Wagner's operatic reform briefly. The essence of Wagner's opera reform. Themes, images and plots of Wagner's operas. Principles of musical dramaturgy. Features of musical language

Wagner's contribution to world culture is determined, first of all, by his opera reform, without which it is impossible to imagine the future fate of the opera genre. In implementing it, Wagner sought:

to the embodiment of global, universal content based on the legends and myths of the German-Scandinavian epic;
to the unity of music and drama;
to continuous musical and dramatic action.

This led him:

to the predominant use of recitative style;
to the symphonization of an opera based on leitmotifs;
to the abandonment of traditional opera forms (arias, ensembles).

The direction of Wagner’s reforms largely coincided with the ideas of K.V. Gluck. Following him, Wagner sought to do opera performance a work that is deep and wide-ranging in meaning, capable of significantly influencing life positions listeners. However, unlike Gluck, who put the theatrical play first in importance, Wagner considered drama and music to be equal components of an operatic performance.

Main provisions of the reform:

Legendary and mythological subjects. The emphasized seriousness of creative intentions, the formulation of global life problems, and the focus on the utmost semantic depths naturally lead the composer to subjects of a certain nature - legendary and mythological. It is in them that the most important problems of humanity, polished over centuries, are concentrated. In his work, Wagner never turned to modern themes, to the depiction of everyday life (with the exception of “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”). The only one worthy literary source he considered operas mythology . The composer constantly emphasized the universal significance of the myth, which “remains true at all times.” Characteristic is Wagner's departure from more or less passive following alone mythological source: as a rule, in one opera he synthesizes several legends, creating your own epic narrative. Actualization of the myth – a principle that runs through all of Wagner's work. Reinterpreting the myth in the spirit of modernity, Wagner tried to give a picture of the modern capitalist world on its basis. For example, in “Lohengrin” he talks about the hostility of modern society towards the true artist, in “The Ring of the Nibelung” he exposes in allegorical form the thirst for world power.

Equivalence of poetry and music. The central idea of Wagner's reform is synthesis of arts . He was convinced that only in joint action music, poetry, theatrical play able to create a comprehensive picture of life. Like Gluck, Wagner assigned the leading role in operatic synthesis to poetry, and therefore paid great attention to libretto. He never started composing music until the text was completely polished.

The author is a librettist and composer rolled into one. The exceptional complexity of the problems that an opera performance is designed to solve naturally requires the concentration of all power over the work and all responsibility for its fate in the hands of one universally gifted creator - both a poet and a composer. The figure of the librettist, who until then was an obligatory “co-author” of the composer, turns out to be superfluous under these conditions.

Modernization of the genre based on a) synthesis of arts; b) symphonization of the opera.

Striving for a complete synthesis of music and drama, for an accurate and truthful representation poetic word led the composer to rely on declamatory style . In Wagner's musical drama, the music flows in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, uninterrupted by dry recitatives or conversational inserts. This musical flow is constantly updated, changes and does not return to a stage that has already been passed. That's why the composer abandoned traditional opera arias and ensembles with their isolation, isolation from each other and reprisal symmetry. In contrast to the opera number, the principle is put forward free stage , which is based on constantly updated material and includes singing and recitative episodes, solo and ensemble. So the scene is free combines features of various opera forms. It can be purely solo, ensemble, mass, mixed (for example, solo with the inclusion of a choir). Wagner replaces traditional arias monologues, stories; duets – dialogues, in which it is not joint, but alternate singing that predominates. The main thing in these free scenes is the internal, psychological action (struggle of passions, changes of mood). The external, eventual side is reduced to a minimum. From here - narrative preponderance over the stage effect, which is why Wagner’s operas differ sharply from the operas of Verdi and Bizet.

The unifying role in Wagner's free forms plays orchestra , the value of which increases sharply. It is in the orchestral part that the most important musical images (leitmotifs) are concentrated. Wagner extends the principles of symphonic development to the orchestra part: the main themes are developed, contrasted with each other, transformed, acquiring a new appearance, combined polyphonically, etc. Like the choir in ancient tragedy Wagner's orchestra comments on what is happening, explains the meaning of events through cross-cutting themes - leitmotifs. Any mature Wagner opera contains 10–20 leitmotifs endowed with specific programmatic content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important means of helping the listener understand the very essence of phenomena. It is the leitmotif that evokes the necessary associations when the characters are silent or talk about something completely different. Leitmotifs are combined into a leitmotif system, since they are closely related to each other; leitmotifs that are close in meaning can be derivative from a musical point of view.

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Introduction

1. Life story

2. Opera reform

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The multifaceted activities of Richard Wagner occupy an outstanding place in the history of world culture. Possessing enormous artistic talent, Wagner proved himself not only as a brilliant musician - composer and conductor, but also as a poet, playwright, critic-publicist (16 volumes of his literary works include work on the most various issues- from politics to art).

It is difficult to find an artist around whom there would be as fierce controversy as around this composer. The heated controversy between his supporters and opponents went far beyond Wagner's contemporary era, and did not subside even after his death. At the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, he truly became the “ruler of thoughts” of the European intelligentsia.

Wagner lived a long and stormy life, marked by sharp changes, ups and downs, persecutions and exaltations. It included police persecution and patronage." powerful of the world this."

1. Life story

Rimhard Wamgner, full name Wilhelm Richard Wagner (German: Wilhelm Richard Wagner; May 22, 1813, Leipzig - February 13, 1883, Venice) - German composer and art theorist. A major reformer of opera, Wagner had a significant influence on European musical culture, especially German.

Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig into an artistic family, he was interested in literature and theater from childhood. His acquaintance with the work of L. van Beethoven had a huge influence on the formation of Wagner as a composer. Studying a lot on his own, he took piano lessons from organist G. Müller, and music theory from T. Weiling.

In 1834-- 1839 Wagner had already worked professionally as a conductor in various opera houses. In 1839--1842. lived in Paris. Here he wrote his first significant work - the historical opera Rienzi. In Paris, Wagner failed to stage this opera; it was accepted for production in Dresden in 1842. And until 1849, the composer worked as bandmaster and conductor of the Dresden court opera. Here in 1843 he staged his own opera “ Flying Dutchman”, and in 1845 - “Tannhäuser and the singing competition in the Wartburg”. In Dresden, one of the most famous operas Wagner's "Lohengrin" (1848).

In 1849, for his participation in revolutionary unrest in Dresden, the composer was declared state criminal and was forced to flee to Switzerland. His main literary works were created there, such as “Art and Revolution” (1849), “ Piece of art of the future" (1850), "Opera and Drama" (1851). In them, Wagner acted as a reformer - first of all opera art. His main ideas can be summarized as follows: in opera, drama should dominate music, and not vice versa; at the same time, the orchestra is not subordinate to the singers, but is an equal “actor”.

Musical drama is intended to become a universal work of art capable of morally influencing the audience. And such an impact can only be achieved using philosophical and aesthetic concepts generalized in a mythological plot.

The composer always wrote the libretto for his operas himself. In addition, in Wagner, each character, even some objects important for the development of the plot (for example, a ring), have their own musical characteristics (leitmotifs). The musical outline of the opera is a system of leitmotifs. Wagner embodied his innovative ideas in a grandiose project - “The Ring of the Nibelung”. This is a cycle of four operas: Das Rheingold (1854), Die Walküre (1856), Siegfried (1871) and Twilight of the Gods (1874).

In parallel with his work on the tetralogy, Wagner wrote another opera - “Tristan and Isolde” (1859). Thanks to the patronage of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, who favored the composer since 1864, a theater was built in Bayreuth to promote Wagner's work. At its opening in 1876, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” was staged in its entirety for the first time, and in 1882 Wagner’s last opera, “Parsifal,” was released, which the author called a solemn stage mystery.

