The Complete Opera Book Part 13

The love duet is exquisite--one of the sweetest and tenderest pa.s.sages of which the lyric stage can boast. A very beautiful musical episode is that in which the Knight, pointing through the open cas.e.m.e.nt to the flowery close below, softly illumined by the moon, sings to an accompaniment of what might be called musical moonbeams, "Say, dost thou breathe the incense sweet of flowers?" But when, in spite of the tender warning which he conveys to her, she begins questioning him, he turns toward her and in a pa.s.sionate musical phrase begs her to trust him and abide with him in loving faith. Her dread that the memory of the delightful place from which he has come will wean him from her; the wild vision in which she imagines she sees the swan approaching to bear him away from her, and when she puts to him the forbidden questions, are details expressed with wonderful vividness in the music.

After the attack by _Frederick_ and his death, there is a dramatic silence during which _Elsa_ sinks on her husband's breast and faints.

When I say silence I do not mean that there is a total cessation of sound, for silence can be more impressively expressed in music than by actual silence itself. It is done by Wagner in this case by long drawn-out chords followed by faint taps on the tympani. When the Knight bends down to _Elsa_, raises her, and gently places her on a couch, echoes of the love duet add to the mournfulness of the music.

The scene closes with the Motive of Warning, which resounds with dread meaning.

A quick change of scene should be made at this point in the performance of the opera, but as a rule the change takes so long that the third act is virtually given in two acts.

It is on the banks of the Scheldt, the very spot where he had disembarked, that the Knight elects to make reply to _Elsa's_ questions. There the _King_, the n.o.bles, and the Brabantians, whom he was to lead, are awaiting him to take command, and as their leader they hail him when he appears. This scene, "Promise of Victory," is in the form of a brilliant march and chorus, during which the Counts of Brabant, followed by their va.s.sals, enter on horseback from various directions. In the average performance of the opera, however, much of it is sacrificed in order to shorten the representation.

The Knight answers their hail by telling them that he has come to bid them farewell, that _Elsa_ has been lured to break her vow and ask the forbidden questions which he now is there to answer. From distant lands he came, from Montsalvat, where stands the temple of the Holy Grail, his father, Percival, its King, and he, _Lohengrin_, its Knight. And now, his name and lineage known, he must return, for the Grail gives strength to its knights to right wrong and protect the innocent only so long as the secret of their power remains unrevealed.

Even while he speaks the swan is seen floating down the river. Sadly _Lohengrin_ bids _Elsa_ farewell. Sadly all, save one, look on. For _Ortrud_, who now pushes her way through the spectators, it is a moment of triumph.

"Depart in all your glory," she calls out. "The swan that draws you away is none other than Elsa's brother G.o.dfrey, changed by my magic into his present form. Had she kept her vow, had you been allowed to tarry, you would have freed him from my spell. The ancient G.o.ds, whom faithfully I serve, thus punish human faithlessness!"

By the river bank _Lohengrin_ falls upon his knees and prays in silence. Suddenly a white dove descends over the boat. Rising, _Lohengrin_ loosens the golden chain by which the swan is attached to the boat; the swan vanishes; in its place _G.o.dfrey_ stands upon the bank, and _Lohengrin_, entering the boat, is drawn away by the dove.

At sight of the young Duke, _Ortrud_ falls with a shriek, while the Brabantian n.o.bles kneel before him as he advances and makes obeisance to the _King_. _Elsa_ gazes on him in rapture until, mindful of her own sorrow, as the boat in which _Lohengrin_ stands vanishes around the upper bend of the river, she cries out, "My husband! My husband!"

and falls back in death in her brother's arms.

_Lohengrin's_ narrative of his origin is beautifully set to music familiar from the Prelude; but when he proclaims his name we hear the same measures which _Elsa_ sang in the second part of her dream in the first act. Very beautiful and tender is the music which he sings when he hands _Elsa_ his horn, his sword, and his ring to give to her brother, should he return, and also his greeting to the swan when it comes to bear him back. The work is brought to a close with a repet.i.tion of the music of the second portion of _Elsa's_ dream, followed by a superb climax with the Motive of the Grail.

DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG

A stage-festival play for three days and a preliminary evening (Ein Buhnenfestspiel fur drei Tage und einen Vorabend), words and music by Richard Wagner.

The first performance of the entire cycle of four music-dramas took place at Bayreuth, August 13, 14, 16, and 17, 1876. "Das Rheingold" had been given September 22, 1869, and "Die Walkure," June 26, 1870, at Munich.

January 30, 1888, at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, "Die Walkure" was given as the first performance of the "Ring" in America, with the omission, however, of "Das Rheingold," the cycle therefore being incomplete, consisting only of the three music-dramas--"Die Walkure," "Siegfried,"

and "Gotterdammerung"; in other words the trilogy without the Vorabend, or preliminary evening.

Beginning Monday, March 4, 1889, with "Das Rheingold," the complete cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen," was given for the first time in America; "Die Walkure" following Tuesday, March 5; "Siegfried," Friday, March 8; "Gotterdammerung,"

Monday, March 11. The cycle was immediately repeated. Anton Seidl was the conductor. Among the princ.i.p.als were Lilli Lehmann, Max Alvary, and Emil Fischer.

Seidl conducted the production of the "Ring" in London, under the direction of Angelo Neumann, at Her Majesty's Theatre, May 5-9, 1882.

The "Ring" really is a tetralogy. Wagner, however, called it a trilogy, regarding "Das Rheingold" only as a Vorabend to the three longer music-dramas.

In the repet.i.tions of the "Ring" in this country many distinguished artists have appeared: Lehmann, Moran-Olden, Nordica, Ternina, Fremstad, Gadski, Kurt, as _Brunnhilde_; Lehmann, Nordica, Eames, Fremstad, as _Sieglinde_; Alvary and Jean de Reszke as _Siegfried_, both in "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung"; Niemann and Van Dyck, as _Siegmund_; Fischer and Van Rooy as _Wotan_; Schumann-Heink and Homer as _Waltraute_ and _Erda_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright A. Dupont, N.Y.

Louise Homer as Fricka in "The Ring of the Nibelung"]

INTRODUCTION

The "Ring of the Nibelung" consists of four music-dramas--"Das Rheingold" (The Rhinegold), "Die Walkure" (The Valkyr), "Siegfried,"

and "Gotterdammerung" (Dusk of the G.o.ds). The "books" of these were written in inverse order. Wagner made a dramatic sketch of the Nibelung myth as early as the autumn of 1848, and between then and the autumn of 1850 he wrote the "Death of Siegfried." This subsequently became the "Dusk of the G.o.ds." Meanwhile Wagner's ideas as to the proper treatment of the myth seem to have undergone a change.

"Siegfried's Death" ended with Brunnhilde leading Siegfried to Valhalla,--dramatic, but without the deeper ethical significance of the later version, when Wagner evidently conceived the purpose of connecting the final catastrophe of his trilogy with the "Dusk of the G.o.ds," or end of all things, in Northern mythology, and of embodying a profound truth in the action of the music-dramas. This metaphysical significance of the work is believed to be sufficiently explained in the brief synopsis of the plot of the trilogy and in the descriptive musical and dramatic a.n.a.lyses below.

In the autumn of 1850 when Wagner was on the point of sketching out the music of "Siegfried's Death," he recognized that he must lead up to it with another drama, and "Young Siegfried," afterwards "Siegfried," was the result. This in turn he found incomplete, and finally decided to supplement it with the "Valkyr" and "Rhinegold."

"Das Rheingold" was produced in Munich, at the Court Theatre, September 22, 1869; "Die Walkure," on the same stage, June 20, 1870.

"Siegfried" and "Dusk of the G.o.ds" were not performed until 1876, when they were produced at Bayreuth.

