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Principles of Wagner's Opera Reform. Wagner's operatic reform

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 carrying it out, Wagner sought to:

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 opera based on leitmotifs;
to the rejection of traditional operatic forms (arias, ensembles).

In his work, Wagner never turned to contemporary themes, to the depiction of everyday life (the exception is the Nuremberg Meistersingers). He considered the only worthy literary source of the opera mythology . The composer constantly emphasized the universal significance of the myth, which "remains true at all times." Wagner's departure from more or less passive following is characteristic. 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 Wagnerian work.

Rethinking 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 a true artist, in "Ring of the Nibelung" in allegorical form he denounces the thirst for world power.

The central idea of the Wagnerian reform is synthesis of the arts . He was convinced that music, poetry, theatrical play could create an all-encompassing picture of life only in joint action. 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 finally polished.

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

In Wagner's musical drama, music flows in a continuous, continuous stream, not interrupted by dry recitatives or conversational inserts. This musical flow is constantly updated, changed and does not return to the stage already 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 opera number, the principle is put forward free stage , which is built on constantly updated material and includes melodious and recitative episodes, solo and ensemble. So the free stage combines features 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 - dialogues in which not joint, but alternate singing prevails. The main thing in these free scenes is the internal, psychological action (struggle of passions, mood swings). The external, eventful side is reduced to a minimum. From here - preponderance of the narrative above the scenically effective, than the operas of Wagner sharply differ from the operas of Verdi, Bizet.

The unifying role in Wagnerian free forms is played by 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 part of the orchestra: the main themes are developed, opposed to each other, transformed, acquiring a new look, combined polyphonically, etc. Like a choir in an ancient tragedy, the Wagner orchestra comments on what is happening, explains the meaning of events through cross-cutting themes - keynotes.

Any mature Wagner opera contains 10-20 leitmotifs endowed with a specific program content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important means of helping the listener to 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 "Ring of the Nibelungen"

Wagner rightly considered the creation of the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" 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 the most gigantic scale creation of Wagner, 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 "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). Dep. Wagner took plot motifs and German variants of names from the Nibelungenlied (XIII century) - the German version of the legend 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 the attention of Wagner. The composer modernized it. He emphasized the heroic principle in Siegfried and called him "the passionately awaited man of the future", "the socialist-redeemer".

But The Ring did not remain a Siegfried drama: originally conceived as a single drama glorifying free humanity (Siegfried's Death), Wagner's plan grew more and more. At the same time, Siegfried gave way to the 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 seized with doubts, acts contrary to his own desire (dooms his son to death, breaks up with his beloved daughter Brunnhilde). At the same time, Wagner outlined both actors but with obvious sympathy, equally carried away by both the radiant hero and the suffering, obedient god.

It is impossible to express in one formula the "general idea" of the Ring of the Nibelungen. In this grandiose work, Wagner speaks of the fate of the whole world. Everything is here.

1 - lust 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 the one who refuses love can forge the ring of power. Only the ugly and rejected Alberich can 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 Sigmund and Sieglinde, their incestuous love, against the goddess of "custom" and legal marriages Fricka. The realm of law - Valhalla - is collapsing in flames.

3 - Christian idea of redemption through love. It is love that comes into conflict with the overwhelming force of selfishness. 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, Brunnhilde accomplishes the work of liberating the whole world from the kingdom of evil. Thus the idea of salvation and redemption acquires truly cosmic dimensions in the tetralogy.

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

"Gold of the Rhine" belongs to the genre of fairy-tale-epic, "Valkyrie" - lyrical drama "Siegfried" - heroic-epic, "Sunset of the Gods" - tragedy.

Through all parts of the tetralogy passes the development of a branched leitmotif systems . Leitmotifs are endowed not only with the characters, their feelings, but also with philosophical concepts (curse, fate, death), the elements of nature (water, fire, rainbow, forest), objects (sword, helmet, spear).

The highest development in the tetralogy is achieved by the Wagner orchestra. Its composition is huge (mainly quadruple). The copper group is especially grandiose. It consists of 8 horns, of which 4 can be replaced by 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 drums has also been expanded.

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Introduction

1. Life story

2. Opera reform

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The multilateral activity of Richard Wagner occupies an outstanding place in the history of world culture. Possessing a great artistic talent, Wagner showed himself not only as a brilliant musician - composer and conductor, but also as a poet, playwright, critic-publicist (16 volumes of his literary writings include works on a variety of issues - from politics to art).

It is difficult to find an artist around whom there would be as fierce disputes as around this composer. The stormy controversy between his supporters and opponents went far beyond the modern era of Wagner, and did not subside even after his death. On turn of XIX- XX centuries, he became a truly "ruler of thoughts" of the European intelligentsia.

Wagner lived a long and hectic life marked by sharp breaks, ups and downs, persecution and exaltation. It included both police harassment and patronage " the mighty of the world this."