2. Opera reform

Towards the embodiment of global, universal content based on the legends and myths of the German-Scandinavian epic;

Towards the unity of music and drama;

Towards continuous musical and dramatic action.

This led him:

Towards the predominant use of recitative style;

Toward a symphonization of an opera based on leitmotifs;

Towards the abandonment of traditional operatic forms (arias, ensembles).

In his work, Wagner never turned to modern themes, to the depiction of everyday life (the exception is “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”). He considered mythology to be the only worthy literary source for opera. The composer constantly emphasized the universal significance of the myth, which “remains true at all times.” Wagner's departure from a more or less passive following of one mythological source is characteristic: as a rule, in one opera he synthesizes several legends, creating his own epic narrative. The actualization of myth is a principle that runs through all of Wagner’s work.

Reinterpreting the myth in the spirit of modernity, Wagner tried to give a picture of the modern capitalist world on its basis. For example, in “Lohengrin” he talks about the hostility of modern society towards the true artist, in “The Ring of the Nibelung” he exposes in allegorical form the thirst for world power.

The central idea of Wagner's reform is the synthesis of the arts. He was convinced that only in joint action are music, poetry, and theatrical acting capable of creating a comprehensive picture of life. Like Gluck, Wagner assigned the leading role in operatic synthesis to poetry, and therefore paid great attention to the libretto. He never started composing music until the text was completely polished.

The desire for a complete synthesis of music and drama, for an accurate and truthful rendering of the poetic word, led the composer to rely on the declamatory style. Wagner opera reform orchestra

In Wagner's musical drama, the music flows in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, uninterrupted by dry recitatives or conversational inserts. This musical flow is constantly updated, changes and does not return to a stage that has already been passed. That is why the composer abandoned traditional opera arias and ensembles with their isolation, isolation from each other and reprise symmetry. In contrast to the operatic number, the principle of a free stage is put forward, which is built on constantly updated material and includes singing and recitative episodes, solo and ensemble. Thus, the free stage combines the characteristics of various operatic forms. It can be purely solo, ensemble, mass, mixed (for example, solo with the inclusion of a choir).

Wagner replaces traditional arias with monologues and stories; duets are dialogues in which not joint, but alternate singing predominates. The main thing in these free scenes is the internal, psychological action (struggle of passions, changes of mood). The external, eventual side is reduced to a minimum. Hence the predominance of the narrative principle over the scenically effective, which is why Wagner’s operas differ sharply from the operas of Verdi and Bizet.

The unifying role in Wagner's free forms is played by the orchestra, whose importance increases sharply. It is in the orchestral part that the most important musical images (leitmotifs) are concentrated. Wagner extends the principles of symphonic development to the orchestra part: the main themes are developed, contrasted with each other, transformed, acquiring a new appearance, combined polyphonically, etc. Like the chorus in an ancient tragedy, Wagner's orchestra comments on what is happening, explains the meaning of events through cross-cutting themes - leitmotifs.

Any mature Wagner opera contains 10-20 leitmotifs endowed with specific programmatic content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important means of helping the listener understand the very essence of phenomena. It is the leitmotif that evokes the necessary associations when the characters are silent or talk about something completely different.

Tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung"

Wagner rightly considered the creation of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” to be the main work of his life. Indeed, both the composer’s worldview and the principles of his reform received their complete embodiment here.

This is not only Wagner's most gigantic creation in scale, but also the most grandiose work in all history musical theater.

As in his other works, in the tetralogy the composer synthesized several mythological sources. The oldest is the Scandinavian cycle of heroic tales “The Elder Edda” (IX-XI centuries), which tells about the gods of the ancient Germans, about the emergence and death of the world, about the exploits of heroes (primarily about Sigurd-Siegfried). Dept. Wagner took the plot motifs and German versions of names from the “Song of the Nibelungs” (13th century) - a German version of the tale of Siegfried.

It was the “radiant” Siegfried, the most beloved image of the legend, included in many German “folk books”, that first of all attracted Wagner’s attention. The composer modernized it. He emphasized the heroic nature of Siegfried and called him a “passionately awaited man of the future,” a “socialist redeemer.”

But The Ring did not remain Siegfried's drama: originally conceived as a single drama glorifying free humanity (The Death of Siegfried), Wagner's plan grew more and more. At the same time, Siegfried gave first place to the god Wotan. The Wotan type is the expression of an ideal diametrically opposed to Siegfried. The ruler of the world, the embodiment of unlimited power, he is overcome by doubts, acts contrary by one's own desire(dooms his son to death, breaks up with his beloved daughter Brünnhilde). At the same time, Wagner outlined both characters and with obvious sympathy, equally captivated by both the radiant hero and the suffering god, submissive to fate.

It is impossible to express the “general idea” of “The Ring of the Nibelung” in one formula. In this grandiose work, Wagner talks about the fate of the whole world. Everything is here.

1 - denunciation of the thirst for power and wealth. In the article “Know Thyself,” Wagner revealed the symbolism of the tetralogy. He writes about Alberich as the image of “the terrible ruler of the world - the capitalist.” He emphasizes that only those who renounce love can bind the ring of power. Only the ugly and rejected Alberich could do this. Power and love are incompatible concepts.

2 - condemnation of the power of customs, all kinds of treaties and laws. Wagner takes the side of Siegmund and Sieglinde, their incestuous love, against the goddess of “custom” and legal marriages Frika. The kingdom of law - Valhalla - collapses in flames.

3 - Christian idea redemption through love. It is love that comes into conflict with the overwhelming force of egoism. She embodies the highest beauty of human relationships. Sigmund sacrifices his life to protect love; Sieglinde, dying, gives life to the radiant Siegfried; Siegfried dies as a result of an involuntary betrayal of love. In the denouement of the tetralogy, Brünnhilde accomplishes the task of liberating the entire world from the kingdom of evil. Thus, the idea of salvation and redemption acquires truly cosmic proportions in the tetralogy.

Each of the musical dramas that make up the tetralogy has its own genre characteristics.

“Das Rheingold” belongs to the fairy-tale-epic genre, “Valkyrie” is a lyrical drama, “Siegfried” is heroic-epic, “The Decline of the Gods” is a tragedy.

The development of an extensive system of leitmotifs runs through all parts of the tetralogy. Leitmotifs are endowed not only with the characters and their feelings, but also with philosophical concepts (curse, fate, death), elements of nature (water, fire, rainbow, forest), objects (sword, helmet, spear).

The Wagner orchestra reaches its highest development in tetralogy. Its composition is huge (mostly quadruple). The brass band is especially impressive. It consists of 8 horns, 4 of which can be replaced with Wagner tubas (with horn mouthpieces). In addition - 3 trumpets and a bass trumpet, 4 trombones (3 tenor and 1 bass), double bass tuba), a huge number of harps (6). The composition of the drums has also been expanded.

Conclusion

To a much greater extent than all European composers of the 19th century, Wagner saw his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is expressed in the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Wagner’s article “The Work of Art of the Future”: “Just as a person will not be freed until he joyfully accepts the bonds connecting him with Nature, so art will not become free until the reasons to be ashamed of connection with life.” From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art should be created by a community of people and belong to this community; The highest form of art is musical drama, understood as the organic unity of word and sound. The first idea was embodied in Bayreuth, where the opera house for the first time began to be treated as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment establishment; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form “musical drama” created by Wagner. It was its creation that became the goal creative life Wagner. Some of its elements were embodied in the composer’s early operas of the 1840s - “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”. The theory of musical drama was most fully embodied in Wagner's Swiss articles ("Opera and Drama", "Art and Revolution", "Music and Drama", "Artwork of the Future"), and in practice - in his later operas: "Tristan and Isolde”, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” and the mystery “Parsifal”.

