File:Max Alvary in costume for 'Lohengrin'.jpg

Identifier: wagnerslifeworks01kobb (find matches)
Title: Wagner's life and works
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Kobbé, Gustav, 1857-1918
Subjects: Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 Composers
Publisher: New York : G. Schirmer
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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e him.Wolfram struggles with the unhappy minstrel, and atlast, when Tannhduser seems unable to resist Venusenticing voice any longer, Wolfram conjures him bythe memory of Elizabeth. Then Venus knows thatall is lost. The light dies away and the magic charmsof the Venusberg disappear. Amid tolling of bellsand mournful voices a funeral procession comesdown the mountain. Recognizing the features ofElizabeth, the dying Tannhduser falls upon her corpse.The younger pilgrims arrive with the staff, which hasagain put forth leaves, and amid the hallelujahs ofthe pilgrims the opera closes. Beside the character of Elizabeth that of Wolframstands out for its tender, manly beauty. In love withElizabeth, he is yet the means of bringing back herlover to her, and in the end saves that lover fromperdition, so that they may be united in death. LOHENGRIN. <* Lohengrin differs entirely in character from Tannhauser, the contrast being so great as to forman admirable example of Wagners extraordinary ver-
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LOHENGRIN. OPERAS 197 satility. The fact is that Wagner appears to have be-come so saturated with the subject of his dramas thathe seems to have transported himself to the very-time in which his scenes are laid. So vividly does heportray the mythological occurrences told in Lohen-grin that one can almost imagine he had been aneye witness of them. This capacity of artistic repro-duction of a remote period would alone entitle himto rank as a great dramatist. But he has done muchmore ; he has taken unpromising material, which toa writer of ordinary talent would be nothing at all,and converted it into a swiftly moving drama. The material for Lohengrin was almost entirelylyric, but Wagner has made a stirring drama of it.Owing, however, to the character of the original, it is,while not at all lacking in strong dramatic situations,considerably more lyrical than Tannhauser. Con-sequently there is the same difference between themusic of the two works, the harmonies of Lohen-grin being more sub

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