and the
herald may have made a fatiguing impression, but if this was the
case because the singers sang them in a lackadaisical, lazy, and
slovenly manner, without real utterance, is then the interest of
art benefited by curtailing or omitting these speeches? Surely
not. Art and artists will be equally benefited only if those
singers are earnestly requested to pronounce those speeches with
energy, fire, and determined expression. Where no effect is made
no impression can be produced, and where no impression is
produced people are bored; but is it right, in order to shorten
that boredom, to remove what with a proper expression would
produce the necessary effect? In that case it would be better to
drop the whole work, which, for want of proper expression, would
be in danger of failing to produce the necessary effect. For if
we yield in small and single things, if we make concessions to
laziness and incompetence, we may be sure that we shall soon be
obliged to do the same throughout; in other words, that we must
give up every attempt at making a work like the present succeed.
It appears to me preferable to find out with the utmost care
where the real cause of the existing evil lies, and then to
attack the enemy in his own camp with perseverance and power. You
will see from this, most esteemed Herr Intendant, how important
it is for me not to gain toleration for my Lohengrin by
accommodating it to existing evils, but to secure for it a
decisive success by making it conquer existing evils. Otherwise I
confess openly that the future chances of this opera would have
no value for me; in that case I should only regret the amount of
exertion, trouble, and sympathy which you have kindly wasted on
this work. Fame I do not seek, gain I had to renounce long ago,
and if now I have at last to experience that even my most
energetic friends and patrons think themselves obliged to make
concessions for my benefit where a real victory can alone be of
value, I shall lose every wish and every power to be further
active in my art. If you can keep my "Lohengrin" going only by
truncating its healthy organism, and not by operating to the best
of your power on the diseased organism of our truncated operatic
body, then I shall be cordially glad if you are rewarded for your
pains according to circumstances, but I must ask you not to be
angry with me if I look upon such a success with indifference.
What to you is a matter of benevolence towards me is for me,
unfortunately, a vital question of my whole mental existence in
art, to which my being clings with bleeding fibres.
May Heaven grant that you, highly esteemed sir and patron, will
take the contents and expression of these lines in good part, and
that you will not for a moment doubt that always and in all
circumstances I shall look upon you as one of the most
sympathetic phenomena that have entered my existence. In all
respects I owe you love and unbounded gratitude. If I should
never be able to show this to you, as from my whole heart I
desire, I ask you fervently to attribute it, not to the wish of
my inmost soul, but to the position which I, as an artist with a
passionate heart, must, according to my firm conviction, take
towards the state of deep depravity of our public art-life.
With the highest esteem and veneration, I remain yours
obediently,
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, September 9th, 1850
43.
DEAREST LISZT,
I must today write you a few additional lines with reference to
my recent long letter.
Karl Ritter arrived here last night from his journey; and from
his account I see that in my surmises as to certain points in the
performance of "Lohengrin," founded chiefly on some striking
remarks in Dingelstedt's notes, I have not hit the right thing.
Ritter tells me that, contrary to what I thought, you have kept
up the tempo of the recitatives according to my indications, and
that therefore the dreaded caprice of the singers, as far, at
least, as the tempo was concerned, had no license. For this also
I must thank you, but am a little perplexed as to the advice I
recently gave you. By keeping up the tempi of the recitatives I
had chiefly intended to shorten the duration of the performance,
but I see now that you had already done the right thing, and
therefore remain astounded at my own error as to the length of
the opera, which is certainly detrimental. My opinion is that if,
as I much desire, the higher context is not to be destroyed by
cuts, the public must be deceived as to the duration of the
performance by your making the singers pronounce the recitatives
as vividly and as speakingly as possible; it is quite possible
for them to sing them in the proper tempo without giving interest
to them by warmth and truth of declamation. Moreover, the
performance will, of its own accord, become more compact as time
goes on. I have made this experience at the performances of my
operas which I conducted myself, the first performances always
lasting a little longer than the subsequent ones, although
nothing had been cut in these. This will probably be the case
with the performance of "Lohengrin" in Weimar, which only now
that I have been able to ask about many difficult details I can
appreciate in its excellence and perfection as regards the
musical portion.
I now come to the principal thing. You cannot believe how
delighted I was to hear some particulars of your music to
"Prometheus." Our friend Uhlig, to whom I attribute excellent
judgment, sends me word that he values this single overture more
than the whole of Mendelssohn. My desire to make its acquaintance
is raised to the highest pitch. Dearest friend, will you be kind
enough to let me have a copy soon, if I ask you particularly? You
would please me immensely, and I already contemplate the
possibility of having it played to me at a concert here in
Zurich. Now and then I shall take an interest in the local
musical performances, and I promise you that your work will not
be heard otherwise than in the most adequate conditions that can
be obtained. Could I also have your overture to Tasso? When I
look upon your whole life and contemplate the energetic turn
which you have given to it of late years, when I further
anticipate your achievements, you may easily imagine how happy I
shall be to give my sincerest and most joyous sympathy to your
works. You extraordinary and amiable man, send me soon what I ask
you.
Enough for today.
I am always and wholly yours,
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, September 11th, 1850
44.
DEAREST FRIEND,
The second performance of your masterpiece has answered my
expectations, and the third and fourth will bring home to every
one the opinion I expressed as soon as we began rehearsing
"Lohengrin," namely, that this work will confer on a public
making itself worthy of understanding and enjoying it more honour
than that public could confer upon the work by any amount of
applause.
"Perish all theatrical mud!" I exclaimed when we tried for the
first time the first scenes of "Lohengrin." "Perish all critical
mud and the routine of artists and the public!" I have added a
hundred times during the last six weeks. At last, and very much
at last, I have the satisfaction to be able to assure you very
positively that your work will be better executed and better
heard and understood from performance to performance. This last
point is, in my opinion, the most important of all, for it is not
only the singers and the orchestras that must be brought up to
the mark to serve as instruments in the dramatic revolution,
which you so eloquently describe in your letter to Zigesar, but
also, and before all, the public, which must be elevated to a
level where it becomes capable of associating itself by sympathy
and intelligent comprehension with conceptions of a higher order
than that of the lazy amusements with which it feeds its
imagination and sensibility at our theatres every day. This must
be done, if need be, by violence, for, as the Gospel tells us,
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only those who use
violence will take it.
I fully understand the motive which has made you speak with
diplomatic reserve of the audiences of "Lohengrin" in your letter
to Zigesar, and I approve of it. At the same time, it is certain
that, in order to realize completely the drama which you
conceive, and of which you give us such magnificent examples in
"Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin," it is absolutely necessary to make
a breach in the old routine of criticism, the long ears and short
sight of "Philistia," as well as the stupid arrogance of that
self-sufficient fraction of the public which believes itself the
destined judge of works of art by dint of birthright.
The enemy to whom, as you, my great art-hero, rightly put it, one
should not capitulate--that enemy is not only in the throats of
the singers, but also very essentially in the lazy and at the
same time tyrannical habits of the hearers. On these as well as
on the others one must make an impression if necessary by a good
beating. This you understand better than I could tell you.
In accordance with your desire, we have at the second performance
of Lohengrin not omitted a single syllable, for after your letter
it would, in my opinion, have been a crime to venture upon the
slightest cut. As I took occasion to tell those of my friends who
were here on August 28th, the performance of your works, as long
as you entrust me with their absolute direction, is with me a
question of principle and of honour. In these two things one must
never make a concession; and, as far as I am personally
concerned, you may rest perfectly assured that I shall not fail
in anything which you have a right to expect from me. In spite of
this, both Herr von Zigesar and Genast feel bound, in the
interest of your work, to address you some observations, which I,
for my part, have declined to submit to you, although I think
them somewhat justified by the limits of our theatre and of our
public, which are as yet far behind my wishes and even my hopes.