Bibliography

1. Saponov M. A. Russian diaries and memoirs of R. Wagner, L. Spohr, R. Schumann. M., 2004.

2. Serov A. N. Wagner and his reform in the field of opera // Serov A. N. Selected articles. T. 2. M., 1957.

3. Mann T. The suffering and greatness of Richard Wagner // Mann T. Collected Works. T.10. M., 1961.

4. Serov A. N. Wagner and his reform in the field of opera // Serov A. N. Selected articles. T. 2. M., 1957.

5. A. F. Losev The historical meaning of Richard Wagner’s worldview

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Towards the embodiment of global, universal content based on the legends and myths of the German-Scandinavian epic;

Towards the unity of music and drama;

Towards continuous musical and dramatic action.

This led him:

Towards the predominant use of recitative style;

Toward a symphonization of an opera based on leitmotifs;

Towards the abandonment of traditional operatic forms (arias, ensembles).

In his work, Wagner never turned to modern themes, to the depiction of everyday life (with the exception of “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”). He considered mythology to be the only worthy literary source for opera. The composer constantly emphasized the universal significance of the myth. Characteristic is Wagner's departure from more or less passive adherence to one mythological source: as a rule, in one opera he synthesizes several legends.

Reinterpreting the myth in the spirit of modernity, Wagner tried to give a picture of the modern capitalist world on its basis. For example, in Lohengrin he talks about the hostility of modern society towards the true artist,

The central idea of Wagner's reform is synthesis of arts . He was convinced that only in joint action are music, poetry, and theatrical acting capable of creating a comprehensive picture of life. Wagner assigned the leading role in operatic synthesis poetry , and therefore paid great attention to the libretto. He never started composing music until the text was completely polished.

The unifying role in Wagner's free forms is played by the orchestra, whose importance increases sharply. It is in the orchestral part that the most important musical images (leitmotifs) are concentrated. Wagner extends the principles of symphonic development to the orchestral part: the main themes are developed, contrasted with each other, transformed, acquiring a new appearance, combined polyphonically, etc. Like the chorus in an ancient tragedy, Wagner's orchestra comments on what is happening, explains the meaning of events through cross-cutting themes - leitmotifs.

Any mature Wagner opera contains 10–20 leitmotifs endowed with specific programmatic content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important means of helping the listener understand the very essence of phenomena. It is the leitmotif that evokes the necessary associations when the characters are silent or talk about something completely different.

The main operas that make up the different stages of Wagner's reform are " The Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, The Ring of the Nibelungs ».

LOHENGRIN

PLOT. On the banks of the Scheldt River, near Antwerp, the king Heinrich Birdcatcher gathered the knights, asking them for help: the enemy again threatens his possessions. Count Friedrich Telramund calls for royal justice. Dying Duke of Brabant entrusted him with his children - Elsa and little Gottfried . One day Gottfried mysteriously disappeared. Friedrich accuses Elsa of fratricide and demands her trial. He names his wife Ortrud as a witness. The king orders Elsa to be brought. Everyone is amazed by her dreamy appearance and strange enthusiastic speeches. Elsa says that in a dream a beautiful knight appeared to her, who promised her help and protection. Listening to Elsa's ingenuous story, the king cannot believe in her guilt. Friedrich is ready to prove that he is right in a duel with the one who will stand up for Elsa’s honor. The cry of the herald is heard far away, but there is no answer. Frederick is already celebrating victory. Suddenly, on the waves of the Scheldt, a swan appears, drawing a rook; in it, leaning on a sword, stands an unknown knight in shining armor. Coming ashore, he tenderly says goodbye to the swan, and it slowly swims away. Lohengrin declares himself Elsa's protector: he is ready to fight for her honor and call her his wife. But she must never ask the name of the deliverer. In a fit of love and gratitude, Elsa swears eternal fidelity. The duel begins. Frederick falls, struck by Lohengrin's blow; the knight generously grants him life, but he will be expelled for slander.

That same night, Frederick decides to leave the city. He angrily reproaches his wife: it was she who whispered false accusations against Elsa and awakened in him ambitious dreams of power. Ortrud mercilessly ridicules her husband's cowardice. She will not retreat until she takes revenge, and the weapons in her fight will be pretense and deception. Not christian god, in whom Frederick blindly believes, and the ancient vengeful pagan gods will help her. We must force Elsa to break her oath and ask the fateful question. It is not difficult to gain confidence in Elsa: seeing instead of the former arrogant and proud Ortrud a humble, poorly dressed woman, Elsa forgives her for her past anger and hatred and invites her to share her joy. Ortrud begins an insidious game: she humbly thanks Elsa for her kindness and, with feigned concern, warns her against trouble - the stranger did not reveal Elsa’s name or family, he may unexpectedly leave her. But the girl's heart is free from suspicion. Morning comes. People are gathering in the square. The wedding procession begins. Suddenly, Elsa's path is blocked by Ortrud. She has dropped her mask of humility and is now openly mocking Elsa, who does not know the name of her future husband. Ortrud's words cause general confusion. It intensifies when Frederick publicly accuses an unknown knight of witchcraft. But Lohengrin is not afraid of the anger of his enemies - only Elsa can reveal his secret, and he is confident in her love. Elsa stands in confusion, struggling with internal doubts - Ortrud's poison has already poisoned her soul.

The wedding ceremony is over. Elsa and Loengrn are left alone. Nothing disturbs their happiness. Only a light cloud overshadows Elsa’s joy: she cannot call her husband by name. At first, timidly, caressingly, and then more and more persistently, she tries to find out the secret of Lohengrin. In vain does Lohengrin calm Elsa down, in vain does he remind her of her duty and oath, in vain does he assure her that her love is dearer to him than anything in the world. Unable to overcome her suspicions, Elsa asks the fatal question: who is he and where did he come from? At this time, Friedrich Telramund bursts into the chambers with armed soldiers. Lohengrin draws his sword and kills him.

The day is busy. Knights gather on the banks of the Scheldt, ready to go on a campaign against their enemies. Suddenly the joyful cries of the people fall silent: four nobles are carrying the cloak-covered corpse of Frederick: they are followed by the silent Elsa, tormented by grief. The appearance of Lohengrin explains everything, Elsa did not keep her oath, and he must leave Brabant. The knight reveals his name: he is the son of Parsifal, sent to earth by the brotherhood of the Grail to protect the oppressed and offended. People must believe in the messenger of heaven; if they have doubts, the power of the Grail Knight disappears, and he cannot remain on earth. The swan appears again. Lohengrin sadly says goodbye to Elsa and predicts a glorious future for Germany. Lohengrin frees the swan, it disappears into the water, and little Gottfried, Elsa’s brother, emerges from the river, transformed by Ortrud’s witchcraft into a swan. Elsa cannot bear separation from Lohengrin. She dies in her brother's arms. And a shuttle glides along the waves of the Scheldt, carried away by the white dove of the Grail. Lohengrin stands in the canoe, leaning sadly on the shield. The knight leaves the earth forever and retires to his mysterious homeland.

TANNHAUSER

PLOT. The interior of Mount Venus near Eisenach. In the mysterious twilight of the grotto, groups of sirens and naiads flash, passionate dance bacchantes rush by. Venus reigns in this world of pleasures. But the caresses of the goddess of love cannot dispel Tannhäuser’s melancholy: he remembers his native land, the ringing of bells, which he has not heard for so long. Taking the harp, he composes a hymn in honor of Venus and ends it with an ardent plea: to be released to freedom, to people. In vain Venus reminds Tannhäuser of former pleasures, in vain she curses her unfaithful lover, predicting suffering in the cold world of people; the singer pronounces the name of the Virgin Mary, and the magical grotto instantly disappears.

