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Frau X. is announced to sing Ortrud on the 8th of March. She is to sing the part twice, and then appear as Antonina in "Belisario." If she pleases her engagement is very probable. I shall write very soon to Herr A., who sent me your letter by way of introduction, and I have in the meantime asked Herr von Beaulieu to let him make his debut as Lohengrin or Tannhauser.
One thing more: I cannot allow my "Lohengrin" to lie by and decay. Latterly I have accustomed myself to the notion of giving it to the world at first in a foreign language, and I now take up your own former idea of having it translated into English, so as to make its production in London possible.
I arranged one of these as a washhand-stand, and on the table I placed some books, writing materials, and the score of Lohengrin, and almost heaved a sigh of content in spite of my extremely cramped accommodation.
Here we have the essentials of the story which Wagner wrought into his opera "Lohengrin" Only a few details need be added to make the plot complete. The meeting of Lohengrin and Elsa takes place on the banks of the river Scheldt in Brabant. The King has come to ask the help of the Brabantians against the Huns, who are invading Germany. He finds Brabant in a disturbed state.
Here we had some pianoforte music, and Liszt played to us, among other things, the great Sonata of Beethoven in B flat major, at the close of which Kirchner dryly and candidly remarked, 'Now we can truly say that we have witnessed the impossible, for I shall always regard what I have just heard as an impossibility. On this occasion, attention was called to the twentieth anniversary of my marriage with Minna, which fell on this day, and after the wedding music of Lohengrin had been played, we formed a charming procession a la Polonaise through the various rooms.
In my opinion, it behoves Berlin to find room for your three works "Tannhauser," "Lohengrin," and the "Flying Dutchman," and I have not the slightest doubt of a complete success if the thing is managed properly. Herr von Hulsen will, no doubt, be of the same opinion soon; but in the ordinary way and with the old theatrical routine an extraordinary thing of this kind cannot be done.
As I said before, I do not thank you for the sacrifice you have made for me by your last beautiful performance of LOHENGRIN. If you had written to me instead, "I have put LOHENGRIN, you, myself, and everything else on the shelf, in order to get thoroughly well again," I should have thanked you with heartfelt tears.
Take an extreme case. A group of people are photographed by Edison's new process say Titiens, Trebelli, and Jenny Lind, with any two of the finest men singers the age has known let them be photographed incessantly for half an hour while they perform a scene in Lohengrin; let all be done stereoscopically.
As Tannhäuser dies, the pilgrims' chorus again rises in ecstasy, closing with a mighty shout of "Hallelujah!" and the curtain falls. "Lohengrin," a romantic opera in three acts, words by the composer, was first produced at Weimar, Aug. 28, 1850, the anniversary of Goethe's birthday, under the direction of Franz Liszt, and with the following cast of the leading parts:
Scholars often have strange ideas. Then Richard Wagner came along and the reign of the ninth dominant took the place of the seventh. That is what gives Tannhauser, and Lohengrin their exciting character, which is dear to those who demand in music above everything else the pleasure due to shocks to the nervous system.
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