1. Life story

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

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

In 1834-- 1839. Wagner had already worked professionally as a bandmaster in various opera houses. In 1839-1842. lived in Paris. Here he wrote the 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 a bandmaster and conductor at the Dresden Court Opera. Here, in 1843, he staged his own opera, The Flying Dutchman, and in 1845, Tannhäuser and the Wartburg Singing Contest. One of Wagner's most famous operas, Lohengrin (1848), was written in Dresden.

In 1849, for participation in the revolutionary unrest in Dresden, the composer was declared a 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 future" (1850), "Opera and Drama" (1851). In them, Wagner acted as a reformer - first of all operatic art. His main ideas can be summarized as follows: in opera, drama should take precedence over music, and not vice versa; at the same time, the orchestra is not subordinate to the singers, but is an equal "actor".

The musical drama is intended to become a universal work of art capable of morally influencing the audience. And such an impact can be achieved only by operating with 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 items important for the development of the plot (for example, a ring), has its 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 from four operas: "Gold of the Rhine" (1854), "Valkyrie" (1856), "Siegfried" (1871) and "The Death of the Gods" (1874).

In parallel with the 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 Nibelungen" was staged for the first time, and in 1882 it was released. last opera Wagner - "Parsifal", called by the author a solemn stage mystery.

2. opera reform

To the embodiment of a 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 opera based on leitmotifs;

To the rejection of traditional operatic forms (arias, ensembles).

In his work, Wagner never turned to contemporary themes, to the depiction of everyday life (the exception is the Nuremberg Meistersingers). He considered mythology the only worthy literary source of the opera. 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 of one mythological source: as a rule, in one opera he synthesizes several legends, creating his own epic narrative. The actualization of the myth is a principle that runs through all of Wagner's work.

The central idea of the Wagnerian reform is the synthesis of the arts. He was convinced that music, poetry, theatrical play could create an all-encompassing picture of life only in joint action. 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 finally polished.

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

In Wagner's musical drama, music flows in a continuous, continuous stream, not interrupted by dry recitatives or conversational inserts. This musical flow is constantly updated, changed and does not return to the stage already 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 opera number, the principle of a free stage is put forward, which is built on constantly updated material and includes melodious and recitative episodes, solo and ensemble. Thus, the free stage combines the features 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 - dialogues in which not joint, but alternate singing prevails. The main thing in these free scenes is the internal, psychological action (struggle of passions, mood swings). The external, eventful side is reduced to a minimum. Hence - the predominance of the narrative beginning over the stage effective, which is why Wagner's operas sharply differ from the operas of Verdi, Bizet.

The unifying role in Wagner's free forms is played by the orchestra, the importance of which is growing 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 part of the orchestra: the main themes are developed, opposed to each other, transformed, acquiring a new look, combined polyphonically, etc. Like a choir in an ancient tragedy, the Wagner 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 a specific program content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important tool that helps the listener to 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 "Ring of the Nibelungen"

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

But The Ring did not remain a Siegfried drama: originally conceived as a single drama glorifying free humanity (Siegfried's Death), Wagner's plan grew more and more. At the same time, Siegfried gave way to the 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 seized with doubts, acts contrary to his own desire (dooms his son to death, breaks up with his beloved daughter Brunnhilde). At the same time, Wagner outlined both characters with obvious sympathy, equally passionate about both the radiant hero and the suffering, obedient god.

It is impossible to express in one formula the "general idea" of the Ring of the Nibelungen. In this grandiose work, Wagner speaks of 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 the one who refuses love can forge the ring of power. Only the ugly and rejected Alberich can do this. Power and love are incompatible concepts.

2 - condemnation of the power of customs, all kinds of contracts and laws. Wagner takes the side of Sigmund and Sieglinde, their incestuous love, against the goddess of "custom" and legal marriages Fricka. The realm of law - Valhalla - is collapsing in flames.

3 - the Christian idea of redemption through love. It is love that comes into conflict with the overwhelming force of selfishness. 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, Brunnhilde accomplishes the work of liberating the whole world from the kingdom of evil. Thus the idea of salvation and redemption acquires truly cosmic dimensions in the tetralogy.

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

"Rhine Gold" belongs to the fairy-tale-epic genre, "Valkyrie" - lyrical drama, "Siegfried" - heroic-epic, "Sunset of the Gods" - tragedy.

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

Conclusion

To a much greater extent than all European composers of the 19th century, Wagner considered his art as a synthesis and as a way of expressing a certain philosophical concept. Its essence is put into the form of an aphorism in the following passage from Wagner's article "The Artistic Work of the Future": reasons to be ashamed of the connection with life. From this concept stem two fundamental ideas: art must be created by a community of people and belong to this community; the highest form of art is musical drama, understood as an organic unity of word and sound. The embodiment of the first idea was Bayreuth, where the opera house for the first time began to be interpreted as a temple of art, and not as an entertainment institution; the embodiment of the second idea is the new operatic form "musical drama" created by Wagner. It was its creation that became the goal of Wagner's creative life. 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", "Artistic Work of the Future"), and in practice - in his later operas: "Tristan and Isolde", the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungen" and the mysteries "Parsifal".

