340 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS comparatively smooth. In 1865 " Tristan und Isolde " was performed at Munich, and was followed three years later by a comic opera, " Die Meistersinger," the first sketches of which date from 1845. "Siegfried" ("Nibelungen Ring," Part II.) was completed in 1869, and in the following year Wagner married Cosima, the daughter of Liszt, and formerly the wife of Von Billow. His first wife, from whom he had been separated in 1861, died at Dresden in 1866. A theatre built somewhere off the main lines of traffic, and specially con- structed for the performance of Wagner's later works, must have seemed the most impracticable and visionary of proposals in 1870; and yet, chiefly through the unwearying exertions of Carl Tausig (and, after his death, of the various Wagner societies), the. foundation-stone of the Baireuth Theatre was laid in 1872, and in 1876, two years after the completion of the " Gotterdammerung " (" Nibe- lungen Ring," Part III.), it became an accomplished fact. The first work given was the entire "Trilogy;" and in July, 1882, Wagner's long and stormy career was magnificently crowned there by the first performance of " Parsifal." A few weeks later his health showed signs of giving way, and he resolved to spend the winter at Venice. There he died suddenly, February 13, 1883, and was buried in the garden of his own house, Wahnfried, at Baireuth.* Wagner's life and his individuality are of unusual importance in rightly es- timating his work, because, unlike the other great masters, he not only devoted all his genius to one branch of music — the opera — but he gradually evolved a theory and an ideal which he consciously formulated and adopted, and persever- ingly followed. It may be asked whether Wagner's premises were sound and his conclusions right ; and also whether his genius was great enough to be the worthy champion of a cause involving such revolutions. Unless Wagner's operas, considered solely as music, are not only more advanced in style, but worthy in themselves to stand at least on a level with the greatest efforts of his predecessors, no amount of proof that these were wrong and he right will give his name the place his admirers claim for it. It is now universally acknowledged that Wagner can only be compared with the greatest names in music. His in- strumentation has the advantage in being the inheritor of the enormous develop- ment of the orchestra from Haydn to Berlioz, his harmony is as daring and original as Bach's, and his melody is as beautiful as it is different from Beethoven's or Mozart's. (These names are used not in order to institute profitless compari- sons, but as convenient standards ; therefore even a qualification of the statement will not invalidate the case.) His aim (stated very generally) was to reform the whole structure of opera, using the last or " Beethoven" development of instrumental music as a basis, and freeing it from the fetters which conventionality had imposed, in the shape of set formr, accepted arrangements, and traditional concessions to a style of singing now happily almost extinct. The one canon was to be dramatic fitness. In this " Art Work of the Future," as he called it, the interest of the drama is to depend
- Our illustration represents him at Wahnfried in company with his wife Cosima, her father Franz Liszt.
who was his htelong friend, and Herr von Wolzogen.