A flowering valley in front of Wartburg Castle opens to Tannhäuser's gaze; The bells of the grazing flock are ringing, the shepherd plays the pipe and greets spring with a song. From afar one can hear the chorale of pilgrims going to Rome to repent. At the sight of this peaceful, native picture, Tannhäuser is overcome with deep emotion. The sound of horns heralds the approach Landgrave of Thuringia and the Minnesinger knights returning from the hunt. They are amazed at the meeting with Tannhäuser, who had long ago proudly and arrogantly left their circle. Wolfram Eschenbach calls him to return to his friends, but Tannhäuser stubbornly refuses - he must run away from these places. Then Wolfram pronounces the name of Elizabeth, the Landgrave's niece; she is waiting for him, Tannhäuser's songs have won the girl's heart. The knight, overwhelmed with joyful memories, stops. Together with the Minnesingers, he hurries to the Wartburg.

Hall of singing competitions at Wartburg Castle. Elizabeth is excitedly waiting to meet Tannhäuser. She is confident of imminent happiness - Tannhäuser will win the singing tournament, and her hand will be a reward to the winner. Wolfram introduces Tannhäuser and, seeing the joy of Elizabeth, whom he secretly loves, sadly leaves, leaving the lovers alone. To the sounds of a solemn march, glorifying the Landgrave, the knights gather for the tournament. Landgraf proposes the theme of a poetic competition: what is the essence of love? The singers take their harps and Wolfram begins by lot. In a restrained and calm improvisation, with thoughts of Elizabeth, he sings of the pure source of love, which he never dares to desecrate. And the other singers, one after another, support him in this understanding of true love. But Tannhäuser experienced a different kind of love, and under the arches of Wartburg Castle a passionate hymn is heard in honor of Venus, which he composed in Venus Mountain. Everyone is outraged by Tannhäuser's insolence. The ladies leave the hall in horror, the knights rush at him with drawn swords. But Elizabeth boldly stands between them. In the presence of the Landgrave and the knights, she openly confesses her love for Tannhäuser, begging for his life. Tannhäuser, in repentance, does not dare raise his eyes to her. The Landgrave replaces his death with exile: he will not set foot on the soil of Thuringia until he is cleansed of sin. A chorale is heard in the distance - it is pilgrims passing by the castle on their way to worship the Pope. And Tannhäuser, encouraged by the knights, joins them.

Valley in front of the Wartburg. Autumn. Pilgrims return from Rome to their homeland. But Elizabeth searches in vain for Tannhäuser among them. She turns to the Virgin Mary in prayer, asking her to accept her life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of her beloved. Wolfram tries to hold on to Elizabeth, but she stops him with a gesture and slowly moves away. Left alone, Wolfram takes the harp and composes a song about the beautiful and inaccessible evening star, which illuminates the darkness, just as his love for Elizabeth shines for him in the darkness of life. The night is coming. Suddenly another pilgrim appears - in rags, exhausted. With difficulty, Wolfram recognizes Tannhäuser in him. He talks bitterly about his pilgrimage to Rome. He walked with sincere repentance, heaviness long journey made him happy, and in order not to see the beauty of Italian nature, he closed his eyes. And then Rome and the sparkling papal palace appeared before him. But the father pronounced a terrible sentence: until the staff blooms in his hands, Tannhäuser will be cursed. Now he has one path - to Mount Venus. He passionately calls on the goddess of love, and the mountain opens up before him, Venus beckons him into her mysterious grog. In vain, Wolfram tries to restrain his friend: he is powerless before the charms of Venus. Then Wolfram says Elizabeth's name, and Tannhäuser stops. A chorale is heard from the Wartburg - it is a solemn procession moving with Elizabeth’s coffin. Having stretched out his hands to her, Tannhäuser falls dead. It's getting light. A new group of pilgrims approaches; they bring news of a great miracle: a staff blossomed in the hands of the Pope - Tannhäuser is forgiven.

R. Wagner is the largest German composer of the 19th century, who had a significant influence on the development of not only the music of the European tradition, but also world artistic culture as a whole. Wagner did not receive a systematic musical education and in his development as a master of music owes a decisive degree to himself. The composer's interests, entirely focused on the opera genre, emerged relatively early. From his early work, the romantic opera The Fairies (1834) to the musical mystery drama Parsifal (1882), Wagner remained a staunch adherent of serious musical theater, which through his efforts was transformed and updated.

At first, Wagner did not think of reforming the opera - he followed the established traditions of musical performance and sought to master the achievements of his predecessors. If in "Fairies" the role model was the German romantic opera, so brilliantly presented by “The Magic Shooter” by K. M. Weber, then in the opera “The Ban of Love” (1836) he was more focused on the traditions of French comic opera. However, these early works did not bring him recognition - Wagner in those years led the hard life of a theater musician, wandering around different cities Europe. For some time he worked in Russia, in the German theater of the city of Riga (1837-39). But Wagner... like many of his contemporaries, was attracted by the cultural capital of the then Europe, which was then universally recognized as Paris. The bright hopes of the young composer faded when he came face to face with the unsightly reality and was forced to lead the life of a poor foreign musician doing odd jobs. A change for the better came in 1842, when he was invited to the position of conductor at the famous opera house in the capital of Saxony, Dresden. Wagner finally had the opportunity to introduce his works to theater audiences, and his third opera, Rienzi (1840), won lasting recognition. And this is not surprising, since the model of the work was the French grand opera, the most prominent representatives of which were the recognized masters G. Spontini and G. Meyerbeer. In addition, the composer had performing forces of the highest rank - vocalists such as tenor J. Tihaček and the great singer-actress V. Schröder-Devrient, who became famous in her time in the role of Leonora in L. Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio,” performed in his theater.

The 3 operas adjacent to the Dresden period have a lot in common. Thus, in “The Flying Dutchman” (1841), completed on the eve of the move to Dresden, the old legend about a wandering sailor cursed for previous atrocities, whom only devoted and pure love can save, comes to life. In the opera “Tannhäuser” (1845), the composer turned to the medieval legend about the minnesinger singer, who gained the favor of the pagan goddess Venus, but earned the curse of the Roman church for this. And finally, in “Lohengrin" (1848) - perhaps the most popular of Wagner's operas - a bright knight appears, descending to earth from the heavenly abode - the Holy Grail, in the name of fighting evil, slander and injustice.

In these operas, the composer is still closely associated with the traditions of romanticism - his characters are torn apart by conflicting impulses, when purity and purity are opposed to sinfulness earthly passions, unlimited trust - deceit and treason. Romanticism is also associated with the slowness of the narrative, when it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but the feelings that they awaken in the soul. lyrical hero. This is where the important role of detailed monologues and dialogues of the characters comes from, revealing the internal struggle of their aspirations and motivations, a kind of “dialectic of the soul” of an extraordinary human personality.

But even during the years of work in the court service, Wagner had new plans. The impetus for their implementation was the revolution that broke out in a number of European countries in 1848 and did not escape Saxony. It was in Dresden that an armed uprising broke out against the reactionary monarchist regime, led by Wagner's friend, the Russian anarchist M. Bakunin. With his characteristic passion, Wagner took an active part in this uprising and after its defeat was forced to flee to Switzerland. A difficult period began in the composer’s life, but very fruitful for his work.

Wagner rethought and comprehended his artistic positions; moreover, he formulated the main tasks that, in his opinion, faced art in a number of theoretical works (among them the treatise “Opera and Drama” - 1851) is especially important. He embodied his ideas in the monumental tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” - the main work of his entire life.

