largely contributed to this
success. At first performed in Leipzig, then by the same troupe in
Berlin, it had met with a really unprecedented reception. Since
the storm of 1813, since the years of 1848-49, the feeling of a
distinctive nationality has not been so effectually roused, and this
time it no longer stood solely upon the ground of patriotism and
politics, but there where we seek our highest--the "ever-present
eternal." England was likewise roused in 1882, with performances
of the "Nibelungen Ring," and still more with "Tristan," to a
consciousness of an eternal humanity in this art, such as had not
been experienced there since Beethoven's Ninth symphony, and this
enthusiasm of our manly and serious brethren sped like the fire's
glare, illuminating the common fatherland from whence they had
themselves once carried that feeling for the tragic which produced
their Shakespeare. Everywhere was the stir of spring-time, sudden
awakening, as from death-like slumber or a disturbing dream. "Dawn
then now, thou day of gods!"

We will next give some accounts of the representations.

"'Victory! Victory!' is the word which is making the rounds of the
world from Baireuth, in these days. Wagner's latest creation which
brings the circle of his works in a beautiful climax to a dignified
close, has achieved a success such as the most intimate adherents of
the master could not well desire fuller or grander. The name of a
'German Olympia,' which had been given facetiously to the capital
of Upper Franconia, it really now merited," was said by a London
correspondent.

At the close of the general rehearsal, "the participating artists
unanimously declared that they had never received from the stage such
an impression of lofty sublimity." "Parsifal produces such an enormous
effect that I can not conceive any one will leave the theatre
unsatisfied or with hostile thoughts," E. Heckel wrote; and Liszt
affirmed that nothing could be said about this wonderful work: "Yes,
indeed, it silences all who have been profoundly touched by it. Its
sanctified pendulum swings from the lofty to the most sublime." Of the
first act it had already been said: "We here meet with a harmony of
the musico-dramatic and religious church style which alone enables us
to experience in succession the most terrible, heartrending sorrow and
again that most sanctified devotion which the feeling of a certainty
of salvation alone rouses in us."

The German Crown-Pri