The Complete Opera Book Part 24

Exquisite is the transition of the phrase "His eyes in mine were gazing," to the Isolde and Love Glance motives. The pa.s.sage beginning: "Who silently his life had spared," is followed by the Tristan Call, _Isolde_ seeming to compare sarcastically what she considers his betrayal of her with his fame as a hero. Her outburst of wrath as she inveighs against his treachery in now bearing her as bride to _King Marke_, carries the narrative to a superb climax. _Brangane_ seeks to comfort _Isolde_, but the latter, looking fixedly before her, confides, almost involuntarily, her love for _Tristan_.

It is clear, even from this brief description, with what constantly varying expression the narrative of Isolde is treated. Wrath, desire for vengeance, rapturous memories that cannot be dissembled, finally a confession of love to _Brangane_--such are the emotions that surge to the surface.

They lead _Brangane_ to exclaim: "Where lives the man who would not love you?" Then she weirdly whispers of the love-potion and takes a phial from a golden salver. The motives of the Love Glance and of the Love-Potion accompany her words and action. But _Isolde_ seizes another phial, which she holds up triumphantly. It is the death-potion. Here is heard an ominous phrase of three notes--the =Motive of Fate=.

[Music]

A forceful orchestral climax, in which the demons of despairing wrath seem unleashed, is followed by the cries of the sailors greeting the sight of the land, where she is to be married to _King Marke_.

_Isolde_ hears them with growing terror. _Kurwenal_ brusquely calls to her and _Brangane_ to prepare soon to go ash.o.r.e. _Isolde_ orders _Kurwenal_ that he command _Tristan_ to come into her presence; then bids _Brangane_ prepare the death-potion. The Death Motive accompanies her final commands to _Kurwenal_ and _Brangane_, and the Fate Motive also drones threatfully through the weird measures. But _Brangane_ artfully subst.i.tutes the love-potion for the death-draught.

_Kurwenal_ announces _Tristan's_ approach. _Isolde_, seeking to control her agitation, strides to the couch, and, supporting herself by it, gazes fixedly at the entrance where _Tristan_ remains standing. The motive which announces his appearance is full of tragic defiance, as if _Tristan_ felt that he stood upon the threshold of death, yet was ready to meet his fate unflinchingly. It alternates effectively with the Fate Motive, and is used most dramatically throughout the succeeding scene between _Tristan_ and _Isolde_.

Sombrely impressive is the pa.s.sage when he bids _Isolde_ slay him with the sword she once held over him.

If so thou didst love thy lord, Lift once again this sword, Thrust with it, nor refrain, Lest the weapon fall again.

Shouts of the sailors announce the proximity of land. In a variant of her narrative theme _Isolde_ mockingly antic.i.p.ates _Tristan's_ praise of her as he leads her into _King Marke's_ presence. At the same time she hands him the goblet which contains, as she thinks, the death-potion and invites him to quaff it. Again the shouts of the sailors are heard, and _Tristan_, seizing the goblet, raises it to his lips with the ecstasy of one from whose soul a great sorrow is about to be lifted. When he has half emptied it, _Isolde_ wrests it from him and drains it.

The tremor that pa.s.ses over _Isolde_ loosens her grasp upon the goblet. It falls from her hand. She faces _Tristan_.

Is the weird light in their eyes the last upflare of pa.s.sion before the final darkness? What does the music answer as it enfolds them in its wondrous harmonies? The Isolde Motive;--then what? Not the gla.s.sy stare of death; the Love Glance, like a swift shaft of light penetrating the gloom. The spell is broken. _Isolde_ sinks into _Tristan's_ embrace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright photo by Dupont

Lilli Lehmann as Isolde]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright photo by Dupont

Jean de Reszke as Tristan]

Voices! They hear them not. Sailors are shouting with joy that the voyage is over. Upon the lovers all sounds are lost, save their own short, quick interchange of phrases, in which the rapture of their pa.s.sion, at last uncovered, finds speech. Music surges about them. But for _Brangane_ they would be lost. It is she who parts them, as the hangings are thrust aside.

Knights, esquires, sailors crowd the deck. From a rocky height _King Marke's_ castle looks down upon the ship, now riding at anchor in the harbour. Peace and joy everywhere save in the lovers' b.r.e.a.s.t.s!

_Isolde_ faints in _Tristan's_ arms. Yet it is a triumphant climax of the Isolde Motive that is heard above the jubilation of the ship-folk, as the act comes to a close.

Act II. This act also has an introduction, which together with the first scene between _Isolde_ and _Brangane_, const.i.tutes a wonderful mood picture in music. Even Wagner's bitterest critic, Edward Hanslick, of Vienna, was forced to compare it with the loveliest creations of Schubert, in which that composer steeps the senses in dreams of night and love.

And so, this introduction of the second act opens with a motive of peculiar significance. During the love scene in the previous act, _Tristan_ and _Isolde_ have inveighed against the day which jealously keeps them apart. They may meet only under the veil of darkness. Even then their joy is embittered by the thought that the blissful night will soon be succeeded by day. With them, therefore, the day stands for all that is inimical, night for all that is friendly. This simile is elaborated with considerable metaphysical subtlety, the lovers even reproaching the day with _Tristan's_ willingness to lead _Isolde_ to _King Marke_, _Tristan_ charging that in the broad light of the jealous day his duty to win _Isolde_ for his king stood forth so clearly as to overpower the pa.s.sion for her which he had nurtured during the silent watches of the night. The phrase, therefore, which begins the act as with an agonized cry is the =Day Motive=.

[Music]

The Day Motive is followed by a phrase whose eager, restless measures graphically reflect the impatience with which _Isolde_ awaits the coming of _Tristan_--the =Motive of Impatience=.

