Saxe for Elisabeth, Mlle. Tedesco for Venus, Mlle. Reboux for the shepherd, Cazaux for the 'Landgraf,' and Morelli for Wolfram. The number of rehearsals, according to the official record, was 164:—73 at the pianoforte, 45 choral, 27 with the vocalists on the stage but without orchestra, 4 for scenic changes, and 14 full, with orchestra.[1] The total costs appear to have amounted to something like £8000. Wagner entirely rewrote the opening scene in the Venusberg, and made a number of minor changes. On the advice of M. Villot (curateur des musées impériaux), he also published 'Quatre poemes d' operas traduits en prose française, précédés d'une lettre sur la musique,' giving a résumé of his aims and opinions.[2] After numerous interruptions, misunderstandings and quarrels, including a complete rupture with the conductor Dietsch—the quondam chorusmaster and composer of 'Le Vaisseau fantôme,' who proved incompetent, and whom Wagner could not get rid of—the performances began March 13, 1861. 'Une cabale très-active, très-puissante, très-determinée, s'était organisée de bonne heure. Un certain nombre d'abonnés de l'opéra, qui savaient que la pièce n'avait pas de ballet,' etc.—The scandal need not be repeated here.—After the third performance Wagner withdrew his work.
The less said the better as to the complicated causes of the disaster. But it was a blow to me: everybody concerned had been paid per month; my share was to consist in the usual honorarium after each performance, and this was now cut short.[3] So I left Paris with a load of debt, not knowing where to turn.—Apart from such things, however, my recollections of this distracting year are by no means unpleasant.
On Wednesday evenings the little house[4] he inhabited with his wife in the rue Newton, near the Arc-de-Triomphe, welcomed many remarkable Parisians,—'c'est ainsi,' reports Gasperini, 'que j'ai vue M. Villot (to whom Wagner dedicated his 'Music of the Future'), Emile Ollivier, Mmme. Ollivier (Liszt's daughter), Jules Ferry, Léon Leroy; et Berlioz, et Champfleury, et Lorbac, et Baudelaire, etc.'[5]
Princess Metternichs' enthusiasm had a further result: whilst at work upon the additions to Tannhäuser, permission arrived for Wagner 'to re-enter German states other than Saxony.' It was not till March 1862 (i.e. after thirteen years) that the ban was completely raised; and he got leave, in truly paternal phrase, 'to return to the kingdom of Saxony without fear of punishment.'
Return to Germany, 1861 (æt. 48). The disaster in Paris produced a strong reaction. Wagner was received with enthusiasm wherever he appeared. Yet the three years to come until 1864, when he was suddenly called to Munich, must be counted among the most distressing of his entire career. His hopes and prospects lay in a successful performance of Tristan, and all his efforts to bring about such a performance failed. At Vienna, after 57 rehearsals, Tristan was definitely shelved, owing to the incompetence, physical or otherwise, of the tenor Ander; at Karlsruhe, Prague and Weimar, the negotiations did not even lead to rehearsals. He found it impossible to make both ends meet, and had to seek a precarious subsistence by giving concerts. A few words will explain this strange state of things at a time when his works were so unmistakeably popular. The customary honorarium on the first performance of an opera in Germany varied from 10 to 50 or 60 Louis d'or (£8 to £48) according to the rank and size of the theatre. On every subsequent repetition the author's share consisted either of some little sum agreed upon or of a small percentage on the receipts—generally five per cent, occasionally seven—never more than ten per cent. As most German towns possess a theatre, a successful opera on its first round may produce a considerable amount; but afterwards the yield is small. It is impossible to run the same piece night after night at a court or town theatre, the prices of admission are always low, and the system of subscription per season or per annum tends to reduce the number of performances allowed to any single work.
My operas were to be heard right and left; but I could not live on the proceeds. At Dresden Tannhäuser and the Hollander had grown into favour; yet I was told that I had no claim with regard to them, since they were produced during my Capellmeistership, and a Hofcapellmeister in Saxony is bound to furnish an opera once a year! When the Dresden people wanted Tristan I refused to let them have it unless they agreed to pay for Tannhäuser. Accordingly they thought they could dispense with Tristan. Afterwards, when the public insisted upon Die Meistersinger, I got the better of them.
On May 15, 1861, Wagner heard Lohengrin for the first time at Vienna. Liszt and a large circle of musicians welcomed him at the Tonkünstler Versammlung at Weimar in August. His long-cherished plan of writing a comic opera was now taken up. He elaborated the sketch for 'Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,' which dates from 1845, and was intended to be a comic pendant to the contest of Minnesingers in Tannhäuser. The poem was finished during a temporary stay at Paris in the winter of 1861–62. Messrs. Schott of Mayence secured the copyright, and the poem was printed in 1862 for private circulation.[6] Wagner settled opposite Mayence at Biebrich-am-Rhein to proceed with the music. On the 1st November of the same year (1862) he appeared at a concert given by Wendelin Weissheimer in the Gewandhaus at Leipzig, to conduct the overture to Die Meistersinger. The writer, who was present, distinctly remembers the half-empty room, the almost complete absence of professional musicians, the wonderful performance, and the enthusiastic demand for a repetition, in which the members of the orchestra took part as much as the audience.
- ↑ 'Les 164 repetitions et les 3 representations du Tannhäuser a Paris,' par Ch. Nuitter. (See 'Bayreuther Festblatter' for 1884.)
- ↑ See the English translation: 'The Music of the Future.'
- ↑ The customary remuneration for each performance of a new opera at Paris was 500 francs, so that 1500 francs would hare been Wagner's share for the three evenings; but it had been arranged that for the first 20 performances half of the remuneration was to be paid to the translators of the libretto: thus 750 francs was the sum Wagner received for something like a year's work.
- ↑ Now demolished.
- ↑ Ch. Baudelaire's article in the 'Revue Européenne,' augmented and reprinted as a pamphlet, April 1861, 'Richard Wagner et Tannhäuser,' is a masterpiece.
- ↑ The final version differs considerably from this.