Bibliography

1. Saponov M. A. Russian diaries and memoirs of R. Wagner, L. Spor, 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 the worldview of Richard Wagner

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Introduction

F. Liszt: “He came to the idea of the possibility and necessity to merge inseparably poetry, music and acting and to embody this fusion on the stage. Here everything is inextricably linked by the organism of drama. The richest orchestra of Wagner serves as an echo of the souls of the actors, adds to what we see and hear ... It forces all means to serve a higher goal and establishes the dominance of poetic meaning in the opera. On the whole, and in every detail, everything is consistent and follows from one poetic thought.

“No artist has kept the public in such a state of perpetual excitement as Richard Wagner. Decades after his death, waves of controversy about him have not subsided. Books written by opponents of Wagner and his defenders made up a whole library ...

Wagner as a person who combines fantastic contradictions in himself is a whole problem. And as an artist, the problem is no less,” wrote Hans Gahl, one of the largest Western music researchers, about Wagner.

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 creations, but also as a wonderful conductor; he was a talented poet-playwright and a gifted publicist, theorist of musical theater. Such versatile activity, combined with seething energy and titanic will in asserting his artistic principles, attracted universal attention to Wagner's personality and music: his ideological and creative convictions 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) century, 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 13 operas, but also to the expressive means of musical art; Wagner's contribution to the field of program symphonism is also significant.

“He was great as an opera composer,” N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” wrote A.N. Serov, - ... entered the German people, became national treasure in its 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, the initiative was strong, his artistic skill was great ...” - this is how V.V. Stasov characterized the best sides the genius of Wagner. The music of this remarkable composer, according to Serov, opened up “unknown, boundless horizons” in art. Quotes from the book “History foreign music» M. Druskin, p.12.

Overview of Wagner's operatic work

Wagner entered the history of musical culture as a composer who proclaimed the need for a reform of the musical theater and tirelessly carried it out throughout his life.

Passion for the theater manifested itself in the youth of the composer, and at the age of 15 he wrote the tragedy "Leibald and Adeloid". His first operas are far from what he would appreciate later. The first completed opera "Fairies", based on the plot of the dramatic fairy tale "The Snake Woman" by Gozzi, - romantic opera with fantastic horrors, close to the German opera traditions. This opera was not staged during the composer's lifetime.

In the opera "Forbidden Love" based on Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure", the influences of the Italian comic opera affected.

The third opera, Rienzi, based on the novel by E. Bulwer-Lytton, reflected the influence of the historical-heroic performance in the spirit of G. Spontini and J. Meyerbeer.

At this time, overwhelmed by bold revolutionary ideas for the renewal of life and art and deeply believing in the implementation of these ideas, Wagner begins a fierce struggle with the operatic routine. "The drama of the future" - this is how the composer called his musical drama - in which the synthesis of the arts should take place: poetry and music.

In 1842, the opera The Flying Dutchman was written, in which the composer embarked on the path of reform and which opens mature period Wagner's work. It was with the renewal of the plot side of the opera, its poetic text that the composer began his innovative activity.

At the same time, Wagner, the creator of opera librettos, experienced the strongest influence of German romanticism. Considering that only a myth created by folk fantasy can be the true poetic basis of a musical drama, Wagner based The Flying Dutchman on a legend borrowed from folk legends. reproduced in the opera character traits romantic "drama of rock", in which unusual fantastic incidents were shown intertwined with real ones. Wagner humanizes the image of the Flying Dutchman, bringing him closer to Byron's Manfred, endowing him with spiritual confusion, a passionate longing for the ideal. The music of the opera is full of rebellious romance, glorifying the pursuit of happiness. A stern, proud warehouse of music characterizes the image of the Dutchman, sincere lyrics mark the image of Senta, whose goal of life is a redemptive sacrifice.

In The Flying Dutchman, the reformist features of Wagner's musical dramaturgy were outlined: the desire to convey states of mind, psychological conflicts of heroes; the development of individual finished numbers into large dramatic scenes, directly passing into each other; turning an aria into a monologue or story, and a duet into a dialogue; the enormous role of the orchestral part, in which the development of leitmotifs is of tremendous importance. Starting with this work, Wagner's operas have 3 acts, each consisting of a series of scenes in which the edges of architectonically completed numbers are “blurred”.

In contrast to the ballad tone of The Flying Dutchman, the dramaturgy of Tannhäuser (1845) is dominated by large, contrasting, scenically spectacular strokes. This work has a successive connection with Weber's Euryanta, whom Wagner revered as a brilliant composer.

In "Tannhäuser" the theme of romantic "two worlds" is affirmed - the world of sensual pleasure in the grotto of Venus, and the world of severe moral duty, which is personified by the pilgrims. The opera also emphasizes the idea of redemption - a sacrificial feat in the name of overcoming selfishness and selfishness. These ideas were embodied in creativity under the influence of the philosophy of L. Feuerbach, which Wagner was passionate about. The scale of the opera was enlarged thanks to marches, processions, extended scenes, the flow of music became freer and more dynamic.

