Page 226 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Figure 13.6
In his epic painting The Bard (1817), Englishman John Martin sets the image of a poet (top center) against the backdrop
of a medieval landscape
replete with castle above and knights below. The force of untamed Nature, another theme important to the Romantics, is also depicted here.
literature” continues today. Think of the success of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, J. R. R. Tolk- ien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J. K. Row- ling’s Gothic Harry Potter series, and, most recent- ly, George R. R. Martin’s inspiration for Game of Thrones. These are wonderful authors in the literal sense, yet they all owe a debt of gratitude to the past master of the epic fantasy series: Richard Wagner.
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
The discovery of a deeply rooted German litera- ture went hand in hand with the development of a national tradition of German opera, one led by Richard Wagner (REEK-hard VAHG-ner; Figure 13.7). Before Wagner, German composers rarely wrote operas in their native language. Wagner, on the other hand, not only set German librettos exclusively; he also wrote them himself. Indeed, Wagner was a poet, philosopher, propagandist, self-publicist, and visionary who believed that
operas—his operas—would revolutionize society. Natu- rally, many of his contemporaries were skeptical, and even today opinion about Wagner is strongly divided. Some people are left cold, believing Wagner’s music to be long-winded and his operatic plots devoid of realistic human drama. (In this camp was Mark Twain, who quipped famously: “Wagner’s music is not nearly as bad as it sounds!”) Some, knowing of Wagner’s rabid anti-Semitism and Adolf Hit- ler’s adoration of Wagner, refuse to listen at all. (Wagner’s music is still unofficially banned in Israel.) But others are converted into adoring Wagnerites at the first
sound of the composer’s heroic themes and powerful orchestral climaxes.
Who was this controversial artist who has stirred such mixed feelings within the musical public for 150 years? A native of Leipzig, Germany, who studied a bit of music at the church where Bach had worked (see Chapter 6), Wagner was largely self-taught in musical matters—his idol was Beethoven and he studied the scores on his own. After a succession of jobs as opera director in several small German towns, Wagner moved to Paris in 1839 in hopes of seeing his first opera pro- duced there. But instead of meeting acclaim in Paris, as had Liszt and Chopin before him, Wagner was greeted with thundering indifference. No one would produce his work. Reduced to poverty, he spent a brief stint in debtor’s prison. When Wagner’s big break came, it was not in Paris but back in his native Ger- many, in the city of Dresden. His opera Rienzi was given a hearing there in 1842, and Wagner was soon offered the post of director of the Dresden Opera. During the next six years, he created three additional German Romantic operas for the Dres- den stage: Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman, 1844), Tannhäuser (1845), and Lohengrin (1848). All three involve plots situated in some ill-de- fined “Middle Ages.” In the aftermath of the political revolution that swept much of Europe in 1848, Wagner was forced to flee Dresden, though in truth he
took flight as much to avoid his creditors as to escape any repressive government.
Figure 13.7
Richard Wagner in an 1871 photograph
204 chapter thirteen romantic opera
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© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
The Bard, Martin, John/Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, USA/Paul Mellon Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
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