rccjuire Lliat the jilayur must exert the full j)()vver of
his imagination to interpret the composer's inten-
tions. The loud clang of the cymbals, the low soft
light of the glow-worm, the mighty tusk of the
elephant dasliing the hunter to the earth, the roaring
of the desert lions, the distant battle-call, the wild
whirl of the flying liorsemen, have all been expressed
liy the coinposers wondrous nuisica! colour. The
player, however, nuist enter fully into the spirit
of the compositions, and be able to bring out the
battle-call on tlic piano while keeping in perfect
sympathy with such a jjassage as ' Augen und
Blumen schliessen sich zu,' and ' Ihr Busen schwillt
vor Angst empor.' I shall not take it amiss if this
last piece of effusiveness be read with a smile and
a sh.'xke of the head. Some persons will be sure to
tiiink it fanciful, and even ridiculous, to s])eak about
imitating the clang of cymbals or the song of the
nightingale on the pianoforte ; but those who have
heard Liszt, Rubinstein, or Blilow, will be inclined
to admit that these artists have succeeded in
bringing more than pian()forte effects out of their
instrument. To a large extent one may suggest
the clianmter, though not the tone, of different
orchestral instruments, and it is of great importance
to bear this in mind when accompanying on the
piano songs which have originally been written for
orchestral accompaniment. In conclusion, however,
I repeat that he who would be a proficient in this
art must make music his mother-tongue. Nay,
more, — he must understand the language of music
better than any other language in the world, and
besides this, he must be possessed of genuine poetic
feeling.
VMvzK,,July 9, iS
Cahi. Rkinkcke.
’DIE FEEN.'
HoMANTrc Ol'EIlA IN TuUEE AcTS, liV RlCHARD WaGNER, PF.nFOnMED FOB THE FIRST TIME AT THE RoVAI. Oi'EiiA AT Munich, on Friday, 29tii .June 1888.
IS it desirable or not that the juvenile works of the great masters of our period be produced on the stage .? This question has been the subject of earnest — nay, passionate — -discussion here and elsewhere, in so far as it applies to Richard Wagner's two early operas — Das L'lebesverbot, which, written in 1834, only lived through one performance, and Die Feen (The Fairies), composed in 1833, which up to Friday night the 29th of June 1888 was never performed at all. The great composer himself certainly has negatived the above fjucstioii ; when his endeavours to obtain a hearing for his operas at JA'i])/.ig had failed, he threw them aside, and stormed onward to liiglicr aims and loftier results.
Only Ihirty-two years later the bulky score of Die Feen, most carefully and neatly written, but almost obliterated by the slow operation of time, was taken from its shelf, and presented by the author to his friend and royal patron, Ludwig II. of Bavaria, with the following self- reproaching dedication, dated Lucerne, Christmas 1866 :—
' Ich irrtc einst und mocht' es nun verbiissen,
Wic m.'ich' ich mich der Jugcndsiinde frei ?
Ihr Wcrk Icf;' ich demiithig, Dir zu Fiissen,
Uass Ueinc Gnade ihiii Erliiser sei.'
(Once did I err, now penance do I offer,
How for my youthful sin can 1 atone .'
Its product now to thee 1 humbly proffer.
For thou canst send me grace, and thou alone !)
Thus the score was found among the papers left behind by the King, to whom alone Wagner had confided this product of ' his youthful sin.' But, it may well be asked, were loe to be deprived of the knowledge of his early work simply because its performance appeared undesirable to him? The performance of Friday night has answered the question in a way very complimentary to the enterprising management of the Munich Royal Opera, to which we owe this most interesting old novelty. I am certain, had ' The Fairies ' been produced fifty years ago, the opera would have maintained itself on the stage to the present day — as many much less meritorious works have done — in spite of its shortcomings and immaturities. The text is by Wagner himself, who borrowed his subject from Gozzi's fairy tale. La Donna Serpente and, though inexperienced and unripe, the youth of twenty betrays the powerfid dramatic talent of the man to be. The plot is simple enough:—
'Ada, a fairy, has fallen in love with and espoused Prince Arindal, on condition that he ask no questions as to her origin, etc., for eight years. (This
