On today's date, May 16th in 1848, an arrest warrant was issued for a 35 year-old composer named Richard Wagner. It read: "The Royal Kapellmeister Richard Wagner of Dresden is to be seized for interrogation concerning his participation in the revolutionary activities that took place in this city. All police authorities are requested to capture Wagner and report to us as quickly as possible."
In 1848, uprising against Europe's royal families led to failed revolutions in many states. In Dresden, Wagner had published an article that envisioned the end of the aristocracy. When the uprising was put down by Saxon troops, that same aristocracy came looking for him. Luckily, the warrant's description was pretty vague: "Wagner is of medium height, has brown hair and wears eyeglasses." The composer wasn't yet so famous that people would recognize him at sight, and with the financial assistance of his friend and future father-in-law Franz Liszt, Wagner escaped to Switzerland.
In exile, Wagner wrote pamphlets with titles like "Art and Revolution" and "The Artwork of the Future." He finished the orchestration of his new opera "Lohengrin" and sketched out an ambitious project called "The Ring of the Nibelung," a projected series of interconnected operas based on old German legends. Meanwhile, back in Germany, Liszt conducted the premiere of "Lohengrin" in Weimar in 1850, but Wagner didn't risk showing up to hear it. But time, and increasing international fame, heals all wounds, even political ones, and in 1862 Wagner was granted full amnesty.
No comments:
Post a Comment