The Complete Opera Book Part 25

The whole pa.s.sage appears to represent _Tristan_ hopelessly yearning for _Isolde_, letting his fancy travel back over the watery waste to the last night of love, and then giving himself up wholly to his grief.

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

Gadski as Isolde]

[Ill.u.s.tration: N.Y. Photographic Co.

Ternina as Isolde]

The curtain rises upon the desolate grounds of Kareol, between the outer walls of _Tristan's_ castle and the main structure, which stands upon a rocky eminence overlooking the sea. _Tristan_ is stretched, apparently lifeless, under a huge linden-tree. Over him, in deep sorrow, bends the faithful _Kurwenal_. A _Shepherd_ is heard piping a strain, whose plaintive notes harmonize most beautifully with the despairing desolation and sadness of the scene. It is the =Lay of Sorrow=, and by it, the _Shepherd_, who scans the sea, conveys to _Kurwenal_ information that the ship he has dispatched to Cornwall to bear _Isolde_ to Kareol has not yet hove in sight.

The Lay of Sorrow is a strain of mournful beauty, with the simplicity and indescribable charm of a folk-song. Its plaintive notes cling like ivy to the grey and crumbling ruins of love and joy.

[Music]

The _Shepherd_ peers over the wall and asks if _Tristan_ has shown any signs of life. _Kurwenal_ gloomily replies in the negative. The _Shepherd_ departs to continue his lookout, piping the sad refrain.

_Tristan_ slowly opens his eyes. "The old refrain; why wakes it me?

Where am I?" he murmurs. _Kurwenal_ is beside himself with joy at these signs of returning life. His replies to _Tristan's_ feeble and wandering questions are mostly couched in a motive which beautifully expresses the sterling nature of this faithful retainer, one of the n.o.blest characters Wagner has drawn.

[Music]

When _Tristan_ loses himself in sad memories of _Isolde_, _Kurwenal_ seeks to comfort him with the news that he has sent a trusty man to Cornwall to bear _Isolde_ to him that she may heal the wound inflicted by _Melot_ as she once healed that dealt _Tristan_ by Morold. In _Tristan's_ jubilant reply, during which he draws _Kurwenal_ to his breast, the Isolde Motive a.s.sumes a form in which it becomes a theme of joy.

But it is soon succeeded by the =Motive of Anguish=,

[Music]

when _Tristan_ raves of his yearning for _Isolde_. "The ship! the ship!" he exclaims. "Kurwenal, can you not see it?" The Lay of Sorrow, piped by the _Shepherd_, gives the sad answer. It pervades his sad reverie until, when his mind wanders back to _Isolde's_ tender nursing of his wound in Ireland, the theme of Isolde's Narrative is heard again. Finally his excitement grows upon him, and in a paroxysm of anguish bordering on insanity he even curses love.

_Tristan_ sinks back apparently lifeless. But no--as _Kurwenal_ bends over him and the Isolde Motive is breathed by the orchestra, he again whispers of _Isolde_. In ravishing beauty the Motive of Love's Peace caressingly follows his vision as he seems to see _Isolde_ gliding toward him o'er the waves. With ever-growing excitement he orders _Kurwenal_ to the lookout to watch the ship's coming. What he sees so clearly cannot _Kurwenal_ also see? Suddenly the music changes in character. The ship is in sight, for the _Shepherd_ is heard piping a joyous lay.

[Music]

It pervades the music of _Tristan's_ excited questions and _Kurwenal's_ answers as to the vessel's movements. The faithful retainer rushes down toward the sh.o.r.e to meet _Isolde_ and lead her to _Tristan_. The latter, his strength sapped by his wound, his mind inflamed to insanity by his pa.s.sionate yearning, struggles to rise. He raises himself a little. The Motive of Love's Peace, no longer tranquil, but with frenzied rapidity, accompanies his actions as, in his delirium, he tears the bandage from his wounds and rises from his couch.

_Isolde's_ voice! Into her arms, outstretched to receive him, staggers _Tristan_. Gently she lets him down upon his couch, where he has lain in the anguish of expectancy.

