hter of the Gods._
Goethe.

The pressure of circumstances, as well as the natural desire, to break
ground for himself and his new creations, induced him for a time to
give concerts with selections from them. He met with marked success
before the unprejudiced hearers of Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg, and
Moscow. His visit to Russia especially yielded him a handsome sum,
with which he returned to Vienna to await the representation of
"Tristan," but owing to the physical inability of Ander, the work
finally had to be laid aside. Wagner felt also that intelligence as
well as good-will for the cause were lacking; even the Isolde-Dustman
did not at heart believe in it. "To speak frankly, I had enough of it
and thought no more about it," he tells us.

During this time he published the Nibelungen-poem, and in April, 1863,
wrote the celebrated preface which eventually led to the consummation
of his desires. He had with Semper conceived the design of a theatre
which after the Grecian style should confine the attention of the
entire audience to the stage, by its amphitheatric form, thus
rendering impossible the mutual staring of the public or at least
making it less likely to occur. Because of the oft repeated experience
of the deeper effect of music when heard unseen, the orchestra was to
be placed so low that no spectator could see the movements of the
performers, while at the same time it would result in the more
complete harmony of sound from the many and various instruments. In
such a place, consecrated to art alone and not to pleasure of the eye,
the "stage-festival-play" was to be produced. But would it be possible
for lovers of art to provide the means, or was there perhaps a prince
willing to spend for this purpose only as much as the maintenance for
a short period of his imperfect Opera-house cost him? "In the
beginning was the deed," he says with _Faust_, and adds sadly enough
in a postscript: "I no longer expect to live to see the representation
of my stage-festival-play, and can barely hope to find sufficient
leisure and desire to complete the musical composition."

He next thought that the court Opera-house in process of erection in
Vienna might be utilized by limiting the number of performances and
securing a careful representation of the style of the works produced.
Had not Joseph II. recognized the theatre as "contributing to the
refinement of manners and of taste"? He even offe