The principles of the Wagnerian reform of the musical theater were most harmoniously embodied in his opera Lohengrin. In it, the author combined plots and images of various folk and chivalric legends, which dealt with the knights of the Grail - champions of justice, moral perfection, invincible in the fight against evil. It was not the admiration of the Middle Ages, which is characteristic of reactionary romanticism, that attracted the composer to these legends, but the possibility of conveying the exciting feelings of modernity: the melancholy of human desires, the thirst for sincere, selfless love, unattainable dreams of happiness. “... I am here showing the tragic position of a true artist in modern life... ”, - so Wagner admitted in his “Appeal to Friends”. Lohengrin had an autobiographical meaning for him. The fate of the protagonist of the opera served for him as an allegorical expression of his own fate, and the experiences of this legendary knight, who brings people his love and kindness, but is not understood by them, turned out to be consonant with his own experiences.

The musical and dramatic concept of the opera is also to a certain extent close to Weber's Euryanta: the brightly depicted forces of evil and deceit in the person of Ortrud and Telramund are opposed by bright images of goodness and justice; the role of folk scenes is great; here Wagner achieved an even more consistent transition of individual numbers into through scenes - ensembles, dialogues, monologue stories. The principles of symphonization of the opera are also deepened, leitmotifs are used more widely, more diversely, and their dramatic significance is enhanced. They are not only contrasted, but also interpenetrated, which is especially clearly seen in the dialogic scenes. An important dramatic role is played by the orchestra, whose part is developed flexibly and subtly. In the opera, for the first time, Wagner refuses a large overture and replaces it with a brief introduction, which embodies the image of the protagonist, and therefore it is built only on the leitmotif of Lohengrin. Performed only by violins in the highest register, this theme seems truly divine. Thanks to the most transparent sound, refined harmonies, gentle melodic outlines, it has become a symbol of heavenly purity, goodness and light.

A similar method of characterizing the main characters of the opera by a certain sphere of intonation, an individual complex of expressive means, is of great importance in Wagner's work. Here he also uses "leittimbres", which are not only opposed, but also, depending on the dramatic situation, interpenetrate and influence each other.

In 1859, the musical drama "Tristan and Isolde" was written, which opens a new period of Wagner's work, which marked the further evolution of his musical language, which is becoming more intense, internally dynamic, harmonically and coloristically sophisticated. This is a grandiose vocal-symphonic poem about the destructive power of an all-consuming passion, the greatest hymn to the glory of love. The plot of the opera was influenced by the personal motives of the composer - love for Mathilde Wesendonck, his friend's wife. Unsatisfied passion found its reflection in music. This opera is the most original creation of Wagner the poet: it strikes with its simplicity and artistic integrity.

Music is characterized by great emotional intensity, it flows in a single stream. In addition, there are no choirs, arias - there are only huge cross-cutting scenes. Wagner uses a system of leitmotifs that express different states of one feeling - love (the leitmotifs of longing, expectation, pain, despair, hope, the leitmotif of a loving look). The entire musical fabric is an interweaving of these leitmotifs. That is why the opera "Tristan and Isolde" is the most inactive: the "event" side in it is reduced to a minimum in order to give more scope for the identification of psychological states. Surrounding heroes life as if from afar reaches their consciousness. The plot is outlined, psychological states are transferred against the background landscape sketches, Paintings Of The Night. In-depth psychologism, as a dominant state, is succinctly outlined in the orchestral introduction to the opera, in which, as in a clot, its content is conveyed. Wagner's particular refined style of harmony manifested itself here: altered chords, interrupted revolutions that prolong the movement and lead away from tonics, from stability, sequence, modulation, which sharpen the tonal movement, giving extreme tension to the music. Thus, along with the "Siegfriedian", the "Tristanian" beginning enters into Wagner's music. And if the first is connected with the deepening of objective, folk-national features in Wagner's music, then the second causes an increase in subjective, subtly psychological moments.

Back in the 1840s, Wagner conceived the opera Meistersingers Nuremberg, which took a special place in his work. The opera was completed in 1867. This work is imbued with a joyful acceptance of life, faith in the creative forces of the people. Contrary to my aesthetic credo, Wagner turned to the development of a specific historical, rather than a mythological plot. Describing the manners and customs of the Nuremberg artisans of the 16th century, Wagner showed their ardent love for their native art, glorified the traits of love of life, mental health, opposed them with false academicism and philistinism, which the composer rejected in contemporary Germany.