If you think it advisable to agree to some cuts, kindly let me
know your resolution as to this subject. Whether you accept those
proposed by Genast, or whether you determine upon others, or
whether, which is probable, you prefer to keep your work such as
we have given it twice, I promise you on my honour that your wish
shall be strictly carried out, with all the respect and all the
submission which you have a right to demand by reason of your
genius and of your achievements.
Whatever determination you come to in this regard, be certain
that in all circumstances you will find in me zeal equal to my
admiration and my devotion.
Wholly yours,
F. LISZT.
September 16th, 1850.
P.S.--Remember me kindly to Herr Ritter. I am very thankful to
him for not having spoken too ill of our first performance of
"Lohengrin;" the second has been much more satisfactory, and the
third and fourth will no doubt be still more so. Herr Beck, who
takes the principal part, endeavours in the most laudable manner
not to be below the task allotted to him. What is more, he begins
to feel enthusiasm for his part and for the composer. If one
considers fairly the enormous difficulty of mounting such a work
at Weymar, I can tell you sincerely that there is no reason for
dissatisfaction with the result which has so far been attained,
and which beyond a doubt will go on improving with every
representation.
I do not know whether the sublimity of the work blinds me to the
imperfection of the execution, but I fancy that if you could be
present at one of our next representations you would not be too
hard upon us.
45.
DEAREST FRIEND,
In a week or so I shall send you a very long article of mine
about "Lohengrin." If personal reasons of your own do not prevent
it, it will appear in Paris in the course of October. You are
sufficiently acquainted with the habits of the Paris press to
know how reluctantly it admits the entire and absolute eulogium
of a work by a foreign composer, especially while he is still
living. In spite of this, I shall try to overcome this great
obstacle, for I make it a point of honour to publish my opinion
of your work; and if you were fairly satisfied with my article,
you might perhaps give me a pleasure which would not cost you
more than a day or two of tedium. This would be to make a
translation, revised, corrected, augmented, and authenticated,
which, by the help of your and my friends, could be inserted in
two or three numbers of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung or the
journal of Brockhaus, signed with my name.
If you should prefer to have it printed separately as a little
pamphlet by Weber, of Leipzig, I should not object; and if you
would say a word to Weber, I feel convinced that he would
willingly undertake it. But before all you must be acquainted
with my article, and tell me very frankly whether or not you
would like to have it published in Germany. In France I will
manage it a little sooner or a little later, but in case of a
German publication I should make it an absolute condition that
you undertook the trouble of translating it and of having it
copied under your eyes, so that I should not be charged with the
blunders of the translator, etc., etc. You will see that the
style is carefully French, and it would therefore be very
important not to destroy the nuances of sentiment and thought in
their passage to another language.
Always and wholly yours,
F. LISZT.
WEYMAR, September 25th, 1850.
46.
DEAREST FRIEND,
I have little to tell you unless I write to you about all the
things which we two need scarcely discuss any more. After your
last letter, which has given me great and genuine joy, such as
few things could, we are almost so absolutely near each other on
the most important questions that we may truly say, we are one. I
only long for the pleasure of your company, for the delight of
being united with you for a season, so that we may mutually no
longer say, but do to each other what we cannot express in
writing. In fact, to do something is always better and leads to
the goal much quicker than the cleverest discussion. Cannot you
get free for a little time and have a look round Switzerland? or
cannot you at least send me your scores, for which I recently
asked you? You ignore my request in your letter; why is that?
I have again many things to think about--alas! to think about
only. I have once more arrived at a point where retreat is
impossible; I must think out my thoughts before becoming once
more a naive and confident artist, although I shall be that
again, and look forward with pleasure to reaping the richest
benefit. You lay stress in your letter upon the fact that the
enemy whom we have to fight is not only in the throats of our
singers, but in the lazy Philistinism of our public and in the
donkeydom of our critics. Dearest friend, I agree with you so
fully that I did not even mention it to you. What I object to are
the perverse demands which are made on the public. I will not
allow that the public is charged with want of artistic
intelligence, and that the salvation of art is expected from the
process of grafting artistic intelligence on the public from
above; ever since the existence of connoisseurs art has gone to
the devil. By drilling artistic intelligence into it we only make
the public perfectly stupid. What I said was this: that I wanted
nothing of the public beyond a healthy sense and a human heart.
This does not sound much, but it is so much that the whole world
would have to be turned upside down to bring it about. The noble-
minded, the refined, those who have the courage of their
feelings, believe themselves at the top of the tree; they are
mistaken! In our actual order of things the Philistine, the
vulgar, common, flabby, and at the same time cruel man of
routine, reigns supreme. He, and no one else, is the prop of
existing things, and against him we all fight in vain, however
noble our courage may be; for unfortunately all things are in
this slavery of leathern custom, and only fright and trouble of
all kinds can turn the Philistine into a man by thoroughly
upsetting him. Pending an entirely new order of things, we must,
dearest friend, be satisfied with ourselves and with those who,
like ourselves, know but one enemy--the Philistine. Let us show
each other what we can do, and let us feel highly rewarded if we
can give joy to each other. "A healthy sense and a human heart!"-
-we ask nothing more, and yet all, if we realize the bottomless
corruption of that sense, the wicked cowardliness of the heart of
the so-called public. Confess, a deluge would be necessary to
correct this little fault. To remedy these ills I fear our most
ardent endeavour will do nothing that is efficacious. All we can
do--while we exist, and with the best will in the world cannot
exist at any other time but the present--is to think of
preserving our dignity and freedom as artists and as men. Let us
show to one another in ourselves that there is worth in man.
In the same sense I was intent, in connection with my
"Lohengrin," upon considering only the thing in itself; that is,
its adequate embodiment on the part of the actors. Of the public
I thought only in so far as I contemplated the one possibility of
leading the half-unconscious, healthy sense of that public
towards the real kernel of the thing--the drama--by means of the
dramatic perfection of the performance. That otherwise this
kernel is overlooked by the most aesthetic and most intelligent
hearers I have unfortunately again been shown by the clearest
evidence, and I confess that in this respect Dingelstedt's
account of my opera is present to my mind, causing me deep grief.
You, best of friends, have taken such infinite care of me in
every respect that I can only sincerely regret that your efforts
are sometimes responded to in so perverse a manner. In
Dingelstedt's account I recognize two things: his friendly
disposition towards me, with which he has been inspired by you,
and his most absolute incapability, with all his aestheticism, of
conceiving the slightest notion of what had to be conceived. The
total confusion engendered in him by listening to my opera he
transfers with bold self-reliance to my intentions and to the
work itself. He, who apparently can see in opera nothing but
kettledrums, trombones, and double-basses, naturally in my opera
did not see the wood for the trees; but, being a clever and glib-
penned litterateur, he produces a witty and many-coloured set of
variorum notes which he could not have done better if it had been
his intention to make fun of me, and this stuff he sends to the
newspaper with the largest circulation in the German language. If
I cared in the least to be in a certain sense recognized, I
should have to perceive that Dingelstedt has thoroughly injured
me. I read in some papers notices of my opera, evidently founded
upon that of Dingelstedt, somewhat to this effect: "Wagner has
written another opera, in which he seems to have surpassed the
coarse noise of his 'Rienzi'," etc. I am grieved that this
happened in the same Allgemeine Zeitung where five years ago Dr.
Hermann Franck discoursed on my "Tannhauser" in an intelligent,
calm, and lucid manner. If it should interest you, please read
this article. It is printed in the A.A.Z., No. 311, November 7th,
1845. You can imagine how I must feel when I compare the two
articles.