The basis of the grandiose creation, which fully occupies 4 theatrical evenings in a row, was made up of tales and legends dating back to pagan antiquity - the German “Song of the Nibelungs”, the Scandinavian sagas included in the Elder and Younger Edda. But pagan mythology with its gods and heroes became for the composer a means of knowledge and artistic analysis of the problems and contradictions of contemporary bourgeois reality.

The content of the tetralogy, which includes the musical dramas “Das Rheingold” (1854), “Walkyrie” (1856), “Siegfried” (1871) and “Death of the Gods” (1874), is very multifaceted - the operas feature numerous characters who enter into conflict with each other complex relationships, sometimes even into cruel, irreconcilable struggle. Among them is the evil Nibelung dwarf Alberich, who steals a golden treasure from the daughters of the Rhine; The owner of the treasure, who managed to forge a ring from it, is promised power over the world. Alberich is opposed by the light god Wotan, whose omnipotence is illusory - he is a slave to the agreements he himself has concluded, on which his dominion is based. Taking away Golden ring According to the Nibelung, he brings upon himself and his family a terrible curse, from which only a mortal hero who owes him nothing can save him. His own grandson, the simple-minded and fearless Siegfried, becomes such a hero. He defeats the monstrous dragon Fafner, takes possession of the treasured ring, awakens the sleeping warrior maiden Brunhilda, surrounded by a sea of fire, but dies, struck down by meanness and deceit. Along with him, the old world, where deception, self-interest and injustice reigned, also perishes.

Wagner's grandiose plan required completely new, previously unheard of means of implementation, a new operatic reform. The composer almost completely abandoned the hitherto familiar number structure - complete arias, choruses, ensembles. Instead, they were replaced by lengthy monologues and dialogues of the characters, unfolded into an endless melody. Broad melodiousness merged with declamation in vocal parts of a new type, in which a melodious cantilena and catchy speech characteristics were incomprehensibly combined.

The main feature of Wagner's operatic reform is associated with the special role of the orchestra. He is not limited to just supporting the vocal melody, but leads his own line, sometimes even coming to the fore. Moreover, the orchestra becomes the bearer of the meaning of the action - it is in it that the main musical themes- leitmotifs that become symbols of characters, situations, and even abstract ideas. The leitmotifs smoothly transform into each other, are combined in simultaneous sound, are constantly modified, but each time they are recognized by the listener, who has firmly grasped the semantic meaning assigned to us. On a larger scale, Wagnerian musical dramas are divided into extended, relatively complete scenes, where broad waves of emotional ups and downs, tension build-ups and releases occur.

Wagner began to implement his great plan during the years of Swiss emigration. But the complete impossibility of seeing on stage the fruits of his titanic work, truly unparalleled in power and tirelessness, broke even such a great worker - the writing of the tetralogy was interrupted for many years. And only an unexpected turn of fate - the support of the young Bavarian king Ludwig, inspired new strength in the composer and helped him complete, perhaps, the most monumental creation of the art of music, which was the result of the efforts of one person. To stage the tetralogy, it was built in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, where the entire tetralogy was first performed in 1876 exactly as Wagner intended it.

In addition to The Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner created in the second half of the 19th century. 3 more capital works. This is the opera “Tristan and Isolde” (1859) - an enthusiastic hymn to eternal love, sung in medieval legends, colored with anxious forebodings, permeated with a sense of the inevitability of a fatal outcome. And along with such a composition immersed in darkness, the dazzling light of the popular festival crowned the opera “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg” (1867), where in an open competition of singers the most worthy, marked by a true gift, wins, and self-satisfied and stupidly pedantic mediocrity is put to shame. And finally, the master’s last creation - “Parsifal” (1882) - an attempt to musically and scenically represent the utopia of universal brotherhood, where the seemingly indestructible power of evil was defeated and wisdom, justice and purity reigned.

Wagner occupied a completely exceptional position in European music of the 19th century - it is difficult to name a composer who would not have been influenced by him. Wagner's discoveries influenced the development of musical theater in the 20th century. - composers learned lessons from them, but then moved in different ways, including those opposite to those outlined by the great German musician.

M. Tarakanov

The significance of Wagner in the history of world musical culture. His ideological and creative appearance

Wagner is one of those great artists whose work had a great influence on the development of world culture. His genius was universal: Wagner became famous not only as the author of outstanding musical works, but also as a wonderful conductor, who, along with Berlioz, was the founder of the modern art of conducting; he was a talented poet-playwright - the creator of librettos for his operas - and a gifted publicist and musical theater theorist. Such versatile activity, combined with ebullient energy and a titanic will in establishing his artistic principles, attracted widespread attention to Wagner’s personality and music: his ideological and creative achievements caused heated debate both during the composer’s lifetime and after his death. They have not subsided to this day.

“As a composer,” said P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Wagner is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in the second half of this (that is, the 19th. - M.D.) centuries, and his influence on music is enormous." This influence was multifaceted: it extended not only to the musical theater, where Wagner worked most of all as the author of thirteen operas, but also to the expressive means of musical art; Wagner's contribution to the field of program symphony is also significant.

“...He is great as an opera composer,” said N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” wrote A. N. Serov, “... entered the German people and became a national treasure in their own way, no less than the operas of Weber or the works of Goethe or Schiller.” “He was gifted with a great gift of poetry, powerful creativity, his imagination was enormous, his initiative was strong, his artistic skill was great...” - this is how V. V. Stasov characterized the best sides of Wagner’s genius. The music of this remarkable composer, according to Serov, opened up “unknown, immense horizons” in art.

Paying tribute to Wagner's genius, his daring courage as an innovative artist, leading figures of Russian music (primarily Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stasov) criticized some tendencies in his work that distracted from the tasks of real depiction of life. Wagner's general artistic principles and his aesthetic views as applied to musical theater were subjected to especially fierce criticism. Tchaikovsky briefly and aptly said about this: “While I admire the composer, I have little sympathy for what is the cult of Wagner’s theories.” Wagner's favorite ideas, images of his operatic work, and methods of their musical embodiment were also disputed.

However, along with well-aimed critical remarks, there is an intense struggle for the assertion of national identity Russian musical theater, so different from German operatic art, sometimes caused biased judgments. In this regard, M. P. Mussorgsky very correctly noted: “We often criticize Wagner, but Wagner is strong and powerful because he probes art and tugs at it...”.

An even more fierce struggle arose around the name and cause of Wagner in foreign countries. Along with enthusiastic fans who believed that from now on theater should develop only along Wagner’s path, there were also musicians who completely rejected the ideological and artistic value of Wagner’s works and saw in his influence only detrimental consequences for the evolution of musical art. The Wagnerians and their opponents took irreconcilably hostile positions. While sometimes expressing fair thoughts and observations, with their biased assessments they rather confused these issues rather than helping to resolve them. Such extreme points of view were not shared by the largest foreign composers of the second half of the 19th century - Verdi, Bizet, Brahms - but even they, recognizing Wagner’s genius, did not accept everything in his music.

Wagner's work gave rise to conflicting assessments, because not only his multifaceted activity, but also the composer's personality itself was torn apart by severe contradictions. By one-sidedly emphasizing any one aspect of the complex image of the creator and man, Wagner’s apologists, as well as detractors, gave a distorted idea of his significance in the history of world culture. To correctly determine this meaning, one must understand Wagner's personality and life's work in all its complexity.