The opera stands out for its full-blooded music, which is based on a German folk song. The vocal element is of great importance here: the opera has many choral scenes, ensembles that are full of dynamics, movement, and spectacular expressiveness. Wider than in other works, Wagner used the folk-song beginning, which plays a leading role in characterizing the main characters. Conceived as comic opera, it differs in genre from the "musical dramas", but this opera is sometimes burdened with side motives of philosophical reasoning. In his articles, B. Asafiev wrote: “In the development of Wagner’s work, work on the opera The Meistersingers is extremely milestone; we can say that this was the era of liberation from the worldview and creative crisis ... ”B. Asafiev, About Opera. Selected articles, p. 250

After graduating from The Nuremberg Meistersingers, Wagner returned to work, which he had been doing intermittently for more than 20 years, the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, consisting of 4 operas. "Gold of the Rhine" - the background of events, a story about a curse that weighed on gods and people. "Valkyrie" - the drama of the parents of the protagonist Siegfried. "Siegfried" - the events of the hero's youth and "The Death of the Gods" - the death of Siegfried, who gave his life for the happiness of the world, asserting immortality. The philosophy of the “Ring of the Nibelung” is close to Schopenhauer, the heroes are already doomed from the very beginning. The artistic merits of music are great and versatile. Music embodied the titanic elemental forces of nature, the heroism of courageous thoughts, psychological revelations. Each part of the tetralogy is marked by unique features. The opera "Rhine Gold" reveals freshness in visual means and in the interpretation of a fairy-tale mythological plot. In "Valkyrie" colorful and descriptive episodes recede into the background - this is a psychological drama. Her music has a huge dramatic power, heroism and poetic lyrics are captured, philosophical reflections t elemental power of nature. The heroic epic "Siegfried" is the least effective, it is dialogical, it contains a lot of reasonable conversations. At the same time, the role of the heroic principle is especially great in the music of this opera, associated with the image of a sunny, bright young hero who knows no fear and doubts, full of thirst for achievement, courageous and childishly trusting. Heroic images are closely related to the pictorial and pictorial principle. The romance of the forest is colorfully embodied, full of mysterious rustling, quivering voices and bird chirping. The tragedy "The Death of the Gods" is filled with a contrasting tense change of events. Here is the development of previously created images. As in the previous parts of the tetralogy, the symphonic paintings, the best of which is the funeral march for Siegfried's death. Differences in the genre orientation of the parts of the tetralogy required the versatile use of expressive means. But the commonality of thematism and the methods of its development cemented the parts of the tetralogy into a single gigantic whole.

The music is based on a system of leitmotifs (there are about 100 in total in the tetralogy), there is no division into numbers (through development), a grandiose orchestral quadruple composition with a huge brass group.

After Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner set about creating the last musical drama, Parsifal, which he called the Solemn Stage Mystery. He considered it nothing less than a kind of religious ceremony, and by no means a traditional entertainment for listeners, and even insisted that there should be no applause, and the opera was performed only in his own Bayreuth theater, which was opened in 1876. . The opera develops Christian, moral problems. Wagner became religious towards the end of his life, wrote the article "Art and Religion". This opera can rather be defined as living pictures accompanied by text and music. Inspirational gift of the artist and high level skills helped the composer to create a series of episodes filled with dramatic and sublime music. Such are the processions of the knights and the scenes of the supper, the picture at Klingsor, the flowering of nature. Of particular note is the fact that Wagner's usual orchestral skill is combined in this opera with a broadly polyphonic development of choral scenes.

Principles of musical dramaturgy of Wagner's operas. Features of the musical language

Wagner's work took shape in the conditions of the social upsurge of pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, it took shape aesthetic views and ways of transforming the musical theater were outlined, a characteristic circle of images and plots was determined. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modernity, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, but preserved the vital truth of folk poetry. This is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian dramaturgy. He turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic stories in them. He was less interested in the real situation of the historical past, although in this regard, in The Nuremberg Mastersingers, where the realistic tendencies of his work were more pronounced, he achieved a lot. First of all, Wagner sought to show the emotional drama of strong characters. He consistently embodied the modern epic of the struggle for happiness in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, driven by fate, tormented by 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, not understood by people.

The life struggle in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Everywhere and everywhere - the painful search for happiness, the desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they were not given to be realized - lies and deceit, violence and deceit entangled life.

According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness is in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle.

All Wagner's operas, starting from the mature works of the 1940s, have features of ideological commonality and unity of the musical and dramatic concept. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life necessitated a continuous dramatic development of the action.

Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor had outlined in German music Weber most consistently developed the principles of end-to-end development in the musical and dramatic genre. Separate operatic episodes, scenes, even paintings, he merged together in a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expressiveness with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic constructions.

One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score. He began composing the opera with the development of musical themes. So, for example, in the very first sketches of the "Ring of the Nibelungen" a 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, an overture was written for The Meistersingers - it enshrined the main thematic of the opera.

Wagner's creative imagination is inexhaustible in the invention of themes of remarkable beauty and plasticity, in which many essential phenomena of life are reflected and generalized. Often in these themes, an organic combination of expressive and pictorial principles is given, which helps to concretize the musical image. In the operas of the 1940s, the melodies are extended: in the leading themes-images, different facets of phenomena are outlined. Top Themes do not live separately and separately throughout the work. There are common features in these motifs, and together they form certain thematic complexes that express shades of feelings or details of a single picture. Wagner brings together different themes and motifs 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.

However, he did not succeed everywhere: sometimes, along with leitmotifs-images, impersonal themes-symbols arose, which expressed abstract concepts. This, in particular, manifested the features of rationality in the work of Wagner.