[Music]

Over this there hovers a dulcet, seductive strain, the =Motive of the Love Call=, which is developed into the rapturous measures of the =Motive of Ecstasy=.

[Music]

When the curtain rises, the scene it discloses is the palace garden, into which _Isolde's_ apartments open. It is a summer night, balmy and with a moon. The _King_ and his suite have departed on a hunt.

With them is _Melot_, a knight who professes devotion to _Tristan_, but whom _Brangane_ suspects.

_Brangane_ stands upon the steps leading to _Isolde's_ apartment. She is looking down a bosky _allee_ in the direction taken by the hunt.

This silently gliding, uncanny creature, the servitor of sin in others, is uneasy. She fears the hunt is but a trap; and that its quarry is not the wild deer, but her mistress and the knight, who conveyed her for bride to _King Marke_.

Meanwhile against the open door of _Isolde's_ apartment is a burning torch. Its flare through the night is to be the signal to _Tristan_ that all is well, and that _Isolde_ waits.

The first episode of the act is one of those exquisite tone paintings in the creation of which Wagner is supreme. The notes of the hunting-horns become more distant. _Isolde_ enters from her apartment into the garden. She asks _Brangane_ if she cannot now signal for _Tristan_. _Brangane_ answers that the hunt is still within hearing.

_Isolde_ chides her--is it not some lovely, prattling rill she hears?

The music is deliciously idyllic--conjuring up a dream-picture of a sylvan spring night bathed in liquescent moonlight. _Brangane_ warns _Isolde_ against _Melot_; but _Isolde_ laughs at her fears. In vain _Brangane_ entreats her mistress not to signal for _Tristan_. The seductive measures of the Love Call and of the Motive of Ecstasy tell throughout this scene of the yearning in _Isolde's_ breast. When _Brangane_ informs _Isolde_ that she subst.i.tuted the love-potion for the death-draught, _Isolde_ scorns the suggestion that her guilty love for _Tristan_ is the result of her quaffing the potion. This simply intensified the pa.s.sion already in her breast. She proclaims this in the rapturous phrases of the Isolde Motive; and then, when she declares her fate to be in the hands of the G.o.ddess of love, there are heard the tender accents of the =Love Motive=.

[Music]

In vain _Brangane_ warns once more against possible treachery from _Melot_. The Love Motive rises with ever increasing pa.s.sion until _Isolde's_ emotional exaltation finds expression in the Motive of Ecstasy as she bids _Brangane_ hie to the lookout, and proclaims that she will give _Tristan_ the signal by extinguishing the torch, though in doing so she were to extinguish the light of her life. The Motive of the Love Call ringing out triumphantly accompanies her action, and dies away into the Motive of Impatience as she gazes down a bosky avenue through which she seems to expect _Tristan_ to come to her.

Then the Motive of Ecstasy and _Isolde's_ rapturous gesture tell that she has discerned her lover; and, as this Motive reaches a fiercely impa.s.sioned climax, _Tristan_ and _Isolde_ rush into each other's arms.

The music fairly seethes with pa.s.sion as the lovers greet one another, the Love Motive and the Motive of Ecstasy vying in the excitement of this rapturous meeting. Then begins the exchange of phrases in which the lovers pour forth their love for one another. This is the scene dominated by the Motive of the Day, which, however, as the day sinks into the soft night, is softened into the =Night Motive=, which soothes the senses with its ravishing caress.

[Music]

This motive throbs through the rapturous harmonies of the duet: "Oh, sink upon us, Night of Love," and there is nothing in the realms of music or poetry to compare in suggestiveness with these caressing, pulsating phrases.

The duet is broken in upon by _Brangane's_ voice warning the lovers that night will soon be over. The _arpeggios_ accompanying her warning are like the first grey streaks of dawn. But the lovers heed her not.

In a smooth, soft melody--the =Motive of Love's Peace=--whose sensuous grace is simply entrancing, they whisper their love.

[Music]

It is at such a moment, enveloped by night and love, that death should have come to them; and, indeed, it is for such a love-death they yearn. Hence we have here, over a quivering accompaniment, the =Motive of the Love-Death=,

[Music]

Once more _Brangane_ calls. Once more _Tristan_ and _Isolde_ heed her not.

Night will shield us for aye!

Thus exclaims _Isolde_ in defiance of the approach of dawn, while the Motive of Ecstasy, introduced by a rapturous mordent, soars ever higher.

[Music]

A cry from _Brangane_, _Kurwenal_ rushing upon the scene calling to _Tristan_ to save himself--and the lovers' ravishing dream is ended.

Surrounded by the _King_ and his suite, with the treacherous _Melot_, they gradually awaken to the terror of the situation. Almost automatically _Isolde_ hides her head among the flowers, and _Tristan_ spreads out his cloak to conceal her from view while phrases reminiscent of the love scene rise like mournful memories.

Now follows a soliloquy for the _King_, whose sword instead should have leapt from its scabbard and buried itself in _Tristan's_ breast.

For it seems inexplicable that the monarch, who should have slain the betrayer of his honour, indulges instead in a philosophical discourse, ending:

The unexplained, Unpenetrated Cause of all these woes, Who will to us disclose?

_Tristan_ turns to _Isolde_. Will she follow him to the bleak land of his birth? Her reply is that his home shall be hers. Then _Melot_ draws his sword. _Tristan_ rushes upon him, but as _Melot_ thrusts, allows his guard to fall and receives the blade. _Isolde_ throws herself on her wounded lover's breast.

Act III. The introduction to this act opens with a variation of the Isolde Motive, sadly prophetic of the desolation which broods over the scene to be disclosed when the curtain rises. On its third repet.i.tion it is continued in a long-drawn-out ascending phrase, which seems to represent musically the broad waste of ocean upon which _Tristan's_ castle looks down from its craggy height.