A double knot of contradictions characterizes Wagner. On the one hand, these are contradictions between worldview and creativity. Of course, one cannot deny the connections that existed between them, but the activities composer Wagner was far from coinciding with the activities of Wagner, the prolific writer-publicist, who expressed many reactionary thoughts on issues of politics and religion, especially in the last period of his life. On the other hand, both his aesthetic and socio-political views are sharply contradictory. A rebellious rebel, Wagner already arrived at the revolution of 1848-1849 with an extremely confused worldview. It remained so during the years of the defeat of the revolution, when reactionary ideology poisoned the composer’s consciousness with the poison of pessimism, gave rise to subjectivist sentiments, and led to the establishment of national-chauvinist or clerical ideas. All this could not but affect the contradictory nature of his ideological and artistic quests.

But Wagner is truly great in that, despite subjective reactionary views, despite their ideological instability, objectively reflected the essential aspects of reality in artistic creativity, revealed - in an allegorical, figurative form - the contradictions of life, exposed the capitalist world of lies and deceit, exposed the drama of great spiritual aspirations, powerful impulses for happiness and unaccomplished heroic deeds, broken hopes. Not a single composer of the post-Beethoven period in foreign countries of the 19th century was able to raise such a large complex of burning issues of our time as Wagner. Therefore, he became the “ruler of thoughts” of a number of generations, and his work absorbed large, exciting problems of modern culture.

Wagner did not give a clear answer to his questions. life questions, but his historical merit lies in the fact that he put them so sharply. He was able to do this because he permeated all his activities with a passionate, irreconcilable hatred of capitalist oppression. No matter what he expressed in theoretical articles, no matter what reactionary political views he defended, Wagner in his musical work was always on the side of those who sought the active use of their powers in establishing a sublime and humane principle in life, against those who were mired in the swamp bourgeois well-being and self-interest. And, perhaps, no one else has been able to show with such artistic persuasiveness and power the tragedy of modern life, poisoned by bourgeois civilization.

A sharply expressed anti-capitalist orientation gives Wagner's work enormous progressive significance, although he was unable to understand the complexity of the phenomena he depicted.

Wagner is the last major romantic artist of the 19th century. Romantic ideas, themes, images were fixed in his work in the pre-revolutionary years; they were developed by him later. After the revolution of 1848, many prominent composers, under the influence of new social conditions, as a result of a sharper exposure of class contradictions, switched to other topics and switched to realistic positions in their coverage (the most striking example of this is Verdi). But Wagner remained a romantic, although his inherent inconsistency was reflected in the fact that at different stages of his activity, either the features of realism or, conversely, reactionary romanticism more actively appeared.

This commitment to romantic themes and the means of expressing them placed him in a special position among many of his contemporaries. The individual properties of Wagner’s personality, who was always dissatisfied and restless, also had an effect.

His life is full of unusual ups and downs, passions and periods of boundless despair. I had to overcome countless obstacles to promote my innovative ideas. Years, sometimes decades, passed before he was able to hear the scores own compositions. One had to have an ineradicable thirst for creativity in order to work in these difficult conditions the way Wagner worked. Serving art was the main motivation of his life. (“I exist not to earn money, but to create,” Wagner proudly declared). That is why, despite cruel ideological mistakes and breakdowns, relying on the progressive traditions of German music, he achieved such outstanding artistic results: following Beethoven, he sang the heroics of human daring, like Bach, with an amazing richness of shades he revealed the world of human spiritual experiences and, following the path Weber, embodied images of German folk legends and tales in music, and created magnificent pictures of nature. Such a variety of ideological and artistic solutions and perfection of mastery are characteristic of the best works Richard Wagner.

Themes, images and plots of Wagner's operas. Principles of musical dramaturgy. Features of musical language

Wagner as an artist emerged in the conditions of social upsurge in pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, he not only formalized his aesthetic views and outlined ways to transform musical theater, but also defined a circle of images and subjects close to himself. It was in the 40s, simultaneously with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, that Wagner thought through the plans for all the operas he worked on in the following decades (The exceptions are “Tristan” and “Parsifal”, the concept of which matured during the years of the defeat of the revolution; this explains the stronger influence of pessimistic moods than in other works.). He mainly drew material for these works from folk legends and tales. Their content, however, served him original a point for independent creativity, not ultimate purpose. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modern times, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, because, he said, every historical generation can discover in myth my topic. His sense of artistic proportion and tact betrayed him when subjectivist ideas took precedence over the objective meaning of folk legends, but in many cases, when modernizing plots and images, the composer managed to preserve life truth folk poetry. The mixing of such different tendencies is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian drama, both its strengths and weaknesses. However, referring to epic plots and images, Wagner gravitated towards them purely psychological interpretation - this, in turn, gave rise to an acutely contradictory struggle between the “Siegfried” and “Tristan” principles in his work.

Wagner turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic plots in them. He was less interested in the real situation of distant antiquity or the historical past, although here he achieved a lot, especially in “Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg”, in which realistic tendencies were more pronounced. But above all, Wagner sought to show the spiritual drama of strong characters. A modern epic of the struggle for happiness he consistently embodied in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, persecuted by fate, tormented by his conscience, passionately dreaming of peace; this is Tannhäuser, torn apart by a contradictory passion for sensual pleasure and for a moral, harsh life; this is Lohengrin, rejected and not understood by people.

The struggle of life in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Passion burns Tristan and Isolde; Elsa (in Lohengrin) dies after breaking the prohibition of her beloved. The inactive figure of Wotan is tragic; through lies and deceit he achieved illusory power, which brought grief to people. But the fate of Wagner’s most vital hero, Sigmund, is also tragic; and even Siegfried, far from the storms of life's dramas, this naive, powerful child of nature, is doomed to tragic death. Everywhere and everywhere - a painful search for happiness, a desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they are not allowed to come true - lies and deceit, violence and deceit have entangled life.

According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness lies in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle. But love should not be passive - life is affirmed in achievement. Thus, the calling of Lohengrin - the defender of the innocently accused Elsa - is the fight for the rights of virtue; feat is Siegfried's ideal in life; his love for Brünnhilde calls him to new heroic deeds.

All Wagner's operas, starting with his mature works of the 40s, have features of ideological community and unity of musical and dramatic concept. The revolution of 1848-1849 marked an important milestone in the ideological and artistic evolution of the composer, increasing the inconsistency of his creativity. But basically the essence of the search for means of embodying a certain, stable range of ideas, themes, and images remained unchanged.

Wagner permeated his operas unity of dramatic expression, for which he unfolded the action in a continuous, continuous stream. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life, necessitated such continuity. Wagner was not alone in such quests. This was also achieved, each in his own way, by the best representatives of opera art of the 19th century - Russian classics, Verdi, Bizet, Smetana. But Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music Weber had outlined, most consistently developed the principles end-to-end development in the musical and dramatic genre. He merged individual opera episodes, scenes, even paintings into a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expression with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic structures. But paying more and more attention to depicting the inner world of the characters by depicting externally scenic, effective moments, he introduced into his music features of subjectivism and psychological complexity, which in turn gave rise to verbosity and destroyed the form, making it loose and amorphous. All this exacerbated the inconsistency of Wagnerian dramaturgy.

One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. Wagner did not invent it: musical motifs that evoked certain associations with specific life phenomena or psychological processes were also used by composers french revolution late XVIII century, and Weber, and Meyerbeer, and in the field of symphonic music - Berlioz, Liszt and others. But Wagner differs from his predecessors and contemporaries in his broader, more consistent use of this system (The fanatical Wagnerians made a fair mistake in studying this issue, trying to give every theme, even intonation, a leitmotif meaning and endow all leitmotifs, no matter how brief, with almost comprehensive content.).

Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score (However, in operas of the 40s the number of leitmotifs does not exceed ten.). He began composing the opera by developing a musical theme. So, for example, in the very first sketches of “The Ring of the Nibelung” the funeral march from “The Death of the Gods” is depicted, which, as said, contains a complex of the most important heroic themes of the tetralogy; First of all, the overture was written for “Die Meistersinger” - it enshrines the main thematic theme of the opera, etc.