Of the princ.i.p.al characters in the "Ring of the Nibelung," _Alberich_, the Nibelung, and _Wotan_, the chief of the G.o.ds, are symbolic of greed for wealth and power. This l.u.s.t leads _Alberich_ to renounce love--the most sacred of emotions--in order that he may rob the _Rhinedaughters_ of the Rhinegold and forge from it the ring which is to make him all-powerful. _Wotan_ by strategy obtains the ring, but instead of returning it to the _Rhinedaughters_, he gives it to the giants, _Fafner_ and _Fasolt_, as ransom for _Freia_, the G.o.ddess of youth and beauty, whom he had promised to the giants as a reward for building Walhalla. _Alberich_ has cursed the ring and all into whose possession it may come. The giants no sooner obtain it than they fall to quarrelling over it. _Fafner_ slays _Fasolt_ and then retires to a cave in the heart of a forest where, in the form of a dragon, he guards the ring and the rest of the treasure which _Wotan_ wrested from _Alberich_ and also gave to the giants as ransom for _Freia_.

This treasure includes the Tarnhelmet, a helmet made of Rhinegold, the wearer of which can a.s.sume any guise.

_Wotan_ having witnessed the slaying of _Fasolt_, is filled with dread lest the curse of _Alberich_ be visited upon the G.o.ds. To defend _Walhalla_ against the a.s.saults of _Alberich_ and the host of Nibelungs, he begets in union with _Erda_, the G.o.ddess of wisdom, the Valkyrs (chief among them _Brunnhilde_), wild maidens who course through the air on superb chargers and bear the bodies of departed heroes to Walhalla, where they revive and aid the G.o.ds in warding off the attacks of the Nibelungs. But it is also necessary that the curse-laden ring should be wrested from _Fafner_ and restored through purely unselfish motives to the _Rhinedaughters_, and the curse thus lifted from the race of the G.o.ds. None of the G.o.ds can do this because their motive in doing so would not be unselfish. Hence _Wotan_, for a time, casts off his divinity, and in human disguise as Walse, begets in union with a human woman the Walsung twins, _Siegmund_ and _Sieglinde_. _Siegmund_ he hopes will be the hero who will slay _Fafner_ and restore the ring to the _Rhinedaughters_. To nerve him for this task, _Wotan_ surrounds the Walsungs with numerous hards.h.i.+ps.

_Sieglinde_ is forced to become the wife of her robber, _Hunding_.

_Siegmund_, storm-driven, seeks shelter in _Hunding's_ hut, where he and his sister, recognizing one another, flee together. _Hunding_ overtakes them and _Wotan_, as _Siegmund_ has been guilty of a crime against the marriage vow, is obliged, at the request of his spouse _Fricka_, the Juno of Northern mythology, to give victory to _Hunding_. _Brunnhilde_, contrary to _Wotan's_ command, takes pity on _Siegmund_, and seeks to s.h.i.+eld him against _Hunding_. For this, _Wotan_ causes her to fall into a profound slumber. The hero who will penetrate the barrier of fire with which _Wotan_ has surrounded the rock upon which she slumbers can claim her as his bride.

After _Siegmund's_ death _Sieglinde_ gives birth to _Siegfried_, a son of their illicit union, who is reared by one of the Nibelungs, _Mime_, in the forest where _Fafner_ guards the Nibelung treasure. _Mime_ is seeking to weld the pieces of _Siegmund's_ sword (Nothung or Needful) in order that _Siegfried_ may slay _Fafner_, _Mime_ hoping then to kill the youth and to possess himself of the treasure. But he cannot weld the sword. At last _Siegfried_, learning that it was his father's weapon, welds the pieces and slays _Fafner_. His lips having come in contact with his b.l.o.o.d.y fingers, he is, through the magic power of the dragon's blood, enabled to understand the language of the birds, and a little feathery songster warns him of _Mime's_ treachery. _Siegfried_ slays the Nibelung and is then guided to the fiery barrier around the Valkyr rock. Penetrating this, he comes upon _Brunnhilde_, and enraptured with her beauty, awakens her and claims her as his bride.

She, the virgin pride of the G.o.ddess, yielding to the love of the woman, gives herself up to him. He plights his troth with the curse-laden ring which he has wrested from _Fafner_.

