main young"--the impossible dream of
poets and millions of men and women who were not poets: Nirvana, with
a difference; that realm in which, tired with the struggles and fights
in the devious ways of this dark world, they should after death awake
refreshed in a serene light and pure air, thereafter to dwell for ever
in a state of untroubled blessedness, where all earth's puzzles solve
themselves, and life is seen to be complete. As Senta's ballad is the
germ of the _Dutchman_, so is Lohengrin's narrative, "In fernem Land,"
the germ of this more beautiful opera. It plays a more important part
in _Lohengrin_ than does the ballad in the _Dutchman_. Without
exaggeration, the life, colour and emotion of the narrative wash
backwards and forwards over the _Lohengrin_ score, relieving scenes
that might be tedious and worrying--like those Ortrud scenes I have
just described--and making the beautiful pages still more beautiful.
The land of dawn, fresh and pure, the limpid river: these, the essence
of _Lohengrin_ and the pervading atmosphere, proceed from the
narrative.

But much has to be got through before this point is reached. First, we
have the gorgeous prelude--the most brilliant Wagner wrote, and the
last he was to write that has no thematic connection with any portion
of the opera. Here we have no summary of the act, no hint of impending
disaster and tragedy, but simply a joyous, rattling preliminary to the
procession that escorts Lohengrin and Elsa to the bridal chamber. It
starts off with immense spirit, the music leaping straight up,
hesitating a moment on a cross-accent, then a noisy shake reaching its
highest note, and after a clash of the cymbals sliding off into the
more regular rhythm, broken slightly by occasional syncopations, in
which the piece as a whole is conceived. The melody in the bass that
follows, and the more tender strains of a middle section, are familiar
to every one nowadays--in fact, so familiar that we are likely to
overlook the intense originality of the whole thing. When we remember
the course the drama has now to take, the tragic beauty of its close,
we can perceive how exactly right Wagner's feeling was when he left
the plan he adopted throughout the _Dutchman_ and _Tannhaeuser_--the
plan either of summing up or foreshadowing the ensuing scenes, or of
making the prelude part of the first scene. Of course the music at the
beginning of Act II is rather in the nature of an introduction than of