And the reason we pulled in in 1845 was because he was about to let it all hang out for the first time. October the 19th, 1845, was when he unveiled his first all-singing, all-dancing, true music drama. It went by the fantastic kennel name of: Cannhauger anb the Ringing Contest on the Wartburg
…or simply Tannhduser, for short. So, you see: despite the fact that he might have been getting everything else right, he was hopeless at titles. I mean, Tannhduser and the Singing Contest on the Wartburg. Reminds me of our old family holidays - we had a Wartburg. Yes. Never had a singing contest on it, though, as far as I can remember. Had an aerial that you had to pull up by hand, and those funny ventilator slats at the back. Made an awful noise, it did. Loved it, though. Sorry. I'm off with the fairies.
As I said, they're not for everyone the humungously long operas of Wagner, and this may account for the popularity of this early masterpiece, Tannhduser, which nowhere near tops the scale when it comes to length, coming in at a mere four days, eighteen hours. It also comes complete with one of the best overtures in opera, a storming and rounded piece of work which manages to warn the listener about most of the tunes that are going to come up in the opera. As a result, it's become one of the most played opera overtures not only of Wagner's personal output, but of all opera.
Now, if you don't mind - or, indeed, if you do - I'm going to move on to the period of 1848/49/50, which means skipping some five or so years - or one whole Wagner opera length, if you like.
ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?
O
K, let me take you right to the edge, now. Imagine it's 1849. The next year, 1850, is the year, according to the music books -and you will note I don't include this book in that august number -that music became true ROMANTIC and not just EARLY ROMANTIC. Or, as some like to call it, HIGH Romantic, which I presume means Romantic but they still use incense and Latin. 1850 is the year when we are allowed to think of music as really, fully fledged Romantic. So, in 1849, we're right on the edge. Officially, we're still early Romantic period, but only just. If someone gave us a leg up and we could see over the wall, you'd see the High Romantic garden in all its lush glory. But what was it that tipped everything over the edge, as it were, into fully formed, card-carrying Romanticism? Well, pardy it was a case of things just working themselves through - people will always take a movement to its limit, before someone presses the hooter and it's on to the next big thing. But more importandy, if you take romanticism as being a by-product of music + world events -remember Beethoven: half man, half real-life revolutionary - well, then it becomes clear that revolution is the fuel of the romantics. Ever since Eroica, you haven't been able to have one without the other. So what was the main thing that tipped the early romantics over the edge, into becoming out-and-out high romantics? Well, more than anything, it was the events of last year.
RICHARD, THE GREAT, AND VIV THE REVOLUTION
1848 was THE year for revolution, more than any other year had been in recent history. In Paris, Louis Philippe had abdicated and the French National Assembly had elected the recendy escaped Louis Napoleon as President of the French Republic. In Vienna, Prince Metternich resigned during the first uprising, then, during a second, Emperor Ferdinand I decides to get out too, while the going is good, and nips to Innsbruck for a spot of skiing. A further, third uprising sees him abdicating fully in favour of his nephew, Franz Joseph. In Rome, Count Rossi, the papal premiere, is assassinated and Pope Pius gets out, sharpish. It's happening all over, too. Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Parma, Prague, the Isle of Sheppey©, Rome - all of them undergoing a massive period of Revolution, with a capital R. Er, and in bold. And italics. And underlined. I think I've made my point.
Come 1849, and Wagner himself is caught up in it all, too. He starts giving hardline, radical speeches, in support of the rebels, and even selling revolutionary pamphlets on the street. Can you imagine that? Bumping into Wagner on the street, trying to sell you a magazine? 'RW: Guten tag, Guvnor Buy a Grofi Issue? Pleb: Sorry? RW: Go on, buy a Grofi Issue, support the keinen Haus mensch…
…er, please? Pleb: Oh, J, er, I already bought one, Wagner, honest.
It's…at home. RW (tuts): Er, well, wass about du, squire? Buy a Grofi bsue? Come on, Grofs bsue, who'll take my last eins? What a strange concept. Anyway, as a result, when the revolt in Wagner's bit of the world, Dresden, eventually comes to nothing, Wagner is forced to flee to Zurich to escape prosecution. In fact, he's forced to stay in Zurich for thirteen years, until the heat dies down. Thirteen years! That must have been some heat. It was left to friends and champions, like Liszt, to keep Wagner heard in his native land. That's 1849's amazing turn of events. What about 1850, hmm?
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
WERE AFRAID TO ASK, LIKE: 'WHAT ABOUT 1850, HMM?' Ј"io. 1850. Right, well, let's see, Chopin has been dead for a year, vJMendelssohn for two years, and even Edgar Allen??? has finally found out whether death puts on a red masque or not. In England, William Wordsworth has shuffled off, too, and is replaced as Poet Laureate by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. California is the newest recruit to the American state roster - not surprising after the Gold Rush of a couple of years back - and, over in China, the Taiping rebellion is causing all sorts of trouble, with; Hun Hiu-tsuen proclaiming himself Emperor.
Actually, what a jolly good wheeze - proclaiming yourself Emperor, I mean. Great idea. In fact, I might try it now. Let's see: '3???? amp;?. p/wclaim nuf amp;eif ЈmpЈ*w of the United Jiingdem, and of all it amp; colonies, including- all of.WovfoM, of, comae, and not forgetting, the. Qnand??Ј? of SheppeyJ Mmm. Well. I don't feel any different.
Wonder if it's worked. I might be Emperor now, for all I know. I'll see if I can annex a small country, maybe, or - an even better test - see if I can't get a cabbie to take me south of the river.
JAKE AND ELWOOD. AND RICHARD
B
ack to 1850. Around the same time that Turgenev produces his play, A Month in the Country, Wagner is still enjoying the second of his thirteen years of enforced exile in the mountains. But he hasn't stopped writing. Of course not. This is a man who, to borrow from the Blues Brothers, is on a mission from God. Or, as he himself put it: 7 am being used, as the instrument for something higher than my own being warrants… I am in the hands of the immortal genius that I serve for the span of my life and that intends me to complete what only I can achieve.' Mmm. I've got to say, I think the Blues Brothers' line is a little snappier.
But that's not the point in 1850. The point, in 1850, is that Richard 'Don't call me Lindsay!' Wagner comes up with his best work yet - his first TRUE masterpiece, as some would have it. It is, of course, an opera. Sorry, a 'music drama'. But this opera has no overture. Instead, it has a prelude. It has leitmotivs coming out of its ears. It is more seamless, more perfect than any of his other attempts so far. It's fan - bloody - tastic!