Goddess of Love, balked by all this, plans revenge. The Love Potion, which had been intended for the king in order to insure the marriage, is given to Tristan and Isolde to drink, a circumstance which “... opens their eyes to the truth and leads to the avowal that for the future they belong only to each other.... The world, power, fame, splendor, honor, knighthood, fidelity, friendship, all are dissipated like an empty dream. One thing only remains: longing, longing, insatiable longing, forever springing up anew, pining and thirsting. Death, which means passing away, perishing, never awakening, their only deliverance.... Shall we call it death? Or is it the hidden wonder-world from out of which an ivy and vine, entwined with each other, grew upon Tristan’s and Isolde’s grave, as the legend tells us?”

The Prelude, A minor, 6-8, makes a very gradual and long crescendo to a mighty fortissimo, followed by a briefer decrescendo, which leads to a whispered pianissimo. Free as to form and ever widening in scope of development, it offers two chief themes: a phrase, uttered by the ’cellos, is united to another, given to the oboes, to form a subject called the “Love Potion” theme, or the theme of “Longing.” Another theme, again announced by the ’cellos, “Tristan’s Love Glance,” is sensuous, even voluptuous in character.

After the Prelude, the orchestra enters into the “Liebestod” or “Love-Death,” that passionate flow of phrases, taken mostly from the material in the second act Love-Duet. Isolde (in the opera) sings her song of sublimated desire. Franz Liszt is responsible for the application of the term “Liebestod” to that part of the music which originally had been named “Verklärung” by Wagner himself.

Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”

“The completion of Die Meistersinger, Triebschen, Thursday, October 24, 1867, 8 o’clock in the evening, R. W.” These words were inscribed on the last sheet of the manuscript of Wagner’s only operatic comedy. This was some twenty-two years after the very first drafts were drawn at Marienbad. The doctor had ordered a complete rest. But rest to Wagner meant ennui. Perhaps, he thought, he might be able to rest while composing a lighter work. The idea took hold. He gave it considerable thought. He could just about see this airy piece’s “rapid circulation through the European opera houses.” Indeed, he judged that “something thoroughly light and popular” might be just the thing to make his everlasting fame.

Hans Sachs, of course, is the hero of this masterpiece. A historic character, Sachs was built by the composer into something of an ideal of homespun charm and wit and philosophy. But Wagner also evened a score with an old enemy in his composition of this work. The music critic Eduard Hanslick appears as the crotchety, pedantic and unprincipled Beckmesser, thus earning for himself a ridiculous immortality.

How Wagner could have written this opera with all the troubles besetting him is hard to comprehend. Yet no financial snarls, domestic tribulations, romantic attachments or what-not could stay it even though it took years to come forth.

As for the Prelude, Wagner himself has written an interesting analysis, which is here appended:

“The opening theme for the ’cellos has already been heard in the third strophe of Sachs’ cobbler-song in Act II. There is expressed the bitter cry of the man who has determined to renounce his personal happiness, yet who shows the world a cheerful, resolute exterior. That smothered cry was understood by Eva, and so deeply did it pierce her heart that she fain would fly away, if only to hear this cheerful-seeming song no longer. Now, in the Introduction to Act III, this motive is played alone by the ’cellos, and developed in the other strings till it dies away in resignation; but forthwith, and as from out the distance, the horns intone the solemn song wherewith Hans Sachs greeted Luther and the Reformation, which had won the poet such incomparable popularity. After the first strophe the strings again take single phrases of the cobbler’s song, very softly and much slower, as though the man were turning his gaze from his handiwork heavenwards, and lost in tender musings. Then, with increased sonority, the horns pursue the master’s hymn, with which Hans Sachs, at the end of the act, is greeted by the populace of Nuremberg. Next reappears the strings’ first motive, with grandiose expression of the anguish of a deeply-stirred soul; calmed and allayed, it attains the utmost serenity of a blest and peaceful resignation.”

The plot of Die Meistersinger deals with a song contest which is to be held in Nuremberg on St. John’s Day. Naturally, there is to be a handsome prize for the winner and in this case it is the hand of Eva, daughter of the goldsmith Veit Pogner. A young knight, Walther von Stolzing, has seen Eva meanwhile, and he has fallen in love with her. Because he is a likeable young man, he is given permission to enter the contest. Another contestant is Beckmesser, the town clerk, who attempts to bring Walther to ruin.

However, Walther and Eva have confessed their love for each other to Hans Sachs, a cobbler, who happens also to be in love with Eva. But he makes the supreme sacrifice, rejoicing at the same time in the knowledge that the maid will be deliriously happy with her young knight. He helps their cause along, writing down the notes of a song Walther has heard in a dream. At the contest Beckmesser tries to sing that same song, offering it as his own, but his raucous efforts make him the laughing stock of the affair. Of course, Walther’s song is adjudged the best and he wins his Eva.

Excerpts from “Die Meistersinger”

Often heard in the concert hall are several other excerpts from Die Meistersinger. These include the Procession of the Guilds, the Dance of the Apprentices, the Procession of the Masters, the Homage to Sachs, and the Finale.

Prelude, Transformation Scene and Grail Scene from Act 1 of “Parsifal”

Most of the Ring, all of Tristan, and a considerable portion of Die Meistersinger had been written by Wagner before he started actual work on the “consecrational festival stage play,” Parsifal, in 1865. He made a first outline of the libretto in August of that year, some two decades after he had become acquainted with the Parsifal poem of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Minnesinger. Not till 1877, however, did the text attain its final shape, and it was published in December. Sometime previously Wagner had turned to the task of composing the music and completed it in 1879. The orchestration was finished in January 1882. The opera was given for the first time at Bayreuth on July 26, 1882. The Prelude, written in December 1878, had been given its première performance at Wagner’s house, Wahnfried, on Christmas Day, with the composer conducting for the occasion, his wife Cosima’s birthday.