If you have not given up the hope of being useful to me in wider
circles, I should make bold to ask you whether you could manage
to have another and more appropriate notice of my "Lohengrin"
inserted in the A.A.Z. It has, as I said before, the largest
circulation.
How glad, on the other hand, was I to see your indications and
hints worked up into an intelligent sketch by a Frenchman who is
so much further removed from me. This has been done by Nerval, in
the feuilleton of the Presse. Many mistakes occur, but that does
not matter. The man has formed for himself from your utterances a
picture of me which at least indicates clearly and distinctly my
intention. The most terrible of all things is a German aesthetic
litterateur.
But to return once more to you. I should like almost for your
sake to gain a widespread reputation. You blow up a hundred
mines, and wherever I look I come upon you and your more than
friendly care for me; it is touching, and almost without example.
Remember me very kindly to Herr Raff, and thank him most
cordially in my name. Some of my friends thought it would have
been better if he had spoken of my "faults as a man" rather than
of my "faults as a subject;" but that, surely, does not matter,
and every one must have understood it in that sense. A better
intention to serve me I can look for in none except you.
To Genast I wrote a few days ago. This nasty bargaining about
twopence-halfpenny in the matter of cuts is repulsive to me; but
Genast remains a fine, brave fellow.
Behold, my paper is at an end, and I have done nothing but
gabble. I have many and more important things to write to you
about. Lord, forgive me! I am not in a mood for it today. I shall
soon write again. My best greetings to Zigesar. Truly this warm,
true heart does me much good. Farewell for today, noblest and
best of men.
Your
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, ABENDSTERN, ENGE
October 2nd, 1850
47.
DEAR LISZT,
You make me blush! without a blush I can scarcely read what you
are going to tell the world of me; and now you want me to
interpret it. Only if you earnestly desire it will I grant your
prayer, a prayer which flatters me too much to call it a
"prayer." Would that I could be of use to you! My last letter
must have appeared dissonant to you. I do not know what moved me
to speak bitterly of newspaper notices. One reason, however, I
may tell you: many things have determined me at last to speak in
a literary way once more. I am occupied with a work the title of
which is to be "The Essence of Opera." In it I mean to speak
clearly and definitely about opera as a type of art, and to
indicate as plainly as possible what should be done to it in
order to develop the hidden germs to full bloom. I should have
liked to dedicate this book to you, because in it I announce the
salvation and justification of the musician qua musician. I
should do this if I did not think it better not to drag you into
this address to the musical world. In that manner I shall
preserve greater liberty to you. The book therefore shall be a
surprise to you. As in this book I intend to explain my view of
the essence of the musical drama, I can find nothing more
annoying than to see the most contradictory opinions of me spread
amongst the public by witty litterateurs. The world must take me
for a muddle-headed and false priest if I preach the drama in
words while it is said of my works that musical confusion and
noise reign in them. But enough of this.
Your letter to B.'s mother was another noble thing of yours. Best
thanks.
I once more go to battle with my deadly enemy the winter. I must
think a great deal of the preservation of my health, and before
the spring I cannot work at "Siegfried" with a will, but in the
summer it shall be ready. Let me soon hear something of your
works.
One word more in confidence: at the end of this month I shall
have spent all my money; Zigesar has sent me less than you made
me hope. Towards the new year I again hope for some assistance
from Frau R. in D., but that also is uncertain. Can you--but how
shall I express it? If you have to do something beneath your or
my dignity, you cannot; that I know. The rest will be all right.
God bless you. I think the devil will not get hold of me just
yet.
Farewell, best of men. Send me your scores. Farewell, and remain
kind to me.
Your
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, October 8th, 1850
48.
(TO THE PRINCESS WITTGENSTEIN.)
HIGHLY ESTEEMED MADAM,
Your kind letter has, as you may imagine, made a great
impression. I see, to my genuine joy, that I may count you
amongst the small number of the friends who by the weight of
their sympathy richly compensate me for the absence of popular
acclamation. That you have remained faithful to me is more
important to me than perhaps you know yourself. Accept my cordial
thanks for the friendship you have preserved for me.
You ask me about my "Wiland." I have more designs than I have the
power to execute. Therefore I want a helper, yea more than a
helper, an artistic bosom friend, who works in the same spirit,
and, I hope, better than I could work myself. I request you to
persuade Liszt to undertake the musical execution of "Wiland" in
my stead. The poem in its present condition, such as herewith I
send it to you, is the result of sorrowful and deeply emotional
enthusiasm, which has stirred me up to imaginings on which as an
artist I may, I think, congratulate myself. But it takes me back
to a time to which I do not want to be taken back. I cannot
finish the poem now, either in words or music. If later on I
could gain sufficient repose for the purpose, I should be afraid
of having cooled towards it. In consequence I have lately become
accustomed to the thought of giving up the poem altogether.
But if this "Wiland," when Liszt makes its first acquaintance,
should inspire him as I was once inspired by it, I ask him to
consider it as his property. The design is quite complete; all
that remains to be done is simple versification, which every
fairly skilful writer of verse might execute: Liszt will easily
find one. In the more important places, I have written the verses
myself. To do more is at present impossible to me; even the
copying out gave me much trouble.
I hope, dear madam, you will not think my poem unworthy of your
warm recommendation to the friend whom, as you tell me to my
great joy, you will soon make happy by calling your own.
With sincere thanks for your kindness, and with cordial esteem, I
remain, dear madam, Your obedient servant,
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, October 8th, 1850
49.
DEAREST FRIEND,
I really do not know how to thank you; for the only equivalent I
could offer you would evidently be to send you a masterpiece in
exchange; and this kind of return is difficult to make even with
the best intention in the world. Allow me to look upon your
manuscript of Wiland as a sacred trust, which I shall hold at
your disposal till the time you reclaim it. My very numerous
engagements will prevent me from occupying myself with it for a
year or eighteen months; and if after that time you still think
that I am capable of undertaking the composition, we can easily
arrange the matter either verbally or by letter. Today I send you
by post a fair copy of my article on "Lohengrin." As this is the
only one I possess, I must ask you kindly to return it to me at
Eilsen (Buckeburg), where I shall spend the months of November
and December. I foresee the difficulties I shall have to
encounter in publishing through the Paris press an article so
extensive and so sincerely in praise of a German opera by a
German composer, in whose success no one has an interest, rather
the reverse. Nevertheless I do not absolutely despair of having
it inserted some day in some review, and consequently want the
manuscript.
If in the meantime you think my article worthy of publication in
Germany, I repeat the request already made that you undertake to
translate it freely, and improve it by completing it.
In the quotations it would naturally be better to reproduce
exactly the verses of your poem, and perhaps one might make the
comprehension of your work easier by adding two plates of music
type showing the five or six principal themes,
[Figure: musical example]
and two or three details of orchestration.
However, as regards both the translation and the publication, I
attach value to them only in so far as you approve; for this
article has been written solely with the intention of serving, as
far as in me lay, the great and beautiful cause of art with the
French public, such as it is in 1850. If you think that I have
not succeeded, I ask you not to hesitate for a moment in telling
me so frankly. In this, any more than in other things, you will
not find in me any stupid amour-propre, but only the very modest
and sincere desire to suit my words and actions to my sentiments.
I have just received a letter from Seghers, director of the Union
Musicale, Paris, who tells me that your Tannhauser overture will
be performed at the first concert of the Society (November 24th).
You may rely upon his zeal and intelligence in preparing a good
performance.
By the way, have you heard of an intended performance of
"Lohengrin" at Dresden? I do not know how far this Dresden
performance would benefit you in actual circumstances, while you
are forcibly prevented from looking after the rehearsals, etc.