The interpretation of the vocal beginning in Wagner's operas is also marked by originality.

Struggling against superficial, inexpressive melody in a dramatic sense, he strove to reproduce the intonations and accents of speech in vocal music. "Dramatic melody," he wrote, "finds support in verse and language." The sublime declamation of Wagner brought a lot of new things to the music of the 19th century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Unprecedented new creative tasks arose before the singers - performers of Wagner's operas. But, based on his abstract speculative concepts, he sometimes one-sidedly emphasized declamatory elements to the detriment of song ones, subordinated the development of the vocal principle to symphonic development.

Of course, many pages of Wagner's operas are saturated 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 warehouse of music, and Lohengrin for its melodiousness and warmth of the heart. But in subsequent works, especially in "Valkyrie" and "Meistersinger", the vocal part is endowed with great content, acquires leading value. But there are also pages of the score, where the vocal part either acquires an exaggerated pompous warehouse, or, on the contrary, is relegated to the role of an optional appendage to the orchestra's part. Such a violation of the artistic balance between vocal and instrumental principles is characteristic of the internal inconsistency of Wagnerian musical dramaturgy.

The achievements of Wagner as a symphonist, who consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work, are indisputable. His overtures and orchestral introductions, symphonic intermissions and numerous pictorial paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, "the richest material for fine music." Tchaikovsky equally highly regarded Wagner's symphonic music, noting in it "an unprecedentedly beautiful instrumentation", "an amazing richness of harmonic and polyphonic fabric". V. Stasov, like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, who condemned Wagner’s operatic work for many things, wrote that his orchestra was “new, rich, often dazzling in color, in poetry and in the charm of the strongest, but also the most tender and sensually charming colors .. .".

Already in early works In the 40s, Wagner achieved the brilliance, fullness and richness of the orchestral sound; introduced a triple composition (in the "Ring of the Nibelung" - quadruple); used the range of strings more widely, especially at the expense of the upper register (his favorite technique is the high arrangement of chords of string 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 brass unisons on the moving harmonic background of strings in Ride of the Valkyries and Incantations of Fire, etc.). Mixing the sound of the three main groups of the orchestra (strings, wood, copper), Wagner achieved the 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 is also an innovator in the field of harmony. In search of the strongest expressive effects, he increased the intensity of musical speech, saturating it with chromatisms, alterations, complex chord complexes, creating a “multilayered” polyphonic texture, using bold, extraordinary modulations. These searches sometimes gave rise to an exquisite intensity of style, but never acquired the character of artistically unjustified experiments. Wagner was an opponent of groundless daring, he fought for the truthful expression of deeply human feelings and thoughts, and in this respect retained a connection with the progressive traditions of German music, becoming one of its most prominent representatives. But throughout its long and difficult life in art, he was sometimes carried away by false ideas, deviated from the right path.

The essence of Wagner's operatic reform

Wagner entered the history of music as a reformer of the art of opera, as the creator of a musical drama that differs sharply from the usual traditional opera. Persistently, with inexhaustible energy, with a fanatical conviction that the cause was right, Wagner put his artistic ideas into practice, simultaneously waging a struggle with the operatic routine that had taken possession of contemporary Italian and French opera. Wagner rebelled against the dictatorship of the singer, who did not take into account the dramatic meaning, against the empty vocal virtuosity characteristic of many Italian operas of that time, against the miserable role of the orchestra in them; he also rebelled against the piling up of external effects in the "great" French (Meyerbeer) opera. Wagner's criticism of Italian and French operas was much one-sided and unfair, but he was right in his fight against operatic routine, with the servility of a number of composers to the demands of singers and the cheap tastes of the bourgeois-aristocratic public. Wagner, above all, led the fight for the German national art. However, due to many complex objective and subjective reasons, Wagner came to the opposite extreme. In his striving 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 much that was vulnerable. Leading the fight against the dominance of the vocal sphere in Italian opera, Wagner came to a huge preponderance of the instrumental-symphonic. The lot of singers is often left with expressive recitative recitation superimposed on the magnificent symphony of the orchestra. Only in moments of great lyrical inspiration (for example, in love scenes) and in songs do vocal parts become melodious. This refers to the operas after Lohengrin, in which the reformist ideas of Wagner are already fully implemented. Wagner's operas are replete with beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful pages of program 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 an amazing power of expressiveness.

However, from the point of view of the requirements of the musical theater, which has its own historical patterns and life traditions, in Wagner's late operas stage action sacrificed to the musical, symphonic element. The exception is the Meistersingers.

P. I. Tchaikovsky wrote on this occasion: “... this is the technique of the purest symphonist, in love with orchestral effects and sacrificing for their sake both the beauty of the human voice and its characteristic expressiveness. It happens that behind an excellent, but noisy orchestration, the singer performing a phrase artificially attached to the orchestra is not heard at all.

The transformation of the opera into a grandiose dramatized program vocal and symphonic music is the result of Wagner's operatic reform; Of course, the 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 of German romanticism, of which Wagner was a late representative.

