Volume I Part 18 (1/2)

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

August 23rd, 1851

67

MY DEAR FRIEND,

At last I a silence The contents of this letter will show you with regard to how many and comparatively important matters I had to come to a clear decision before I could write to you in the definite manner which has now becoe extent caused by my weak state of health Fora water cure, and during that tith as I felt ent reason for writing to you arose toyour pamphlet on my two operas, which I received at the hydropathic establishetic love of anda for those works, and, before all, the splendid enthusiasm, the spirit, the subtlety, and boldness hich your zeal inspired you, ratitude in the excited state in which I was I had to leave this to a time when better health and a more collected mind would reater length I hope now to have got so far, and must tell you first of all that the sacrifice of the ain offered lad and happy You have moved me most deeply in all those parts where you had coree, but a discovery new to both of us Most specially were erness awakened when I saw inal intention newly reflected in the mirror of your individual conception; for here I was able to realize fully the ih to produce on your fertile artistic receptivity

What you have been toto write for publicity, I did so as soberly as possible, li myself entirely to the facts of our relations which I wanted to explain to those who perhaps could not understand such a friendshi+p nowadays I did this, being irresistibly i an meine Freunde,” which I prefixed as an introduction to my three operatic poems In the saain undertaking an artistic task, and that to you and your active syathered sufficient courage and energy for an artistic enterprise, which I should dedicate to you and to those of my friends comprised in ”the local idea: Weimar” The timidity of Messrs Hartel, the publishers of the book, has taken exception to certain passages in that preface to which I did not wish to have any deht have expressed just as well in a different way; and the appearance of the book has in consequence been reat annoyance, for special reasons

For the public declaration as to the intended destiny ofto my latest resolution, require an essential modification if it were to be quite in accordance with actual circu of last August, appears in the present circuiven to the public without any change; and if I cannot fulfill the proiven in it in the manner there stated, it may at least serve you and enuine sincerity of the intention then held by lad to think that in that public declaration I have furnished a sign of ratitude for the sympathy they have shown to ratitude in the exact manner there promised

To you, my dear Liszt, I a a new opera for Weimar has been so essentially er in that form

Hear then the strictly veracious account of the artistic enterprise in which I have been engaged for some time, and the turn it had of necessity to take

In the autumn of 1848 I sketched for the first tien”, such as it henceforth belongs tothe chief catastrophe of that great action for our theatre was ”Siegfried's Death” AfterI was at last, in the autu the ain the obvious i it adequately perfor the work To get rid of this desperateyour article on ”Lohengrin” inspired ree that for your sake I resumed the execution of a drama quickly and joyously; this I wrote to you at the tifried's Death”--that, I knew for certain, was in the first instance impossible I found that I should have to prepare it by another dra the young Siegfried the subject of a poefried's Death” was either narrated or ranted was to be shown in bold and vivid outline by means of actual representation This poe to send it to you, I for the first time felt a peculiar anxiety It seemed as if I could not possibly send it to you without explanation, as if I had s to tell you, partly as to the manner of representation and partly as to the necessary comprehension of the poem itself In the first instance it occurred to s to co before my friends with this poe preface to my three earlier operatic poeoing to begin the composition, and found, to my joy, that the music adapted itself to these verses quite naturally and easily, as of its own accord But the very commencement of the work reminded me that I should ruin hly before yielding tothe work at a stretch and probably without interruption When I went to the hydropathic establishment, I felt coh, so always seemed to restrain me I was led to hesitate, because I felt as if your acquaintance with this poem would place you in a certain aard position, as if you would not exactly knohat to make of it, whether to receive it with hope or diffidence At last, on ical sequence becafried” also is no ment, and as a separate entity it cannot produce its proper and sure impression until it occupies its necessary place in a coether with ”Siegfried's Death,” in ned plan In these two dramas a number of necessary relations were left to the narrative or even to the sagacity of the hearer Everything that gave to the action and the character of these two dranificance had to be omitted in the representation, and could be co to my inmost conviction since formed, a work of art, and especially a drama, can have its true effect only when the poetic intention in all its more important motives speaks fully to the senses, and I cannot and dare not sin against this truth which I have recognized I am compelled therefore to conificance with the greatest artistic precision, so as to be fully understood

