Wagner R, Opera and Drama.pdf

Opera and Drama

By Richard Wagner

1852

Translated by William Ashton Ellis

The Wagner Library

Edition 1.0

Table of Contents

About this Title

Translator's Preface

Opera and Drama

Translator's Note

Dedication of the second edition

Preface to the first edition

Introduction

First Part - Opera and the Nature of Music

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

Second Part - The Play and the Nature of Dramatic Poetry

Translator's Notes

[0.]

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

Third Part - The Arts of Poetry and Tone in the Drama of

the Future

Translator's Notes

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

Notes

About this Title

Source

Opera and Drama

By Richard Wagner

Translated by William Ashton Ellis

Opera and Drama

Richard Wagner's Prose Works

Volume 2

Pages 1-376

Published in 1893

Original Title Information

Oper und Drama.

Published in 1852

Smtliche Schriften und Dichtungen : Volume III/IV

Pages 222-320/1-229

Reading Information

This title contains 135167 words.

Estimated reading time between 386 and 676 minutes.

Page numbers are indicated using square brackets, like [62], while

footnotes are indicated using parenthesis, like (1).

[v]

Translator's Preface

BEFORE plunging into the thick of the accompanying treatise, I

believe it will interest the reader to gather a few details about its

history. Fortunately these are obtainable at first hand; therefore I

can take no credit for supplying them, further than that they have

not hitherto been set forth in any connected form.

The very first we hear of Oper und Drama is in a letter from

Wagner to Theodor Uhlig dated December 27, 1849: "I have still

very much to say to those before whom I am placing my Art-work of

the Future [then in the printer's hands]; I therefore made inquiries

respecting a newspaper in whichÏif only in outlineÏI might be able

to utter my thoughts about certain matters." A fortnight later (Jan.

12, '50) we find our author again referring to his Art-work of the

Future, and adding: "I quite understand that you take chief interest

in music; perhaps I shall return to it at greater length on some

future occasion." Again, on February 8, 1850, and even before

receiving a printed copy of the work just named, he writes: "I am

resolved to publish Papers on Art and Life entirely on my own

acccount; perhaps fortnightly.a' Nothing definite comes of this

proposal, except the article on Art and ClimateÏalready translated

in Vol. i of the present seriesÏand in August the article on Judaism

in Music, published in the Neue Zeitschrift September '50. We next

read in Letter 14 that Liszt is pressing for the composition of

SiegfriedÏi.e. the Siegfried's TodÏand significantly enough Wagner

says: "the choice as to what I should take next in hand has tortured

me: was it to be a poem, a book, or an essay ?" and later on in the

same letter (undated, but apparently written in August '50) he adds,

"I had intended to set to work at another bookÏThe Redemption of

GeniusÏwhich should cover the whole ground. Feeling the

uselessness of this book, I determined to content myself with two

little essays: first, The Monumental; then, The Unbeauty of

Civilisation, deducing the conditions of the beautiful from the life of

the future. But what should I effect by that? Fresh confusionÏand

nothing else!" Leaving aside the easy handle that the [vi] last

remark affords to those who are pleased to call Wagner "an

imperfectly equipped thinker"Ïas was done in a recent English

criticismÏthis extract is interesting, as affording a clue to his

method of literary composition at that period; for the essays, or

sketches for essays, on Genius and The Monumental have been

incorporated in the Communication to my Friends, written about a

year later, whilst that on Civilisation and the life of the future has

evidently found its way into Chapter IV of Part II. of Oper und

Drama.

By this time the literary longing was approaching a tangible

shape, for on Sept. 20, 1850, Wagner writes again to Uhhig, and

again after a reference to Siegfried: "I am thinking of doing some

literary work this autumn and winter. All generalities in art are, for

the moment, repugnant to me; no one understands them until his

nose is driven into particulars. Now my particular work would be

music, and, above all, opera. . . In any case, I will shortly send you

rather a long article on modern opera,Ïabout Rossini and

Meyerbeer." This we may take to be the first unmistakable

shadowing forth of Oper und Drama, although the title and

magnitude of the eventual book are not yet within clear range of

vision. Another point in this letter is the allusion in the very next

sentence, already quoted in my preface to Volume i, to the receipt

of a letter from Feuerbach, apparently accompanied by all that

author's philosophical treatises.

At last on October 9, 1850, we find that the book is really

begun, though with no definite idea of the size to which it will later

swell, and under a tithe which points merely to the first Part of the

work as we now have it. This reference, in Letter 17 to Uhlig, runs as

follows: "My would-be article on opera is becoming rather a

voluminous piece of writing, and will perhaps be not much less in

size than the Art-work of the Future. I have decided to offer it to J. J.

Weber [publisher] under the title, 'Das Wesen der Oper.' . . I have

only finished the first half; unfortunately I am at present quite

hindered from continuing the work. Every day I must hold

rehearsals" &c. On the 22nd of the same month Uhlig is informed: "I

say nothing here about all ½sthetic scruples roused in you and

others by my artistic tenets and writings, since I propose to treat

the whole matter thoroughly and exhaustively in my Wesen der

OperÏwhich I hope to be able to send you in a month. I shall even

be compelled to speak my mind about my [vii] former operas. The

essay is becoming somewhat bulky."ÏIn passing, I may note that

this discussion of his own operas came to be reserved, and very

properly, for the Communication.Ï

In Letter 19 to Uhlig, written early in December, 1850, we get

the final title of the book, and a brief synopsis of its contents. This

letter is peculiarly interesting, as it shews how the work grew under

Wagner's hands and became a real assistance to him, through

clearing up his theretofore half-conscious artistic procedure. He

says: "You can have no idea of the trouble I am giving myself, to

call forth a whole understanding in those who now understand but

half; yes, even my foes, who either do not or will not understand at

all as yet, even them I fain would bring to understanding:Ïand

lastly I rejoice for the mere reason that I am always coming to a

better understanding myself. My book, which is now to be called

'Oper und Drama,' is not yet ready: it will be at least twice as big as

the Art-work of the Future. I still shall require at least the whole of

December before I come to the end, and then the whole of January,

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