Uhlig has probably told you that Tichatschek will study the part
of Lohengrin with him. Soon after my return Herr von Zigesar
intends to give the fourth performance, and for the fifth we
shall have Tichatschek.
I am really much obliged to you for taking interest in my
overtures, and must ask you to forgive me for not having thanked
you before; but the fact is, the greater part of my time is
occupied with other things than me and my works.
Unfortunately I possess only a single copy of "Prometheus" and
"Tasso," and of that I cannot dispose, as it belongs to the
theatre. If, as I am in hopes, next summer I can at last make a
trip to the Rhine, we must meet somewhere, possibly at Basle, and
then I shall unpack my sac de nuit, full of obscure scores.
In the meantime I am very happy to learn that you have not lost
hold of your "Siegfried," which is sure to be una gran bella
cosa, as the Italians say. I thank you for it in advance.
The day after tomorrow I start for Eilsen, where please address
me until further notice. Do not fail to return the manuscript of
my "Lohengrin" article, of which, if necessary, you might have a
copy made at Zurich. I shall want it between the 5th and l0th of
November.
Once more be thanked cordially for your "Wiland," and rest
assured that, with or without the welded wings of genius, I
always remain
Your truly devoted friend,
F. LISZT
WEYMAR, October 18th, 1850
50.
MY DEAREST FRIEND,
Do not be angry with me because I am so late in answering your
last letter. I had to see to the return of the manuscript,
entrusted to me, and this I was unable to do sooner. Your letter
of October 22nd, together with the manuscript, did not reach me
here till November 8th, via Berlin. As you wanted your manuscript
back by November l0th, I must assume that some delay had taken
place which you had not foreseen. I return herewith the French
original, and in a few days I shall send the translation, which
by then will have received its proper form.
Dear friend, your article has impressed me in a grand, elevating,
stirring manner. That I have succeeded in thus acting upon you by
my artistic work, that you are inclined to devote no small part
of your extraordinary gift to opening, not only an external, but
an internal, path to my movement--this fills me with the deepest
and most joyous emotion. I feel as if in us two men had met who
had proceeded from the two most distant points in order to
penetrate to the core of art, and who now, in the joy of their
discovery, fraternally clasped hands. This joy alone enables me
to accept your admiring exclamations without bashfulness; for I
feel that when you praise my gifts and my achievements you
express thereby only your joy at having met me at the core of
art. Be thanked for the pleasure you have thus given me.
I shall say something more about the translation when I send it
to you, which, as I mentioned before, will be in a few days.
I have also read your feuilleton in the Journal des Debats. Your
restless energy in serving me I can only compare with the spirit
in which you do it. Indeed, dear, good Liszt, I owe it to you
that soon I shall be able once more to be entirely an artist. I
look upon this final resumption of my artistic plans to which I
now shall turn as one of the most decisive moments in my life.
Between the musical execution of my "Lohengrin" and that of my
"Siegfried" there lies for me a stormy, but, I feel convinced, a
fruitful, world. I had to abandon the entire life lying behind
me, to bring into full consciousness everything dawning in it, to
conquer any rising reflection by its own means--that is, by the
most thorough entering into its subject--in order to throw myself
once more with clear and cheerful consciousness into the
beautiful unconsciousness of artistic creation. The winter I
shall spend in completing this abandonment. I want to enter a new
world unburdened, free, and happy, bringing nothing with me but a
glad artistic conscience. My work on "The Essence of Opera," the
last fruit of my contemplation, takes larger dimensions than I at
first expected. If I show that music, the woman, becomes co-
parent with the poet, the man, I must take care that this
splendid woman is not given over to the first comer who desires
her, but only to the man who longs for woman with true,
irresistible love. The necessity of this union with the full
power of music desired by the poet himself I was unable to prove
by abstract aesthetic definitions alone, which generally are not
understood and remain without effect. I had to derive that
necessity with tangible distinctness from the state of modern
dramatic poetry, and I hope I shall fully succeed. When I have
finished this book, I intend, provided I can find a publisher, to
bring out my three romantic opera-poems, with a preface
introducing them and explaining their genesis. After that, to
clear off all remains, I should collect the best of my Paris
writings of ten years ago (including my Beethoven novelette) in a
perhaps not unamusing volume; in it those who take an interest in
me might study the beginning of my movement. In this manner I
should get to the spring pleasantly and in an easy frame of mind,
and should then work at my "Siegfried" without interruption and
complete it. Give your blessing to this.
I recently had a letter from a friend in Paris who witnessed
several rehearsals of the "Tannhauser" overture under Seghers's
direction. He has completely satisfied me that the performance is
carefully prepared, and that the understanding of the public will
be aided as much as possible by a programme taken from your
article upon my opera. In spite of this, I am very doubtful
whether in the most favourable case I shall derive any benefit
from it.
My request to you to accept my poem of "Wiland," you apparently
have not quite understood. It is a sincere wish and request. Your
present and imminent occupations might delay the fulfillment of
my wish, which, however, would become impossible only if my
sketch did not inspire you with the desire to complete it. In
that case please be frank with me. If you intend, however late,
to finish "Wiland," I will undertake its proper versification.
For the present, dearest friend, I must take leave of you; I do
so with cordial wishes for your well-being. Commend me to the
Princess in the best way you can, so that she also may keep me in
friendly remembrance.
Farewell, and be greeted from the full heart of Your grateful
friend,
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, November 25th, 1850
51.
DEAREST FRIEND,
Quite against my custom, I have just spent about ten days in bed
fighting with a violent fever. As it is a very long time since I
heard from you, I begin to be somewhat anxious as to the fate of
my "Lohengrin" article, which, before leaving Weymar, I gave to
Raff, asking him to send it to you as soon as he had read it. In
case you have received it, write me a few lines to reassure me
with regard to it, and at the same time tell me frankly, and
without compliments of any kind, whether the analysis has pleased
or displeased you, whether you think it worth publishing, and
what I had better do with it.
My whole correspondence has fallen into the most lamentable
arrears through the sad condition I have lived in for more than a
fortnight. I owe an answer especially to Herr Ritter, who has
made me a most courteous offer, the value of which I quite
appreciate. Be good enough, dear friend, to thank him in my name
(before I can do so myself) for his friendly conduct, for which I
shall prove myself grateful, as far as lies in my power, on all
occasions.
How far have you got with "Siegfried"? Have you continued your
volume about the opera, and when will it appear?
Send me soon one of those long letters which you write so
beautifully. It will serve excellently well to relieve of his
grief and sorrow.
Your affectionate and devoted friend,
F. LISZT
EILSEN, November 26th, 1850
Address Eilsen (Buckeburg) till December 30th. In the first week
of the new year I shall be back in Weymar.
52.
MY DEAR LISZT,
At last I am able to send you the translation of your article. As
you probably cannot understand why it has been delayed so long,
and may perhaps even suspect that I was indifferent to your more
than kind intention, I must tell you first of all how it has
happened.
I was so moved by your work that I at once felt one thing
distinctly, viz., that in something so encouraging and deeply
touching I could not myself collaborate. I felt as shy and
bashful as possible when I thought of writing with my own hand
the praise which you dictated to me in your extremely brilliant
article. I hesitated and wavered, and did not know how to begin.
