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Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 (1889)
By Richard Wagner; Franz Liszt; Francis Hueffer (translator)
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CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, Volume 2
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The German musical genius Richard Wagner (1811-1883) could beconsidered to be one of the ideological fathers of early 20thcentury German nationalism. He was well-suited for this role.Highly intelligent, sophisticated, complex, capable of imaginingwhole systems of humanistic philosophy, and with an intense needto communicate his ideas, he created great operas which, inaddition to their artistic merits, served the peculiar role ofpromoting a jingoistic, chauvenistic kind of Germanism. There arethings in his operas that only a German can fully understand,especially if he would like to see his country closed off tooutsiders. It is unlikely, however, that Wagner expected theseideas to achieve any popularity. Time and again he rails againstphilistines, irrational people and politicians in his letters.With great exasperation and often depression he expressed littlehope that his country would ever emerge out of its "philistinism"and embrace "rational" ideas such as he propagated. Add to thisthe great difficulties he had in getting his works performed, andone might assume that he felt himself to be composing, most ofthe time, to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great, intenselybeloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatlyappreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million,and even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterieincapable of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering thesorry state of music and intellectualism in Wagner's time andsetting, he surely would have been surprised if his operas andhis ideas achieved any wide currency. That he continued to workwith intense energy to develop his ideas, to fix them intomusical form and to propagate them, while knowing that probablyno sizeable population would ever likely take note of them, andwhile believing that his existence as an underappreciated,rational individual in an irrational world was absurd and futile,is a testimony to the enormous will-power of this "ubermensch."
143.
Yesterday (Saturday, January 7th) first performance of"Lohengrin" at Leipzig. The public, very numerous in spite ofdouble prices, displayed much sympathy and admiration for thiswonderful work. The first act went tolerably well as far as theartists were concerned. Rietz conducted in a precise and decentmanner, and the ENSEMBLES had been carefully studied. The secondand third acts, however, suffered much from the faults andshortcomings of both chorus and principals. Further performanceswill, no doubt, show an improvement, although the Leipzig theatredoes certainly not possess the proper singers and scenic artists.The flagging in the second act, which I previously took theliberty of pointing out to you, was felt very much on thisoccasion, and the public seemed painfully and unmistakably tired.The tempi of the choruses seemed to me considerably too fast, andthere was more than one break-down in this scene. Altogether,without self-conceit, I may say th