Wagner's creative imagination is inexhaustible in inventing themes of remarkable beauty and plasticity, in which many essential phenomena of life are reflected and generalized. Often these themes provide an organic combination of expressive and figurative principles, which greatly helps in concretizing musical image. In the operas of the 40s, the melodies are extended: the leading themes-images outline different faces phenomena. This method of musical characterization continues in his later works, but Wagner’s predilection for vague philosophizing sometimes gives rise to impersonal leitmotifs that are intended to express abstract concepts. These motives are brief, devoid of the warmth of human breath, incapable of development, and have no internal connection with each other. So along with themes-images arise themes-symbols.

Unlike the latter, the best themes of Wagner's operas do not live separately throughout the work, they do not represent unchanging, isolated formations. Quite the opposite. The leading motifs contain common features, and together they form certain thematic complexes that express shades and gradations of feelings or details of a single picture. Wagner brings different themes and motifs together through subtle changes, comparisons or combinations of them at the same time. “The composer’s work on these motifs is truly amazing,” wrote Rimsky-Korsakov.

Wagner's dramatic method and his principles of symphonization of opera scores had an undoubted influence on the art of subsequent times. The largest composers of musical theater in the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries took advantage, to one degree or another, of the artistic achievements of the Wagnerian leitmotif system, although they did not accept its extremes (for example, Smetana and Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Prokofiev).

The interpretation of the vocal principle in Wagner's operas is also noted for its originality.

Fighting against superficial, uncharacteristic melody in a dramatic sense, he argued that vocal music should be based on the reproduction of intonations, or, as Wagner said, accents of speech. “Dramatic melody,” he wrote, “finds support in verse and language.” There are no fundamentally new points in this statement. During the 18th-19th centuries, many composers turned to the embodiment of speech intonations in music in order to update the intonation structure of their works (for example, Gluck, Mussorgsky). Wagner's sublime declamation brought a lot of new things into music of the XIX century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Singers performing Wagner's operas also faced unprecedentedly new creative challenges. But, based on his abstract and speculative concepts, he sometimes unilaterally emphasized declamatory elements to the detriment of song elements, subordinating the development of the vocal element to symphonic development.

Of course, many pages of Wagner's operas are filled with full-blooded, varied vocal melody, conveying the finest shades of expressiveness. The operas of the 40s are rich in such melodicism, among which “The Flying Dutchman” stands out for its folk-song composition, and “Lohengrin” for its melodiousness and heartfelt warmth. But in subsequent works, especially in “Die Walküre” and “Die Meistersinger”, the vocal part is endowed with great content and acquires leading value. One can recall Sigmund’s “spring song”, the monologue about the sword Notung, the love duet, the dialogue between Brünnhilde and Sigmund, Wotan’s farewell; in “Die Meistersinger” - songs by Walter, monologues by Sax, his songs about Eve and the Shoemaker Angel, quintet, folk choirs; in addition - songs of sword forging (in the opera “Siegfried”); Siegfried's story on the hunt, Brünnhilde's dying monologue (“Death of the Gods”), etc. But there are also pages of the score where the vocal part either takes on an exaggeratedly pompous tone, or, on the contrary, is relegated to the role of an optional appendage to the orchestral part. Such a violation of the artistic balance between the vocal and instrumental principles is characteristic of the internal inconsistency of Wagner's musical dramaturgy.

Wagner's achievements as a symphonist are indisputable; he consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work. His overtures and orchestral introductions (Wagner created four operatic overtures (for the operas “Rienzi”, “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser”, “Die Meistersinger”) and three architecturally completed orchestral introductions (“Lohengrin”, “Tristan”, “Parsifal”).), symphonic intermissions and numerous scenic paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, “the richest material for visual music, and where Wagner’s texture turned out to be suitable for a given moment, there he turned out to be truly great and powerful in the power of the plasticity of his images, thanks to his incomparable, ingenious instrumentation and expression” . Tchaikovsky equally highly regarded symphonic music Wagner, noting “unprecedentedly beautiful instrumentation” and “an amazing wealth of harmonic and polyphonic fabric.” V. Stasov, like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, condemned many things operatic creativity Wagner, wrote that his orchestra “is new, rich, often dazzling in color, in poetry and charm of the strongest, but also the most delicate and sensually charming colors...”.

Already in the early works of the 40s, Wagner achieved brilliance, fullness and richness of orchestral sound; introduced a triple cast (in “The Ring of the Nibelung” - a quadruple cast); used the range of strings more widely, especially due to the upper register (his favorite technique is the high arrangement of string chords divisi); gave a melodic purpose to brass instruments (such is the powerful unison of three trumpets and three trombones in the reprise of the Tannhäuser overture or the unisons of brass on a moving harmonic background of strings in Ride of the Valkyries and The Spell of Fire, etc.). By mixing the sound of the three main groups of the orchestra (strings, wood, brass), Wagner achieved flexible, plastic variability of the symphonic fabric. High contrapuntal skill helped him in this. Moreover, his orchestra is not only colorful, but also characteristic, sensitively reacting to the development of dramatic feelings and situations.

Wagner also appears to be an innovator in the field of harmony. In search of the strongest expressive effects, he intensified the tension of musical speech, saturated it with chromatisms, alterations, complex chord complexes, created a “multi-layered” polyphonic texture, and used bold, extraordinary modulations. These quests sometimes gave rise to exquisite tension in style, but never acquired the character of artistically unjustified experiments.

Wagner sharply opposed the search for “musical combinations for their own sake, only for the sake of their inherent sharpness.” Addressing young composers, he implored them to “never turn harmonic and orchestral effects into an end in themselves.” Wagner was an opponent of groundless daring; he fought for the truthful expression of deeply human feelings and thoughts and in this regard maintained contact with the progressive traditions of German music, becoming one of its most outstanding representatives. But throughout its long and difficult life in art he was sometimes carried away by false ideas and deviated from the right path.

Without forgiving Wagner for his errors, noting the significant contradictions of his views and creativity, rejecting the reactionary features in them, we highly value the brilliant German artist, who upheld his ideals with principle and conviction, enriching world culture with wonderful musical creations.

M. Druskin

If we want to make a list of characters, scenes, costumes, objects that abound in Wagner's operas, a fairy-tale world appears before us. Dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods and demigods, spears, helmets, swords, trumpets, rings, horns, harps, banners, storms, rainbows, swans, doves, lakes, rivers, mountains, fires, seas and ships on them, miraculous phenomena and disappearances, bowls of poison and magic drinks, disguises, flying horses, enchanted castles, fortresses, duels, inaccessible peaks, sky-high heights, underwater and earthly abysses, blooming gardens, sorceresses, young heroes, disgusting evil creatures, immaculate and eternally young beauties, priests and knights, passionate lovers, cunning sages, powerful rulers and rulers suffering from terrible spells... Needless to say, magic and witchcraft reigns everywhere , and the constant background of everything is the struggle between good and evil, sin and salvation, darkness and light. To describe all this, the music must be magnificent, dressed in luxurious clothes, full of small details, like a great realistic novel, inspired by the fantasy that feeds adventure and chivalric novels in which anything can happen. Even when Wagner narrates ordinary events commensurate with ordinary people, he always tries to get away from everyday life: to depict love, its charms, contempt for danger, unlimited personal freedom. All his adventures arise spontaneously, and the music turns out natural, flowing as if there were no obstacles in its path: it has a power that dispassionately embraces all possible life and turns it into a miracle. She easily and outwardly nonchalantly moves from pedantic imitation of pre-19th century music to the most stunning innovations, to the music of the future.