Then my young friend Ritter came to my aid, and asked me to let
him do the translation. I consented, and reserved to myself the
right of revising it afterwards, so as to set forth less my
praise than the animation of your original style. R. and B.
translated it between them, and I looked through it together with
them. R. then went to work again, and the result of these careful
endeavours I now lay before you, asking you to explain to
yourself from these indications why the whole thing has been
delayed so long. Of the actual version I can assure you with a
good conscience that, according to my firm conviction, it is not
unworthy of your original, which it renders adequately in the
sense that one does not suspect a laborious translation, but
might let it pass without hesitation for the German original of a
not unaccomplished German author. I can advise you, therefore,
without scruple to give your signature to this version, and leave
it to you whether you will announce it to be a translation. In
all you have said about the work and its author, the version
contains nothing but an absolutely faithful translation of the
original, every conceivable care having been taken to render its
very brilliant, novel, and thoroughly artistic language as
adequately as its individual flavour and fullness would allow. In
places, however, where you indicate the subject matter and the
material aspect of situations and scenes, the translator has made
bold to use a little more liberty. He considered that in these
respects the German original of the poem was nearer to him than
to the author of the French description. The situations are
therefore treated a little more exhaustively, and the German text
has been immediately drawn upon, as was indeed your own wish.
Perhaps the scenes have now and then been given a little too
fully; but as in print the verses will appear in smaller type, I
hope that this also will upon the whole add to the comprehension
of the dramatic situations. Therefore I live in good hope that
you will not be dissatisfied with the work; and if you still
intend to give me an almost excessive proof of your love of my
artistic being and to supply my friends with an important means
of realizing what they love in my art, I shall feel highly
honoured and pleased by the publication of this version, which I
think had best take the form of an independent pamphlet,
especially because in that way the important musical supplement
suggested by you would be possible.
If I were to tell you what I felt while reading this article
repeatedly and most carefully, I should scarcely be able to find
words. Let this suffice: I feel more than fully rewarded for my
efforts, my sacrifices, and my artistic struggles by recognizing
the impression I have made upon you of all others. To be so fully
understood was my only longing, and to have been understood is
the most blissful satisfaction of that longing.
Truly, dear friend, you have turned the little Weimar into a very
focus of my fame. When I read the numerous, comprehensive, and
often very brilliant articles about "Lohengrin" which now come
from Weimar, and compare them with the jealous enmity with which,
for example, the Dresden critics used constantly to attack me,
working with sad consistency for the systematic confusion of the
public, I look upon Weimar as a blessed asylum where at last I
can breathe freely and ease my troubled heart. Thank Lobe very
cordially in my name; his judgment has surprised and delighted
me. Also tell Biedenfeld and the author of the article in the
"Frankfort Conversationsblatt" that I still hope to thank them by
endeavouring with all my power to justify by new works their
great opinion of me. Greet them kindly, also Raff, and Genast,
and Zigesar, without forgetting the brave artists to whom I owe
so much gratitude.
I am deep in my work on "Opera and Drama;" it is, as I told you,
of the greatest importance to me, and I hope it will not be
without importance to others. But it will be a great, stout
volume. Ah, would it were spring, and that I might be once more a
full-blooded, poetizing musician! I am not very well off; care,
care, nothing but care, is the funereal chant which I have to
sing to every young day.
You also have been in a very pitiable plight. Your serious
indisposition and the depressed mood it left behind were strange
things to you, and have affected me very much. For my comfort I
assume that your illness is quite gone; but was I not right, dear
friend, when I warned you and expressed to you my anxiety for
your health, because I knew what unheard-of exertions you had
made for my sake? Please set my fear at rest soon and comfort me
thereby.
Finally, I ask you to transmit my sincerest and most cordial
respects to your faithful, highly esteemed friend. May you two
extraordinary people be happy! Farewell, and accept my heartfelt
thanks for your friendship, which is now the richest source of my
joy.
Your
R. W.
ZURICH, December 24th, 1850
53.
DEAR FRIEND,
I have just received a letter from Brussels, sent by desire of
the management of the Royal Theatre there. In consequence of the
brilliant success--so they write--which my opera "Lohengrin" has
recently obtained, and seeing that the subject of the opera
belongs to Belgian history, they contemplate translating the work
into good French, if that should be possible, and producing it
forthwith at the Royal Theatre. They therefore want at once a
copy of the score and of the libretto.
Dear friend, I place the whole matter at your feet. If you wish
that it should come to something, and if you think that it may
come to something, then acquire the further merit of taking this
thing in hand, which, in your position as protector and generally
speaking, you are infinitely more capable of doing than I. You
are sure to know Brussels. If you will undertake this, I should
ask you before all to see about a score. Luttichau claims his
copy as his property, and Zigesar was obliged to have another
copy made. Seeing that Luttichau, as I hear positively from
Dresden, does not intend to give the opera at least just yet, one
might hope that he would give back the score for a time, if you
were to ask him. Of course _I_ cannot apply to him.
To send my own original score so far away, I should not like at
all; it is all the little property I have. To have a copy made
here would exceed my limited means, and would also take too long,
as they are pressing at Brussels. A libretto I shall send them
direct from here.
See what you can and will do, dear friend. If it should succeed,
and some good come of it, I should like to owe it entirely to
you, as you have altogether assumed the paternal responsibility
for this opera with the care attaching to it. I shall ask them at
Brussels to apply to you, as you have full power to act in the
matter. Farewell for today; a thousand blessings in return for
your love
from your sincerely grateful
RICHARD WAGNER
ZURICH, December 27th, 1850
I have to reply to "M. Charles Hanssens jeune, chef d'orchestre
et directeur du Theatre Royal a Bruxelles."
54.
DEAR FRIEND,
I have just received your letter addressed Weymar, and hasten to
place my humble services gladly at your disposal as regards the
score of "Lohengrin" and the correspondence with Herr von
Luttichau. Probably his Excellency will not be very willing to
lend the work a second time; but I hope for a favourable result
all the same.
In your place (forgive my friendly impertinence) I should
certainly accept the Brussels offer, but with the one condition--
conditio sine qua non--that they let you revise the translation
and attend the general rehearsals. The performance and the
success will have quite a different chance if you go to Brussels,
and I am afraid that in your absence your "Lohengrin" might be a
little compromised. The actual state of the Brussels theatre I do
not know; some years ago it was somewhat in a muddle and very
little adapted to serious work. Some time will in any case be
required for the translation and rehearsals, but I advise you to
make the condition of your presence at once and firmly. The
traveling expenses are so small that the management can easily
bear them; and if you agree, I shall answer the gentlemen in that
sense as soon as they write to me.
Herr von Zigesar wrote to me urgently some days ago not to delay
my return to Weymar any longer. Unfortunately I shall be detained
here for about another fortnight by the serious illness of
Princess M. About January 20th "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin" will
again be given, and towards the end of the season Tichatschek
will probably be there and take the part.
By repeated desire, I have determined to publish my article on
the Herder festival, together with the analysis of "Lohengrin,"
in a separate form. If you want to add some further remarks on
it, let it be soon, so that I may be able to make use of them.
I enclose a few lines to Ritter. Kindly excuse me to him, and
allow me to restore to you the possession and absolute disposal
of your property after my return to Weymar. Great as is the
temptation to weld at your "Wiland," I must abide by my
resolution never to write a German opera.
I feel no vocation for it, and I lack the necessary patience to
bother myself with German theatrical affairs. Altogether I think
it more appropriate and easier to risk my first dramatic work on
the Italian stage (which probably may happen in the spring of
next year--1852--in Paris or London), and to stick there if I
should succeed.
Germany is your property, and you her glory. Complete your
"Siegfried" soon. Of power and genius you have plenty; only do
not lose patience. Perhaps we shall soon see you again in
Germany; then you will reap what you have so nobly sown.
Your sincerely devoted
F. LISZT
EILSEN, January 3rd, 1851
Have you made much progress with your book on the opera? I am
very curious to see this work.
55.
