character of which shows that Wagner was not yet entirely freed from Italian influences.  A short duet ensues between Senta and her father, and then the Dutchman appears.  As they stand and gaze at each other for a long time, the orchestra meanwhile supplying the supposed emotions of each, we have a clew to the method Wagner was afterwards to employ so successfully.  A duet between Senta and the Dutchman ("Wie aus der Ferne”) and a terzetto with Daland close the act.

The third act opens with another sailors’ chorus ("Steuermann, lass’ die Wacht"), and a brisk dialogue between them and the women who are bringing them provisions.  The latter also hail the crew of the Dutchman’s vessel, but get no reply until the wind suddenly rises, when they man the vessel and sing the refrain with which the Dutchman is continually identified.  A double chorus of the two crews follows.  Senta then appears accompanied by Eric, who seeks to restrain her from following the stranger in a very dramatic duet ("Was muss ich hoeren?").  The finale is made up of sailors’ and female choruses, and a trio between Senta, Daland, and the Dutchman, which are woven together with consummate skill, and make a very effective termination to the weird story.  There are no points in common between “The Flying Dutchman” and “Rienzi,” except that in the former Wagner had not yet clearly freed himself from conventional melody.  It is interesting as marking his first step towards the music of the future in his use of motives, his wonderful treatment of the orchestra in enforcing the expression of the text, and his combination of the voices and instrumentation in what he so aptly calls “The Music-Drama.”

TANNHAEUSER

“Tannhaeuser und der Singerkrieg auf Wartburg” ("Tannhaeuser and the singers’ contest at the Wartburg"), a romantic opera in three acts, words by the composer, was first produced at the Royal Opera, Dresden, Oct. 20, 1845, with Mme. Schroeder-Devrient and Herr Niemann as Elizabeth and Tannhaeuser.  Its first performance in Paris was on March 13, 1861; but it was a failure after three representations, and was made the butt of Parisian ridicule, even Berlioz joining in the tirade.  In England it was brought out in Italian at Covent Garden, May 6, 1876, though its overture was played by the London Philharmonic orchestra in 1855, Wagner himself leading.

In the spring of 1842 Wagner returned from Paris to Germany, and on his way to Dresden visited the castle of Wartburg, in the Thuringian Valley, where he first conceived the idea of writing “Tannhaeuser.”  The plot was taken from an old German tradition, which centres about the castle where the landgraves of the thirteenth century instituted peaceful contests between the Minnesingers and knightly poets.  Near this castle towers the Venusberg, a dreary elevation, which, according to popular tradition, was inhabited by Holda, the goddess of Spring.  Proscribed by Christianity,