Thus, Wagner's operatic reform is a crisis of the musical theater, a denial of the natural specifics of the opera genre. But Wagner's music, in terms of artistic power and expressiveness, is truly of enduring significance. “One must be deaf to all the beauty of music,” wrote A. N. Serov, “so that, apart from the brilliant and richest palette ... of the orchestra, one should not feel in his music the breath of something new in art, something poetically taking away into the distance, opening unknown boundless horizons. A prominent musical figure and composer Ernst Hermann Mayer wrote: “Wagner left us a rich heritage. The best works of this outstanding (albeit deeply controversial) artist captivate with the nobility and power of images of national heroism, inspired passion of expression, and remarkable skill. Indeed, the art of Wagner is deeply national and organically connected with the national traditions of the German artistic culture, especially with the traditions of Beethoven, Weber and German folk poetry and folk music.

musical culture opera wagner

Conclusion

The Wagnerian musical and dramatic form arises as a result of the ideological and aesthetic aspirations characteristic of the composer. However, the musical drama could be realized only on the ground previously prepared for it. Many features that define the novelty of Wagnerian art (including symphonism, leitmotif technique, the destruction of strict boundaries between numbers, the unification of operatic forms into an enlarged, essentially multi-genre scene permeated with a single movement) were being prepared before Wagner. And yet, Wagner's musical drama is a fundamentally new phenomenon that changed the idea of the composers of the next era about the possibilities of this genre. It is with him that the musical and dramatic work is directly connected with philosophy.

Wagner fought for the triumph of his principles not only as a composer, but also as a theorist, author of a number of books and articles. His views and work provoked passionate discussions; he had ardent adherents and fierce opponents. There was a certain one-sidedness in his conception of musical drama: in an effort to introduce the principle of the unity of symphonic development into opera music, the composer lost some of the most important expressive possibilities created as a result of the centuries-old development of opera art. But at the same time, he wrote works that influenced the entire subsequent development of European operatic music, even those composers who had a negative attitude towards his idea of musical drama. The operatic art of Wagner and his followers is the final page of the German musical theater of the 19th century.

Bibliography:

1. Asafiev B., "Meistersingers" in Wagner's operatic work. // About the opera. Selected articles. L., 1985

2. Wagner R., Opera and drama. // Selected works. M., 1978

3. Wagner R., On the purpose of the opera. // Selected works. M., 1978

4. Gurevich E.L., History of foreign music. M., 2000

5. Druskin M., History of foreign music. Issue. 4 M., 1983

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Richard Wagner (1813 -1883) - one of the most prominent German composers, a musician of genius talent, whose work left the deepest mark in the history of European musical art. It can even be said that in the German music of the post-Beethoven time there was no composer with such scope, such bold daring, titanic innovative ideas, with such perseverance in the struggle for their implementation, as Wagner. And at the same time, in the history of world musical art there is hardly a creative figure more controversial than Wagner. The contradictions of Wagner reflected the contradictions of German romanticism, which had entered a late stage of development.

Around Wagner and his musical drama there was a fierce struggle. On the one hand, Wagner had numerous adherents who undividedly bowed before him not only as a musician, but also as a poet-dramatist, thinker, philosopher-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 Wagner's opponents, who not only did not share his operatic reformist ideas, but even denied him his talent as a composer. Of course, both of them were wrong. The most correct position was occupied by those who, while paying tribute to Wagner's genius talent and skill, appreciating his music, saw Wagner's ideological and artistic contradictions and criticized in principle his delusions in worldview and creativity.

Wagner entered the history of music as a reformer of operatic art, as the creator of a musical drama that differs sharply from the usual traditional opera. Persistently, with inexhaustible energy, with a fanatical conviction that the cause was right, Wagner put his artistic ideas into practice, simultaneously waging a struggle with the operatic routine that had taken possession of contemporary Italian and French opera. Wagner rebelled against the dictatorship of the singer, who did not take into account the dramatic meaning, against the empty vocal virtuosity characteristic of many Italian operas of that time, against the miserable role of the orchestra in them; he also rebelled against the piling up of external effects in the "great" French (Meyerbeer) opera. Wagner's criticism of Italian and French operas was much one-sided and unfair, but he was right in his fight against operatic routine, with the servility 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 the German national art. However, due to many complex objective and subjective reasons, Wagner came to the opposite extreme. In his striving 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 much that was vulnerable. Waging a struggle against the predominance of the vocal sphere in Italian opera, Wagner came to a huge preponderance of the instrumental-symphonic. The lot of singers is often left with expressive recitative recitation superimposed on the magnificent symphony of the orchestra. Only in moments of great lyrical inspiration (for example, in love scenes) and in songs do vocal parts become melodious.

Wagner's operas are replete with beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful pages of program 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 an amazing power of expressiveness. Rimsky-Korsakov in his unfinished work “Wagner and Dargomyzhsky” wrote: “His sound imitations are artistic, 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 rustling of the forest, the howling of the storm, the splashing of the daughters of the Rhine, the shining of gold in the Nibelungen, the hunting horns behind the stage, the shepherds playing, etc. plasticity and wonderful, incomparable orchestration.

Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813 to the family of a police officer. A few months after his birth, his father died, and his mother soon married the actor Ludwig Geyer; the latter moved the 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 backstage, which affected his entire future career as a playwright and opera composer. Wagner was extremely fond of 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 inclination towards dramatic creativity.

Operas The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin.

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

Theoretical works of 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 the synthesis of the 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 the opera is that music, which should be the means of expression in opera, has become the goal, and the drama, which should be the goal, has become the means. Therefore, the opera in its historical development turned into a series of arias, duets, dances that tear the drama into small parts, was flooded with meaningless (in the dramatic sense) melody and became a means of entertaining a bored audience. Wagner especially criticizes Italian (Rossini) and French opera (Aubert and Meyerbeer) in this respect.

Further, Wagner argues: poetry alone cannot become a perfect drama; it must enter into an alliance 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 fantasy. Myth, says Wagner, is the beginning and the end of history; devoid of everything accidental, it expresses the eternal and undying, and therefore most fully, most organically combined 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 the drama of the future, in which musical and dramatic actions will be a continuous stream, 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 the word is powerless to express - to deepen and clarify the gesture, to illuminate the inner world of experiences and passions of the heroes of the drama, to give the viewer a premonition of future action. The melodic content of the symphonic orchestral fabric should be made up of motifs repeating and returning many times (the so-called leitmotifs, but Wagner himself does not use the term “leitmotif”) that characterize the actors of the drama, natural phenomena, objects, human passions. Such continuous symphonic development, based on alternations, transformations, simultaneous combinations of numerous short leitmotifs, constitutes Wagner's so-called "endless melody".

Wagner Orchestra represents one of the greatest achievements in musical art XIX century. A born symphonist, Wagner greatly expanded and enriched the expressive and visual possibilities of the orchestra, the sonority of which is distinguished by striking 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 then-common opera orchestra, especially due to the increase in the brass group. Largest cast the orchestra - in the "Ring of the Nibelung", which corresponds to the grandiose design of the tetralogy; Wagner uses here a quadruple composition of the orchestra, introduces a quartet of specially designed 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 in an orchestra", quite extensive in range and rich in expressive possibilities, which Wagner uses widely, variously and masterfully. Usually one or another leitmotif receives a certain, more or less constant timbre, always associated with the dramatic function of this leitmotif and with a given specific dramatic situation. Thus, orchestral sonority is an active element in the musical-dramatic whole.

Wagner entered the history of music as a reformer of the art of opera, as the creator of a musical drama that differs sharply from the usual traditional opera. Persistently, with inexhaustible energy, with a fanatical conviction that the cause was right, Wagner put his artistic ideas into practice, simultaneously waging a struggle with the operatic routine that had taken possession of contemporary Italian and French opera. Wagner rebelled against the dictatorship of the singer, who did not take into account the dramatic meaning, against the empty vocal virtuosity characteristic of many Italian operas of that time, against the miserable role of the orchestra in them; he also rebelled against the piling up of external effects in the "great" French (Meyerbeer) opera. Wagner's criticism of Italian and French operas was much one-sided and unfair, but he was right in his fight against operatic routine, with the servility 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 the German national art. However, due to many complex objective and subjective reasons, Wagner came to the opposite extreme. In his striving 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 much that was vulnerable. Waging a struggle against the predominance of the vocal sphere in Italian opera, Wagner came to a huge preponderance of the instrumental-symphonic. The lot of singers is often left with expressive recitative recitation superimposed on the magnificent symphony of the orchestra. Only in moments of great lyrical inspiration (for example, in love scenes) and in songs do vocal parts become melodious. This refers to the operas after Lohengrin, in which the reformist ideas of Wagner are already fully implemented. Wagner's operas are replete with beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful pages of program 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.

However, from the point of view of the requirements of the musical theater, which has its own historical patterns and life traditions, in Wagner's late operas stage action was sacrificed to the musical, symphonic element. The exception is the Meistersingers.

Thus, Wagner's operatic reform is a crisis of the musical theater, a denial of the natural specifics of the opera genre. But Wagner's music, in terms of artistic power and expressiveness, is truly of enduring significance. “One must be deaf to all the beauty of music,” wrote A. N. Serov, “so that, except for the brilliant and richest palette. orchestra, not to feel in his music the breath of something new in art, something poetically taking away into the distance, opening unknown boundless horizons. A prominent musical figure and composer Ernst Hermann Mayer wrote: “Wagner left us a rich heritage. The best works of this outstanding (albeit deeply controversial) artist captivate with the nobility and power of images of national heroism, inspired passion of expression, and remarkable skill. Indeed, the art of Wagner is deeply nationally and organically connected with the national traditions of German artistic culture, especially with the traditions of Beethoven, Weber and German folk-poetic and folk-musical creativity.

musical culture opera wagner

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