gs of mourners are heard as the cortege approaches. As
Tannhaeuser dies, the pilgrims' chorus again rises in ecstasy, closing
with a mighty shout of "Hallelujah!" and the curtain falls.

LOHENGRIN.

"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:--

LOHENGRIN Herr BECK.
TELRAMUND Herr MILDE.
KING Herr HOFER.
ELSA Frau AGATHE.
ORTRUD Frauelein FASTLINGER.

"Lohengrin" was begun in Paris, and finished in Switzerland during the
period in which Wagner was director of the musical society as well as
of the orchestra at the city theatre of Zurich, whither he had fled to
escape the penalties for taking part in the political agitations and
subsequent insurrection of 1849. Though it manifests a still further
advancement in the development of his system, it was far from being
composed according to the abstract rules he had laid down. He says
explicitly on this point, in his "Music of the Future:" "The first
three of these poems--'The Flying Dutchman,' 'Tannhaeuser,' and
'Lohengrin'--were written by me, their music composed, and all (with
the exception of 'Lohengrin') performed upon the stage, before the
composition of my theoretical writings."

The story of Lohengrin, the son of Parsifal, upon which Wagner has
based his drama, is taken from many sources, the old Celtic legend of
King Arthur, his knights, and the Holy Grail being mixed with the
distinctively German legend of a knight who arrives in his boat drawn
by a swan. The version used by Wagner is supposed to be told by
Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Minnesinger, at one of the Wartburg
contests, and is in substance as follows: Henry I., King of Germany,
known as "the Fowler," arrives at Antwerp for the purpose of raising a
force to help him expel the Hungarians, who are threatening his
dominions. He finds Brabant in a condition of anarchy. Gottfried, the
young son of the late Duke, has mysteriously disappeared, and
Telramund, the husband of Ortrud, daughter of the Prince of Friesland,
claims the dukedom. The claimant openly charges Elsa, sister of
Gottfried, with having murdered him to obtain the sovereignty, and she
is summoned before the King to submit her cause to the ordeal of
battle between Telramund and any knight whom she ma