work ever be performed? He longed to hear something of his own, he had moreover pecuniary needs, which made it desirable that he should again write something that stood a chance of performance. Finally a curious incident concluded the matter. A soi disant agent of the Emperor of Brazil called: would Wagner compose an opera for an Italian troupe at Rio Janeiro? would he state his own terms, and promise to conduct the work himself? Much astonished, Wagner hesitated to give a decisive answer; but he forthwith began the poem to Tristan![1]
Wagner looked upon 'Tristan' as an accessory to the Nibelungen, inasmuch as it presents certain aspects of the mythical matter for which in the main work there was no room. He was proud of the poem, proud of the music:
{fine block|I readily submit this work to the severest test based on my theoretical principles. Not that I constructed it after a system for I entirely forgot all theory but because I here moved with entire freedom, independent of theoretical misgivings, so that even whilst I was writing I became conscious how far I had gone beyond my system.[2] There can be no greater pleasure than an artist's perfect abandonment whilst composing—I have admitted no repetition of words in the music of Tristan—the entire extent of the music is as it were prescribed in the tissue of the verse—that is to say the melody (i.e. the vocal melody) is already contained in the poem, of which again the symphonic music forms the substratum.[3]}}
The poem was finished early in 1857; in the winter of the same year the full score of the first act was forwarded to Breitkopf & Härtel to be engraved. The second act was written at Venice, where Wagner, with the permission of the Austrian authorities, had taken up his residence, and is dated Venice, March 2, 1859; the third, Lyons, August 1859. In connection with Tristan, attention must be called to the strong and lasting impression made upon Wagner's mind by the philosophical writings of Schopenhauer. Tristan represents the emotional kernel of Schopenhauer's view of life as reflected in the mind of a poet and a musician. Even in Die Meistersinger (Hans Sachs's monologue, Act III) there are traces of Schopenhauer, and the spirit of his Buddhistic quietism pervades Parsifal. The publication of Schopenhauer's 'Parerga und Paralipomena' in 1851 took the intellectual public of Germany by surprise, and roused a spirit of indignation against the official representatives of 'Philosophy' at the Universities and their journals, who had secreted Schopenhauer's 'Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung' (1818 and 1844). The little colony of refugees at Zurich was among the first to hail Schopenhauer's genius as a moralist. Wagner accepted his metaphysical doctrine, and in 1854 forwarded to Schopenhauer at Frankfurt a copy of Der Ring des Nibelungen as a token of 'thanks and veneration.' Wagner adhered to Schopenhauer's teaching to the end, and has even further developed some of its most characteristic and perhaps questionable phases.[4] It will be seen in the sequel that Wagner had more trouble in connection with the performance of Tristan than with any other of his works. At first the difficulty was to get permission to return to Germany; even the solicitations of the Grand Dukes of Weimar and of Baden in his favour had no effect upon the court at Dresden. Projects for producing Tristan at Strassburg and Karlsruhe came to nothing.
Paris, In September 1859 (æt 46) Wagner again went to Paris, with a faint hope of producing his new work there with the help of German artists, or perhaps getting Tannhäuser or Lohengrin performed in French. M. Carvalho, director of the Théâtre-Lyrique, seemed inclined to risk Tannhäuser. 'Il avait témoigné a Wagner le désir de connaitre sa partition.[5] Un soir, en arrivant chez lui Rue Matignon j'entends un vacarme inusité. Wagner etait au piano; il se débattait avec le formidable finale du second acte; il chantait, il criait, il se démenait, il jouait des mains, des poignets, du coude. M. Carvalho restait impassible, attendant avec une patience digne de l'antique que le sabbat fut fini. La partition achevée M. Carvalho balbutia quelques paroles de politesse, tourna les talons et disparut.' Determined to bring some of his music forward, Wagner made arrangements for three orchestral and choral concerts at the Théâtre Impérial Italien,[6] Jan. 25, Feb. 1 and 8, 1860. The programme, consisting of the overture to Der Holländer, 4 pieces from Tannhäuser, the prelude to Tristan, and 3 numbers from Lohengrin, was thrice repeated. 'De nombreuses répétitions furent faites à la salle Herz, à la salle Beethoven, où H. de Bülow conduisait les chœurs.' 'Un parti tres-ardent, tres-actif, s'était formé autour de Wagner; les ennemis ne s'endormaient pas davantage, et il était évident que la bataille serait acharnée.' The performances conducted by Wagner made a great sensation—'Wagner avait réussi à passionner Paris, à dechaîner la presse'—but the expenses had been inordinate, and there was a deficit of something like £400. which he had to meet with part of the honorarium paid by Messrs. Schott for the copyright of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Two similar programmes were conducted by him at the Brussels Opera house in March 1860, also, it would seem, with unsatisfactory results.
Unexpected events, however, sprang from the exertions at Paris. 'Sur les instances pressantes de Mme. de Metternich, l'empereur avait ordonné la mise a l'étude de Tannhäuser a l'opéra.' A substantial success seemed at last within Wagner's reach. Preparations on a vast scale were begun. Edmond Roche and Ch. Nuitter translated the text; the management met every wish of Wagner's; sumptuous scenery and stage properties were prepared; Wagner was invited to choose his own singers, and to have as many rehearsals as he might think fit. He chose Niemann for Tannhäuser, Mlle.
- ↑ The offer from Rio appears to have been genuine; the Emperor of Brazil subsequently became a patron of the theatre at Bayreuth and witnessed a performance of The Ring there.
- ↑ 'The Music of the Future,' pp. 36. 37.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ See 'Beethoven,' particularly the supplement to the English translation: also 'Religion and Kunst.' 1880–81.
- ↑ Gasperini. p. 63.
- ↑ This was the old Salle Ventadour, at which, as the Théâtre de la Renaissance, 'Das Liebesverbot' was to have been given twenty years previously. It is now a Bureau d'escompte. [See Ventadour.]