"Tristan!"

"Isolde!" he answers in broken accents. This last look resting rapturously upon her, while in mournful beauty the Love Glance Motive rises from the orchestra, he expires.

In all music there is no scene more deeply shaken with sorrow.

Tumultuous sounds are heard. A second ship has arrived. _Marke_ and his suite have landed. _Tristan's_ men, thinking the _King_ has come in pursuit of _Isolde_, attack the new-comers, _Kurwenal_ and his men are overpowered, and _Kurwenal_, having avenged _Tristan_ by slaying _Melot_, sinks, himself mortally wounded, dying by _Tristan's_ side.

He reaches out for his dead master's hand, and his last words are: "Tristan, chide me not that faithfully I follow you."

When _Brangane_ rushes in and hurriedly announces that she has informed the _King_ of the love-potion, and that he comes bringing forgiveness, _Isolde_ heeds her not. As the Love-Death Motive rises softly over the orchestra and slowly swells into the impa.s.sioned Motive of Ecstasy, to reach its climax with a stupendous crash of instrumental forces, she gazes with growing transport upon her dead lover, until, with rapture in her last glance, she sinks upon his corpse and expires.

In the Wagnerian version of the legend this love-death, for which _Tristan_ and _Isolde_ prayed and in which they are united, is more than a mere farewell together to life. It is tinged with Oriental philosophy, and symbolizes the taking up into and the absorption of by nature of all that is spiritual, and hence immortal, in lives rendered beautiful by love.

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NuRNBERG

THE MASTERSINGERS OF NUREMBURG

Opera in three acts, words and music by Richard Wagner.

Produced, Munich, June 21, 1868, under direction of Hans von Bulow. London, Drury Lane, May 30, 1882, under Hans Richter; Covent Garden, July 13, 1889, in Italian; Manchester, in English, by the Carl Rosa Company, April 16, 1896. New York, Metropolitan Opera House, January 4, 1886, with Fischer (_Hans Sachs_), Seidl-Kraus (_Eva_), Marianne Brandt (_Magdalena_), Stritt (_Walther_), Kemlitz (_Beckmesser_); Conductor, Seidl. _Sachs_ has also been sung by edouard de Reszke, Van Rooy, and Whitehill; _Walther_ by Jean de Reszke; _Eva_ by Eames, Gadski, and Hempel; _Beckmesser_ by Goritz; _Magdalena_ by Schumann-Heink and Homer.

CHARACTERS

HANS SACHS, Cobbler } _Ba.s.s_ VEIT POGNER, Goldsmith } _Ba.s.s_ KUNZ VOGELGESANG, Furrier } _Tenor_ CONRAD NACHTIGALL, Buckle-Maker } _Ba.s.s_ SIXTUS BECKMESSER, Town Clerk } _Ba.s.s_ FRITZ KOTHNER, Baker } Mastersingers _Ba.s.s_ BALTHAZAR ZORN, Pewterer } _Tenor_ ULRICH EISLINGER, Grocer } _Tenor_ AUGUST MOSER, Tailor } _Tenor_ HERMANN ORTEL, Soap-boiler } _Ba.s.s_ HANS SCHWARZ, Stocking-Weaver } _Ba.s.s_ HANS FOLZ, Coppersmith } _Ba.s.s_ WALTHER VON STOLZING, a young Franconian knight _Tenor_ DAVID, apprentice to HANS SACHS _Tenor_ A NIGHT WATCHMAN _Ba.s.s_ EVA, daughter of POGNER _Soprano_ MAGDALENA, EVA'S nurse _Mezzo-Soprano_

Burghers of the Guilds, Journeymen, 'Prentices, Girls, and Populace.

_Time_--Middle of the Sixteenth Century.

_Place_--Nuremburg.