Nothing in it ht or reflection; the unsophisticated human mind must be enabled by its artistic receptivity to comprehend the whole, because by that htly understood

Two principal motives of my myth therefore re Siegfried”, the first in the long narrative of Brynhild after her awakening (Act III), the second in the scene between Alberich and the Wanderer in the second act and between the Wanderer and Mime in the first That to this I was led not only by artistic reflection, but by the splendid and, for the purpose of representation, extremely rich material of these motives, you will readily understand when you consider the subject elinde, of Wotan in his deep, mysterious relation to that love, in his dispute with Fricka, in his terrible self-contention when, for the sake of custolorious Valkyrie Brynhild, as, divining the innerht of Wotan, she disobeys the God, and is punished by him; consider this wealth of motive indicated in the scene between the Wanderer and the Wala, and at greater length in the above-mentioned tale of Brynhild, as the frieds; and you will understand that it was not reflection, but rather enthusiasm, which inspired my latest plan

That plan extends to three drafried's Death” In order to give everything corand introductory play: ”The Rape of the Rhinegold” The object is the coard to this rape: the origin of the Nibelung treasure, the possession of that treasure by Wotan, and the curse of Alberich, which in ”Young Siegfried”

occur in the form of a narrative By the distinctness of representation which is thus made possible, and which at the sathy narration, or at least condenses it in a few pregnant ain sufficient space to intensify the wealth of relations, while in the previous semi-epical mode of treatment I was compelled to cut down and enfeeble all this I :--

Alberich ascends frohters of the Rhine; he persecutes the; rejected by one, he turns to the other; laughing and teasing, they all refuse the gnolow; Alberich is attracted; he inquires as to its ht plaything, and that its splendour lights up the depth of the waves with blissful glow, but that he th, wealth and do But only he who renounces love can do this They tell hiold they have been appointed its warders, for he who approaches theold; Alberich at least is not likely to do this, as he is so h at hiold, and takes it with hih of these particulars Let me tell you my plan for the practical execution of the whole

Of a separation of the reat whole I cannot think without destroying my object at the outset The entire cycle of dramas must be represented in rapid sequence, and their external e favourable circu draed perhaps especially for the purpose of this performance It will have to extend over three consecutive days, the introductory dra If a performance in such circumstances has been accomplished, the whole may in the first instance be repeated on another occasion, and after that the single draiven separately ad libitum; but in any case the ione before

Where and in what circumstances such a performance may become possible I must not for the present consider, for first of all I have to coreat work, and that will take ard for my health

A fortunate turn in the affairs of my intimate friends the R

family has had the effect that for that time and for the rest of my life I may attend to my artistic creations quietly and undisturbed by reat work,tothen, and if your efforts at doing so fine there have been more fortunate than at present, alas! seems likely, and ed

However bold, extraordinary, and perhaps fantastic my plan rowth of awhim, but has been imposed uponof the subject which occupies me wholly and impels me towards its co tothat stands beforeelseyour way of thinking, I do not doubt for a e h it will frustrate for thewish soon to produce another work of mine

After this I may confess that the definite alteration of my plan relievesto defried” of the Weiether with this explanation, do I send you the poeht heart, for I know that now you will read it without the anxiety which the thought of its completion and of its performance at the Wei, would necessarily have caused in you Let us have no illusions on this subject

What you, and you alone, have done for , and was all the more important for otten Instead of this you have used all thetowards y and such success that your efforts on behalf ofwhich enables me even to think of the execution of such plans as the one I have just communicated to you This I see with perfect clearness, and I call you openly the creator of s in the future