_Siegfried_ goes forth in quest of adventure. On the Rhine lives the Gib.i.+.c.hung _Gunther_, his sister _Gutrune_ and their half-brother _Hagen_, none other than the son of the Nibelung _Alberich_. _Hagen_, knowing of _Siegfried's_ coming, plans his destruction in order to regain the ring for the Nibelungs. Therefore, craftily concealing _Brunnhilde's_ and _Siegfried's_ relations from _Gunther_, he incites a longing in the latter to possess _Brunnhilde_ as his bride. Carrying out a plot evolved by _Hagen_, _Gutrune_ on _Siegfried's_ arrival presents to him a drinking-horn filled with a love-potion. _Siegfried_ drinks, is led through the effect of the potion to forget that _Brunnhilde_ is his bride, and, becoming enamoured of _Gutrune_, asks her in marriage of _Gunther_. The latter consents, provided _Siegfried_ will disguise himself in the Tarnhelmet as _Gunther_ and lead _Brunnhilde_ to him as bride. _Siegfried_ readily agrees, and in the guise of _Gunther_ overcomes _Brunnhilde_ and delivers her to the Gib.i.+.c.hung. But _Brunnhilde_, recognizing on _Siegfried_ the ring, which her conquerer had drawn from her finger, accuses him of treachery in delivering her, his own bride, to _Gunther_. The latter, unmasked and also suspicious of _Siegfried_, conspires with _Hagen_ and _Brunnhilde_, who, knowing naught of the love-potion, is roused to a frenzy of hate and jealousy by _Siegfried's_ seeming treachery, to compa.s.s the young hero's death. _Hagen_ slays _Siegfried_ during a hunt, and then in a quarrel with _Gunther_ over the ring also kills the Gib.i.+.c.hung.

Meanwhile _Brunnhilde_ has learned through the _Rhinedaughters_ of the treachery of which she and _Siegfried_ have been the victims. All her jealous hatred of _Siegfried_ yields to her old love for him and a pa.s.sionate yearning to join him in death. She draws the ring from his finger and places it on her own, then hurls a torch upon the pyre.

Mounting her steed, she plunges into the flames. One of the _Rhinedaughters_, swimming in on the rising waters, seizes the curse-laden ring. _Hagen_ rushes into the flooding Rhine hoping to regain it, but the other _Rhinedaughters_ grasp him and draw him down into the flood. Not only the flames of the pyre, but a glow which pervades the whole horizon illumine the scene. It is Walhalla being consumed by fire. Through love--the very emotion _Alberich_ renounced in order to gain wealth and power--_Brunnhilde_ has caused the old order of things to pa.s.s away and a human era to dawn in place of the old mythological one of the G.o.ds.

The sum of all that has been written concerning the book of "The Ring of the Nibelung" is probably larger than the sum of all that has been written concerning the librettos used by all other composers. What can be said of the ordinary opera libretto beyond Voltaire's remark that "what is too stupid to be spoken is sung"? But "The Ring of the Nibelung" produced vehement discussion. It was attacked and defended, praised and ridiculed, extolled and condemned. And it survived all the discussion it called forth. It is the outstanding fact in Wagner's career that he always triumphed. He threw his lance into the midst of his enemies and fought his way up to it. No matter how much opposition his music-dramas excited, they gradually found their way into the repertoire.

It was contended on many sides that a book like "The Ring of the Nibelung" could not be set to music. Certainly it could not be after the fas.h.i.+on of an ordinary opera. Perhaps people were so accustomed to the books of nonsense which figured as opera librettos that they thought "The Ring of the Nibelung" was so great a work that its action and climaxes were beyond the scope of musical expression. For such, Wagner has placed music on a higher level. He has shown that music makes a great drama greater.

One of the most remarkable features of Wagner's works is the author's complete absorption of the times of which he wrote. He seems to have gone back to the very period in which the scenes of his music-dramas are laid and to have himself lived through the events in his plots.