Richard Wagner (1813 -1883) is one of the most outstanding German composers, a musician of genius, whose work left the deepest mark on the history of European musical art. One can even say that in German music of the post-Beethoven era there was no composer with such scope, such bold daring, titanic innovative ideas, and with such persistence in the struggle for their implementation as Wagner. And at the same time, in the history of world musical art there is hardly a more controversial creative figure than Wagner. Wagner's contradictions reflected the contradictions German romanticism, which has entered a late stage of development.

There was a fierce struggle around Wagner and his musical drama. On the one hand, Wagner had numerous adherents who completely admired him not only as a musician, but also as a poet-playwright, thinker, philosopher and art theorist, and who believed that Wagner, and he alone, led art along the true path; on the other hand, there was no shortage of opponents of Wagner, who not only did not share his operatic reform ideas, but even denied him his talent as a composer. Of course, both were wrong. The most correct position was taken by those who, while paying tribute to Wagner’s genius and skill, appreciating his music, saw Wagner’s ideological and artistic contradictions and subjected him to fundamental criticism of his errors in his worldview and creativity.

Wagner went down in the history of music as a reformer of the art of opera, as the creator of a musical drama that was sharply different from ordinary traditional opera. Persistently, with inexhaustible energy, with a fanatical conviction in the rightness of the cause, Wagner carried out his artistic ideas, while simultaneously fighting the operatic routine that had taken over contemporary Italian and French opera. Wagner rebelled against the dictatorship of the singer, which did not take into account the dramatic meaning, against the empty vocal virtuosity characteristic of many Italian operas of that time, against the pitiful role of the orchestra in them; he also rebelled against the accumulation of external effects in the “grand” French (Meyerbeer) opera. There was much that was one-sided and unfair in Wagner’s criticism of Italian and French opera, but he was right in the fight against operatic routine, with the subservience of a number of composers to the demands of singers and the cheap tastes of the bourgeois-aristocratic public. Wagner, first of all, fought for German national art. However, due to many complex objective and subjective reasons, Wagner came to the opposite extreme. In his desire for an organic synthesis of music and drama, he proceeded from false idealistic views. Therefore, in his operatic reform, in his theory of musical drama, there was a lot of vulnerability. While fighting against the preponderance of the vocal sphere in Italian opera, Wagner came to an enormous preponderance of instrumental-symphonic. It is often left to the singers to deliver expressive recitative declamation, superimposed on the orchestra’s sumptuous symphony. Only in moments of great lyrical inspiration (for example, in love scenes) and in songs do the vocal parts acquire a melodious quality.

Wagner's operas are replete with beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful pages of programmatic symphonic music; various poetic pictures of nature, human passions, the ecstasy of love, the exploits of heroes - all this is embodied in Wagner’s music with amazing power of expressiveness. Rimsky-Korsakov in his unfinished work “Wagner and Dargomyzhsky” wrote: “His onomatopoeia is artistic, his sound reproductions by analogy are extremely witty and visual. His flight of the Valkyries, the entrance of the bear, the forging of the sword, the rustle of the forest, the howl of the storm, the splashing of the daughters of the Rhine, the shine of gold in the Nibelungs, the hunting horns behind the stage, the tune of the shepherds, etc. the images are full of imagery and tactility thanks to the witty use of the above-mentioned musical techniques plasticity and wonderful, incomparable orchestration.”

The transformation of opera into grandiose-scale dramatized program vocal-symphonic music is the result of Wagner's operatic reform; Of course, post-Wagnerian opera did not follow this path. Wagner's operatic reform turned out to be the most striking expression of the complex contradictions and crisis state of German romanticism, of which Wagner was a late representative.

Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813 to the family of a police official. A few months after his birth, his father died, and his mother soon married actor Ludwig Geyer; the latter moved his family to Dresden, where he worked in drama theater. Little Richard, already in early childhood, was surrounded by the atmosphere of the theater, involved in the life of the theater scenes, which affected his entire future career as a playwright and opera composer. Wagner was extremely interested in literature, poetry, theater, and the history of the ancient world. Homer and Shakespeare were his idols. Under the influence of Shakespeare's tragedies, at the age of 14-15, he wrote a large five-act tragedy, Leibald and Adelaide, which indicates Wagner's early awakening inclination for dramatic creativity.

Operas "The Flying Dutchman", "Tannhäuser", "Lohengrin".

Years of "Swiss exile". Start of work on the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. Opera "Tristan and Isolde". The last Bayreuth period of life and work. Opera "Parsifal".

Theoretical works Wagner (“Art and Revolution”, “Artwork of the Future”, “Opera and Drama”).

"Opera and Drama". Wagner's greatest philosophical and aesthetic work is Opera and Drama. It develops and deepens the idea of a synthesis of arts in the “drama of the future,” as Wagner called his musical drama. The main content of the book boils down to the following: the fallacy of opera is that music, which should be the means of expression in opera, has become the goal, and drama, which should be the goal, has become the means. Therefore, opera in its historical development turned into a series of arias, duets, dances, tearing the drama into small parts, was flooded with a meaningless (in the dramatic sense) melody and became a means of entertaining a bored audience. Wagner especially criticizes Italian (Rossini) and French opera (Auber and Meyerbeer) in this regard.

Wagner further argues: poetry alone cannot become a perfect drama; she must ally herself with music. But not every poetry, that is, not every logical plot, can be combined with music: the poetic basis of musical drama is a myth created by folk imagination. Myth, says Wagner, is the beginning and end of history; devoid of everything accidental, it expresses the eternal and undying and therefore most fully, most organically combines with music.

A work of art in which music and dramatic poetry merge into a single whole will no longer be, according to Wagner's theory, an opera in the old sense of the word; it will be the art of the future. In a future drama in which musical and dramatic action will represent a continuous flow, not interrupted by individual numbers; the main means of expression, according to Wagner, should be the orchestra. The orchestra is called upon to express what words are powerless to express - to deepen and clarify the gesture, to illuminate the inner world of the experiences and passions of the characters in the drama, to give the viewer a premonition of future action. The melodic content of the symphonic orchestral fabric should consist of motifs that repeat and return many times (the so-called leitmotifs, but Wagner himself does not use the term “leitmotif”), characterizing the characters in the drama, natural phenomena, objects, and human passions. Such continuous symphonic development, based on alternations, transformations, and simultaneous combinations of numerous short leitmotifs, constitutes Wagner's so-called “endless melody.”

Wagner Orchestra represents one of the greatest achievements in the musical art of the 19th century. A born symphonist, Wagner extremely expanded and enriched the expressive and visual capabilities of the orchestra, the sonority of which is distinguished by amazing beauty, richness of colors, timbre diversity and velvety softness, even in the most deafening fortissimo. The orchestra in Wagner's musical dramas far exceeds the composition of the usual opera orchestra of the time, especially due to the enlargement of the brass section. Largest composition orchestra - in “The Ring of the Nibelung”, which corresponds to the grandiose concept of the tetralogy; Wagner uses a four-piece orchestra here, introduces a quartet of specially constructed tubas (called “Wagner tubas”), a bass trumpet, a contrabass trombone, eight horns, six harps, and accordingly increases the string group. Each of the groups of this opera orchestra, unprecedented in its composition, constitutes, as it were, an independent, internal “orchestra within an orchestra”, quite extensive in range and rich expressive possibilities, which Wagner uses widely, variedly and masterfully. Typically, one or another leitmotif receives a certain, more or less constant timbre coloring, always associated with the dramatic function of this leitmotif and with this specific dramatic situation. Thus, orchestral sonority is an active element in the musical-dramatic whole.