DEAREST FRIEND,
Have you all forgotten me? I have felt so lonely of late that I
am often afraid. Should you be angry with me about anything?
perhaps about the absurd misunderstanding with B.? He wrote to me
that he had heard that I was annoyed at his great article on
"Lohengrin." I was quite confounded, and thought that some
misapprehension of an expression in one of my letters might have
led you and B. after you to a completely erroneous opinion about
me. Therefore I requested him to ask you in my name to let him
explain to you the passage in my letter, because I was anxious,
not only for his sake, but for yours, to dispel so ugly an error.
Has any unpleasantness resulted from it?
From Brussels I have heard nothing. Could you give me some news,
or are you angry that I have troubled you with this affair?
Anyhow I have no illusions as to Brussels.
My very stout book is ready. Its title is "Oper und Drama." I
have not yet a publisher; and as I must take care to get a little
money for it, I am a little anxious about the matter.
Next month I shall devote to the edition of my three romantic
opera-poems. A longish introduction will explain the origin of
these poems and their position towards music.
At the beginning of spring I hope to commence the composition of
"Siegfried," and to continue the work without interruption.
As to the rest, my pleasure in life is not great. All is quiet
and lonely around me, and I frequently feel as if I were dead and
forgotten.
But how are you? Have you quite recovered? I frequently dream of
Weimar and of you--wild, confused things.
Let us say nothing more about "Wiland"; I am heartily sorry
that--you are right.
Have you still courage? Are you in good spirits? Do you really
still care to live amongst the majestic people of the Philistines
who rule the world nowadays? Ah! as long as we possess fancy we
can pull along somehow.
My poor dear little parrot is also dead! He was my spiritus
familiaris, the good brownie of my house.
Farewell, and forgive me.
Always and wholly thine,
RICHARD WAGNER.
ENGE, ZURICH, February 18th, 1851.
56.
DEAR WAGNER,
By the date of these lines you will sufficiently see in what
grief and sorrow I have been living for months. I was, it is
true, in Weymar for three weeks, but immediately after the
birthday of the Grand Duchess (February 16th) I returned here,
where unfortunately I found the Princess still very ailing and in
bed. On the 7th I have to be back in Weymar to conduct Raff's
opera; the work is too important for Raff's career for me to
neglect it. But the thought of that journey, while my whole soul,
my whole faith, and all my love must remain here at the sick-bed,
is terrible to me. Let us talk of you.
I could never think of forgetting you, and, if possible, still
less of being angry with you. Forgive me that I did not sooner
thank you cordially for B. and R.'s German version of my
"Lohengrin" article. Your letter especially has pleased and
flattered me highly. That you are satisfied with my conception of
that splendid masterpiece of heart and soul "Lohengrin" is my
exceeding rich reward. Immediately after my return to Weymar I
shall have it printed (perhaps the "Illustrirte Zeitung" will
publish it in one number), and shall send you the proof, which I
must ask you to correct and return straight to Weber as quickly
as possible.
R. can carefully read the article in one day, and send it to
Leipzig by return of post.
As to the French original, I shall probably publish it as a
separate pamphlet, together with my article on the Herder
festival, and without the alterations and omissions made by Janin
in the "Journal des Debats" of October 22nd. The title will be
"Fetes de Herder et Goethe a Weymar, 25 et 28 Aout, 1850."
From Brussels not a line! Without repudiating altogether the
musical soil of Belgium, barren though hitherto it has been, with
the exception of some individual talents, I can only advise you
again to protest absolutely against a performance of your works
under any direction but your own. The first condition you should
impose on the management of the theatre is that they call you to
Brussels. In that sense I shall answer in case they apply to me.
About B. I could tell you many things in a half-and-half way, but
you had better think them out for yourself. Let me speak French,
and don't repeat it.
B. is a nobleman who has spent long years in becoming a literary
good-for-nothing. If he had possessed or acquired the necessary
talent, he would in that direction have made himself a position
as a nobleman. As it is, he is an amphibious creature, living in
bogs on one side and getting dry in his water on the other. He
has shown me the letter you wrote to him, but with this kind of
people little is gained by explanation. They are not wanting in
the good where the better would be required, and it is generally
more advisable to be cautious with them than to complain, or
correct their opinions. I think you might have been satisfied
with thanking him simply for his article about "Lohengrin,"
however awkward and badly argued certain passages may have been.
Apropos of this, have you read the articles on "Lohengrin" in the
"Frankfort Conversationsblatt"? They are certainly better meant
and better written; and as you have thanked B., you might, I
think, appropriately write a few lines to the author, who is a
very decent man and one of your sincere and enthusiastic
proselytes. Enclose the lines to him in the first letter you
address to me at Weymar, and I will forward them to him at once.
"Wiland" is still imprisoned at Weymar, together with my
manuscripts and scores. As soon as my valet returns I shall send
you "Wiland" at once, but I am not going to call in a common,
prosaic locksmith to set him at liberty.
I am looking forward to your book. Perhaps I may try on this
occasion to comprehend your ideas a little better, which in your
book "Kunst und Revolution" I could not manage very well, and in
that case I shall cook a French sauce to it.
Brockhaus published a few days ago my pamphlet on the Goethe
foundation ("De la Fondation Goethe a Weymar"). I shall send it
you on the first opportunity. Of my articles on Chopin in the
"France Musicale," which I am likely to spin out through fifteen
numbers, you have probably not heard at Zurich. B. read the
original at Weymar. Farewell, be happier than I, and write soon
to
Your truly devoted friend,
F. LISZT.
EILSEN, March 1st, 1851.
57.
BEST OF FRIENDS,
Cordial thanks for your letter, which was a sure sign of your
continued interest in me. Your domestic troubles have alarmed me
very much; be assured of my genuine sympathy with any grief that
may befall you. I hope this letter will find you in an easier
state of mind with regard to the health of your very dear friend.
If only my wish could contribute to this! But necessity compels
me to gain some certainty as to my own position through your
means. Listen, and do not be angry.
The communication of your plans in my favour last summer roused
in me a hope as to which I must now know whether I am to look for
its fulfillment or to abandon it altogether. You told me that in
case of the desired success of my "Lohengrin" you intended to
make use of the presumably friendly disposition of the Grand
Duchess, with a view to inducing her to allow me the necessary
means of subsistence during the composition of my "Siegfried."
Just at that time I had given up all thoughts of setting the
opera to music, and had sent the poem of "Siegfried" to the
printer in order to place it before the public in the form of an
intention never carried out. Your communication changed my mind,
as I acknowledged to you at the time in the most joyous and
grateful manner. I cancelled the order for printing the poem, and
prepared myself for the composition instead. For the commencement
of the work I fixed upon the coming spring, partly in order,
first, to get rid of my always depressed winter humour, and
partly to give you time for carrying out your kind intention
without hurry. For the winter I chose a literary work, for which
I had plenty of material, and which I took in hand at once,
hoping that I might make something by it. This work, a book of
four hundred to five hundred pages, small octavo, entitled "Oper
und Drama," has been ready these six weeks; but as yet none of
the publishers to whom I wrote about it has replied, and my
expectations at least of gain from this work are therefore very
small. During the whole of six months, after spending the
honorarium for the production of "Lohengrin" at Weimar, I have
lived entirely by the assistance of Frau R. in D., because
latterly I have not been able to earn anything beyond a small fee
for conducting two of Beethoven's symphonies at the miserable
concerts here. I know that my Dresden friend has for the present
exhausted herself, because the family is not wealthy, but has
only just a sufficient income, which, moreover, owing to some
awkward complications with Russia, is at present placed in
jeopardy. I am therefore compelled to try and make money at any
price, and should have to abandon a task like the composition of
"Siegfried," which in a pecuniary sense is useless. If I were to
have any inclination for a task undertaken for the sake of money,
it would have to be so-called "aesthetic literature," and in
order to get money for such literature I should have to spend all
my time in writing for magazines at so much "per sheet." The
thought is very humiliating.