Wagner's music-dramas are all unmistakably Wagner, yet they are wonderfully varied. The style of the music in each adapts itself plastically to the character of the story. Can one, for instance, imagine the music of "Tristan" wedded to the story of "The Mastersingers," or _vice versa_? A tragic pa.s.sion, inflamed by the arts of sorcery inspired the former. The latter is a thoroughly human tale set to thoroughly human music. Indeed, while "Tristan" and "The Ring of the Nibelung" are tragic, and "Parsifal" is deeply religious, "The Mastersingers" is a comic work, even bordering in one scene on farce. Like Shakespeare, Wagner was equally at home in tragedy and comedy.

_Walther von Stolzing_ is in love with _Eva_. Her father having promised her to the singer to whom at the coming midsummer festival the _Mastersingers_ shall adjudge the prize, it becomes necessary for _Walther_ to seek admission to their art union. He is, however, rejected, his song violating the rules to which the Mastersingers slavishly adhere. _Beckmesser_ is also instrumental in securing _Walther's_ rejection. The town clerk is the "marker" of the union.

His duty is to mark all violations of the rules against a candidate.

_Beckmesser_, being a suitor for _Eva's_ hand, naturally makes the most of every chance to put down a mark against _Walther_.

_Sachs_ alone among the _Mastersingers_ has recognized the beauty of _Walther's_ song. Its very freedom from rule and rote charms him, and he discovers in the young knight's untrammelled genius the power which, if properly directed, will lead art from the beaten path of tradition toward a new and loftier ideal.

After _Walther's_ failure before the Mastersingers the impetuous young knight persuades _Eva_ to elope with him. But at night as they are preparing to escape, _Beckmesser_ comes upon the scene to serenade _Eva_. _Sachs_, whose house is opposite _Pogner's_, has meanwhile brought his work bench out into the street and insists on "marking"

what he considers _Beckmesser's_ mistakes by bringing his hammer down upon his last with a resounding whack. The louder _Beckmesser_ sings the louder _Sachs_ whacks. Finally the neighbours are aroused.

_David_, who is in love with _Magdalena_ and thinks _Beckmesser_ is serenading her, falls upon him with a cudgel. The whole neighbourhood turns out and a general _melee_ ensues, during which _Sachs_ separates _Eva_ and _Walther_ and draws the latter into his home.

The following morning _Walther_ sings to _Sachs_ a song which has come to him in a dream, _Sachs_ transcribing the words and pa.s.sing friendly criticism upon them and the music. The midsummer festival is to take place that afternoon, and through a ruse _Sachs_ manages to get _Walther's_ poem into _Beckmesser's_ possession, who, thinking the words are by the popular cobbler-poet, feels sure he will be the chosen master. _Eva_, coming into the workshop to have her shoes fitted, finds _Walther_, and the lovers depart with _Sachs_, _David_, and _Magdalena_ for the festival. Here _Beckmesser_, as _Sachs_ had antic.i.p.ated, makes a wretched failure, as he has utterly missed the spirit of the poem, and _Walther_, being called upon by _Sachs_ to reveal its beauty in music, sings his prize song, winning at once the approbation of the _Mastersingers_ and the populace. He is received into their art union and at the same time wins _Eva_ as his bride.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by Falk

Emil Fischer as Hans Sachs in "Die Meistersinger"]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by White

Weil and Goritz as Hans Sachs and Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger"]

The Mastersingers were of burgher extraction. They flourished in Germany, chiefly in the imperial cities, during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. They did much to generate and preserve a love of art among the middle cla.s.ses. Their musical compet.i.tions were judged according to a code of rules which distinguished by particular names thirty-two faults to be avoided.

Scriptural or devotional subjects were usually selected and the judges or Merker (Markers) were, in Nuremburg, four in number, the first comparing the words with the Biblical text, the second criticizing the prosody, the third the rhymes, and the fourth the tune. He who had the fewest marks against him received the prize.

Hans Sachs, the most famous of the Mastersingers, born November 5, 1494, died January, 1576, in Nuremburg, is said to have been the author of some six thousand poems. He was a cobbler by trade--

Hans Sachs was a shoe- Maker and poet too.

A monument was erected to him in the city of his birth in 1874.