Hans Sachs could not have left a more faithful portrayal of life in the Nuremberg of his day than Wagner has given us in "Die Meistersinger." In "The Ring of the Nibelung" he has done more--he has absorbed an imaginary epoch; lived over the days of G.o.ds and demiG.o.ds; infused life into mythological figures. "The Rhinegold," which is full of varied interest from its first note to its last, deals entirely with beings of mythology. They are presented true to life--if that expression may be used in connection with beings that never lived--that is to say, they are so vividly drawn that we forget such beings never lived, and take as much interest in their doings and saying as if they were lifelike reproductions of historical characters. Was there ever a love scene more thrilling than that between _Siegmund_ and _Sieglinde_? It represents the gradations of the love of two souls from its first awakening to its rapturous greeting in full self-consciousness. No one stops to think during that impa.s.sioned scene that the close relations.h.i.+p between _Siegmund_ and _Sieglinde_ would in these days have been a bar to their legal union.

For all we know, in those moments when the impa.s.sioned music of that scene whirls us away in its resistless current, not a drop of related blood courses through their veins. It has been said that we could not be interested in mythological beings--that "The Ring of the Nibelung"

lacked human interest. In reply, I say that wonderful as is the first act of "The Valkyr," there is nothing in it to compare in wild and lofty beauty with the last act of that music-drama--especially the scene between _Brunnhilde_ and _Wotan_.

That there are faults of dramatic construction in "The Ring of the Nibelung" I admit. In what follows I have not hesitated to point them out. But there are faults of construction in Shakespeare. What would be the critical verdict if "Hamlet" were now to have its first performance in the exact form in which Shakespeare left it? With all its faults of dramatic construction "The Ring of the Nibelung" is a remarkable drama, full of life and action and logically developed, the events leading up to superb climaxes. Wagner was doubly inspired. He was both a great dramatist and a great musician.

The chief faults of dramatic construction of which Wagner was guilty in "The Ring of the Nibelung" are certain unduly prolonged scenes which are merely episodical--that is, unnecessary to the development of the plot so that they delay the action and weary the audience to a point which endangers the success of the really sublime portions of the score. In several of these scenes, there is a great amount of narrative, the story of events with which we have become familiar being retold in detail although some incidents which connect the plot of the particular music-drama with that of the preceding one are also related. But, as narrative on the stage makes little impression, and, when it is sung perhaps none at all, because it cannot be well understood, it would seem as if prefaces to the dramas could have taken the place of these narratives. Certain it is that these long drawn-out scenes did more to r.e.t.a.r.d the popular recognition of Wagner's genius than the activity of hostile critics and musicians.

Still, it should be remembered that these music-dramas were composed for performance under the circ.u.mstances which prevail at Bayreuth, where the performances begin in the afternoon and there are long waits between the acts, during which you can refresh yourself by a stroll or by the more mundane pleasures of the table. Then, after an hour's relaxation of the mind and of the sense of hearing, you are ready to hear another act. Under these agreeable conditions one remains sufficiently fresh to enjoy the music even of the dramatically faulty scenes.

One of the characters in "The Ring of the Nibelung," _Brunnhilde_, is Wagner's n.o.blest creation. She takes upon herself the sins of the G.o.ds and by her expiation frees the world from the curse of l.u.s.t for wealth and power. She is a perfect dramatic incarnation of the profound and beautiful metaphysical motive upon which the plot of "The Ring of the Nibelung" is based.

There now follow descriptive accounts of the stories and music of the four component parts of this work by Wagner--perhaps his greatest.

DAS RHEINGOLD

THE RHINEGOLD

Prologue in four scenes to the trilogy of music-dramas, "The Ring of the Nibelung," by Richard Wagner. "Des Rheingold"

was produced, Munich, September 22, 1869. "The Ring of the Nibelung" was given complete for the first time in the Wagner Theatre, Bayreuth, in August, 1876. In the first American performance of "Das Rheingold," Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 4, 1889, Fischer was _Wotan_, Alvary _Loge_, Moran-Oldern _Fricka_, and Katti Bettaque _Freia_.