If I am to undertake an important artistic task, my immediate
future--say for the current year, at least--must be secured;
otherwise I shall lack the necessary cheerfulness and
collectedness. If I am to have peace of mind for devoting myself
to artistic labour without interruption, I must, as I said
before, be without anxiety for my immediate subsistence.
Necessity, as the proverb says, breaks iron, and therefore I put
this question to you once more simply, so as to be sure as to my
position. I am aware that everything has turned out unfavourably
for your plan of helping me. The Grand Duchess was ill, and could
attend only the third performance of "Lohengrin;" soon afterwards
you left Weimar, and therefore had no opportunity of preparing
the Grand Duchess for your plan in a proper and dignified manner.
All this I know, and therefore no blame attaches to you in the
remotest degree. Only I must know now where I am. For that reason
I pray you with all my heart to tell me plainly and definitely
whether, as things are, I still may hope for something or not, so
that I may make all my arrangements accordingly; uncertainty is
the worst of tortures. One request I further make without
hesitation. If you are compelled by the state of affairs to tell
me that your plan cannot now be realized, and that therefore I
must not hope for any further assistance in favour of the
composition of my "Siegfried," then kindly see at least whether
you cannot get me at once SOME money, were it only as much as my
immediate difficulty requires, in order to gain me some time for
settling to my altered plan. It is very sad that I have to
trouble you with this ugly request.
But enough of this.
May Heaven grant that you will soon be relieved from your
domestic troubles. I wish the Princess a quick and perfect
recovery with all my heart.
Farewell, dear friend. Good luck and the best success to Herr
Raff!
Farewell, and be happy.
Your sincerely devoted
RICHARD WAGNER.
ENGE BEI ZURICH, March 9th, 1851.
58.
DEAR FRIEND,
I passed the whole of March in such trouble and distress, that I
could not write to you. Since April 4th I have been back here.
"Lohengrin" was to be given on the 8th, but Beck's hoarseness
compelled us to postpone the performance till next Saturday. In
any case the opera will be given twice more during this season.
By today's post I send you my "Lohengrin" article, which in the
first instance will appear in German in the "Illustrirte
Zeitung." Be kind enough to read the proof quickly and to return
it direct to Weber, Leipzig. It will probably be published in the
next number. About the French edition I shall arrange soon
afterwards; it will be the same size and type as my pamphlet on
the Goethe foundation, of which also I send you a copy today.
Brockhaus will be the publisher.
Have you received the hundred thalers? Your last letter has made
me very sad, but I do not relinquish all hope of leading the
somewhat difficult diplomatic transaction concerning your
"Siegfried" to a successful issue. Perhaps I shall succeed in
settling the matter by the middle of May. Tell me in round
figures what sum you require, and (quite entre nous, for I must
ask you specially to let nobody know) write me a full letter
which I can show to Z. You must excuse me for troubling you with
such things, and I am grieved, deeply grieved, that the matter
cannot be brought more simply to a good result; but, in my
opinion, it will be necessary for you to explain by letter your
position as well as the plan of the work and the artistic hopes
which may justly be founded upon it. I need not tell you that I
do not want this for myself. You know me, and are aware that you
can have implicit confidence in me.
Muller's letter I sent yesterday, after thinking from day to day
that I should return. He will doubtless soon write to you, and
you will find him a trustworthy, prudent friend, who genuinely
esteems you.
Can you tell me, under the seal of the most absolute secrecy,
whether the famous article on the Jews in music ("Das Judenthum
in der Musik") in Brendel's paper is by you?
The Princess has remained in Eilsen, still confined to her bed;
and I do not expect her till the end of this month. You may
imagine how deeply her long illness has grieved me.
Write soon, and do not forget to correct the proofs of the
"Illustrirte Zeitung" at once.
Your
F. LISZT.
April 9th, 1851. P.S.--The "Lohengrin" article must be signed
thus: "From the French of F. Liszt." Request the printer's reader
kindly not to omit this and to call the editor's special
attention to it.
59.
DEAREST LISZT,
I did not write to you at once in order to write to you more at
length and more calmly on a favourable day. Then came the number
of the "Illustrirte Zeitung" of April 12th, and once more I read
your printed article from beginning to end. It is difficult for
me to describe the impression your work of friendship has made on
me just at this time. I was once more cold and diffident, and
looked with something like bitter irony on the thought of having
to begin a new artistic labour. The artistic misery far and wide
around me was so great, my mood so hopeless, that I felt inclined
to laugh at myself when I thought, for example, of the
composition of my "Siegfried;" and this mood I transferred to all
my other works. Recently I glanced through my score of
"Lohengrin;" it filled me absolutely with disgust, and my
intermittent fits of laughter were not of a cheerful kind. Then
you approached me once more, and moved, delighted, warmed,
inspired me in such a manner that the bright tears welled forth,
and that once more I knew no greater delight than that of being
an artist and of creating works. I have no name for the effect
you have produced upon me. Everywhere around me I see nothing but
the most beautiful spring life, full of germs and blossoms, and
together with it such voluptuous pain, such painfully
intoxicating joy, such delight in being a man, in having a
beating heart--although it feel nothing but sorrow--that I regret
only to have to write all this to you.
And how strangely everything happens with you! Would I could
describe my love for you! There is no torture, but, on the other
hand, no joy, which does not vibrate in this love. One day
jealousy, fear of what is strange to me in your particular
nature, grieve me; I feel anxiety, trouble, yea doubt; and then
again something breaks forth in me like a fire in a wood, and
everything is devoured by this conflagration, which nothing but a
stream of the most blissful tears can extinguish at last. You are
a wonderful man, and wonderful is our love. If we had not loved,
we might have terribly hated, one another. All that I wanted to
write to you with well-balanced composure must now come out just
as it happens to strike me at the moment. My "Siegfried" I shall
begin at the commencement of May, happen what will. Perish all
guarantee of my existence! I shall not starve. For my book I have
at last a publisher, Avenarius, in Leipzig; he pays me one
hundred thalers; it is very little, but I don't think I can get
any more. Now and then you will put a groat by for me; and when
my necessity grows breast-high, you will help me with as much as
you may happen to have for a poor friend. Frau R. in D. will also
do her part off and on, and in the winter I shall earn again a
few louis d'or by conducting symphonies, so that I shall not go
to the devil after all if only my wife will keep calm. So let us
leave the Grand Duchess alone; I can and will not ask her for
anything even in the most indirect manner. If she made me an
offer of her own free will, it would touch and delight me, all
the more coming from a princess, but this possibility, even if it
never should happen, I must not turn into an impossibility by
asking her for a proof of her kindness. Away with all business
transactions as to this question! Up till now the sympathy of
that princely lady has made so beautiful an impression upon me,
that I do not wish to spoil it. Are we agreed? I think so.
You ask me about the "Judenthum." You must know that the article
is by me. Why do you ask? Not from fear, but only to avoid that
the Jews should drag this question into bare personality, I
appear in a pseudonymous capacity. I felt a long-repressed hatred
for this Jewry, and this hatred is as necessary to my nature as
gall is to the blood. An opportunity arose when their damnable
scribbling annoyed me most, and so I broke forth at last. It
seems to have made a tremendous impression, and that pleases me,
for I really wanted only to frighten them in this manner; that
they will remain the masters is as certain as that not our
princes, but the bankers and the Philistines, are nowadays our
masters. Towards Meyerbeer my position is a peculiar one. I do
not hate him, but he disgusts me beyond measure. This eternally
amiable and pleasant man reminds me of the most turbid, not to
say most vicious, period of my life, when he pretended to be my
protector; that was a period of connections and back stairs when
we are made fools of by our protectors, whom in our inmost heart
we do not like. This is a relation of the most perfect
dishonesty; neither party is sincere towards the other; one and
the other assume the appearance of affection, and both make use
of each other as long as their mutual interest requires it. For
the intentional impotence of his politeness towards me I do not
find fault with Meyerbeer; on the contrary, I am glad not to be
his debtor as deeply as, for example, B. But it was quite time
that I should free myself perfectly from this dishonest relation
towards him. Externally there was not the least occasion for it,
for even the experience that he was not sincere towards me would
not have surprised me, neither did it give me a right to be
angry, because at bottom I had to own that I had intentionally
deceived myself about him. But from inner causes arose the
necessity to relinquish all considerations of common prudence
with regard to him. As an artist I cannot exist before myself and
my friends, I cannot think or feel, without realizing and
confessing my absolute antagonism to Meyerbeer, and to this I am
driven with genuine desperation when I meet with the erroneous
opinion even amongst my friends that I have anything in common
with Meyerbeer. Before none of my friends I can appear in clear
and definite form, with all that I desire and feel, unless I
separate myself entirely from the nebulous outline in which many
see me. This is an act necessary for the perfect birth of my
matured nature; and if God wills, I hope to be of service to many
by performing this act so zealously.
What you will think of this--that--just imagine--I do not as yet
know exactly. I know who you are and perfectly feel what you are,
and yet it must appear to me as if in this point you could not as
yet be entirely your own self. But enough of this. There are
earthly things on which we may occasionally be of different
opinion without ever parting from each other in divine things. If
you don't approve of something here, shut your eyes to it.
Let me at last have some good news of you. In your most intimate
relations you seem to me so sadly placed that I am quite
melancholy about it. Is the illness of the Princess so serious
that, apart from its long duration, it inspires you with real
anxiety? I must almost fear this unless you reassure me about it.
Do this as soon as you can, and tell the highly esteemed lady how
cordially I sympathize with her sufferings.
Dear, dear Liszt, arrange that we soon may see each other.
Perhaps the Princess would benefit by Swiss air; send her here
and come with her.
I cannot go on today. I wanted to write to you about your Goethe
foundation, but must wait for a calmer hour to meet your splendid
idea with dignity.
Farewell, and be pressed to the heart of your
RICHARD WAGNER.
ENGE, ZURICH, April 18th, 1851.
I doubt whether the correction of the proof will still be
necessary, but have sent it to Leipzig nevertheless.
60.
Then we are to have "Young Siegfried"! You are truly a most
incredible fellow, to whom one must doff hat and bonnet three
times. The satisfactory settlement of this matter rejoices me
cordially; and, as you may imagine, I have perfect faith in your
work. But let us say nothing about it until you send in "Young
Siegfried" (July 1st, 1852), so as to avoid the useless
preliminary talk of people. Here nobody knows about it, excepting
Zigesar; and we are anxious to keep it from the public.
"Lohengrin" at its last performance (the fifth) on Sunday was
appreciated more than ever, and actors and orchestra also came
nearer to the understanding and the interpretation of the work.
The house was filled for the greater part, it is true, by
Erfurters, Naumburgers, and other curious people from the
neighbourhood, for, to speak candidly, our Weymar public, with
the exception of about a dozen persons, are not yet sufficiently
advanced to be in real sympathy with so extraordinary a work.
That "Lohengrin" has reached its fifth performance in one season
is a kind of miracle which must be attributed to the Court. The
Hereditary Grand Duchess had especially asked for this
performance on the occasion of her first visit to the theatre
after her confinement. From Leipzig came David and Moscheles,
from Halle Robert Franz, from Eisenach Kuhnstedt. Professor
Stahr, who has become a dear friend, and Fanny Lewald have been
here about a fortnight.
Stahr is going to write about "Lohengrin" in the National Zeitung
or Kolnische Zeitung. If after reading his article you feel
inclined to write him a few lines, send them to Weymar (Hotel Zum
Erbprinzen). Muller has written another "Lohengrin" article in
the Weimar Zeitung, which he has probably sent to you. After the
performance of "Lohengrin" I received your letter about the
Goethe foundation, and I thank you cordially for it. I may
mention, however, that perhaps no less than two years' time and
trouble will be required to make the idea of the Goethe
foundation a reality. I am prepared to devote that time to it,
because I am firmly convinced that without my activity the thing
here will simply come to nothing, as has already happened at
Berlin.
Should you not be inclined to publish your letter in its actual
form of a letter to me in some newspaper which is open to you? I
will send it back to you in a few days for that purpose, asking
you, however, to return it to me at Weymar as soon as you have
done with it.
The day after tomorrow I have to go to Eilsen for the third time,
but hope to be back here at Whitsuntide. At the close of the
theatrical season we shall have either "Tannhauser" or
"Lohengrin" once more. The direction of the former work I think I
may now leave to Gotze.
If possible, send me a copy of your autobiography direct to
Eilsen (Buckeburg). I can make good use of it in connection with
the pamphlet which is to be published (in French) in June by
Brockhaus. If your article on the Zurich theatre has appeared,
send it also to me at Eilsen, where I shall employ my time in
reading and working. I am most curious to know your views and
practical proposals with regard to theatrical matters, and I
shall be most ready to adopt your ideas as far as possible.
Draw up occasionally for me a repertory of earlier and modern
works which appear to you most adapted to further the cause of
art. At present I cannot help thinking it advisable to make some
eclectic concessions (alas! alas!) to the existing state of our
theatrical institutions.
Be well and active, dear, splendid friend, and soon give news to
your
F. LISZT.
WEYMAR, May 17th, 1851.
61.
BEST OF ALL FRIENDS,
I must reply to you at once about a few things which you ask me
in your letter received yesterday, so as to let you know how
matters stand. First of all (as is always the case when I have to
deal with you), I must wipe a blush of shame off my face before
answering you. Your wishes always concern me, and that in a sense
which must flatter me to the very core. You want a copy of my
autobiography in order to make use of it for your pamphlet. What
can I say to that? I will say nothing, but only reply that in
this instance my vanity is not sufficiently great to make me
carry my biography about with me. I do not possess it, and do not
know where to get it. If you really want to see it, you might
perhaps get it more easily from Weimar, if I told you exactly
where it is to be found. It appeared in the "Zeitung fur die
elegante Welt" in the year 1843, first quarterly issue, month of
February, I believe. But I can scarcely think that you will find
much in it beyond the confirmation of the fact that I too have
erred much in my artistic efforts, not being one of the elect
who, like Mendelssohn, received the only true, infallible,
"solid" food of art, like heavenly manna in their mouths, and who
therefore were able to say, "I have never erred." We poor earthly
worms can get only through error to a knowledge of truth, which
therefore we love passionately, like a conquered bride, and not
with the genteel approval with which we look upon a spouse
selected for us beforehand by the dear parents. At that time when
I wrote my autobiography by Laube's desire, I had, it is true,
finished my "Flying Dutchman" and sketched the poem of
"Tannhauser", but only through my completed "Tannhauser" and my
completed "Lohengrin" did I gain perfect clearness as to the
direction in which I had been impelled by unconscious instinct.
Later on, in connection with the edition of my operatic poems, I
shall take occasion to explain the process of development
observed in me; certain it is that nothing of this can be
contained in my autobiography. All the more interesting will it
be for me to see that direction judged from his own observation
by some one else, i.e., some one like you.