Although it contains comic and even farcical scenes, ‘Die Meistersinger’ is in fact not so much a comedy as a satire, with a vein of wise and tender sentiment running through it.  It has also to a certain extent the interest of autobiography.  It is not difficult to read in the story of Walther’s struggles against the prejudice and pedantry of the Mastersingers a suggestion of Wagner’s own life-history, and if Beckmesser represents the narrow malice of critics who are themselves composers—­and these were always Wagner’s bitterest enemies—­Sachs may stand for the enlightened public, which was the first to appreciate the nobility of the composer’s aim.  It is not surprising that ’Die Meistersinger’ was one of the first of Wagner’s mature works to win general appreciation.  The exquisite songs, some of them easily detachable from their context, scattered lavishly throughout the work, together with the important share of the music allotted to the chorus, constitute a striking contrast to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ or ’Der Ring des Nibelungen.’  It has been suggested that this was due to a half-unconscious desire on Wagner’s part to write music which should appeal more to the popular ear than was possible in ’Tristan und Isolde.’  One of the most striking features of the opera is the mastery with which Wagner has caught and reproduced the atmosphere of sixteenth-century Nuremberg without sacrificing a jot of the absolute modernity of his style.  ‘Die Meistersinger’ yields to none of the composer’s work in the complexity and elaboration of the score—­indeed, the prelude may be quoted as a specimen of Wagner’s command of all the secrets of polyphony at its strongest and greatest.

‘Parsifal,’ Wagner’s last and in the opinion of many his greatest work, was produced in 1882 at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth.  The name by which the composer designated his work, Buehnenweihfestspiel which may be translated ‘Sacred Festival Drama,’ sufficiently indicates its solemn import, and indeed both in subject and treatment it stands remote from ordinary theatrical standards.  The subject of ‘Parsifal’ is drawn from the legends of the Holy Grail, which had already furnished Wagner with the tale of ‘Lohengrin.’  Titurel, the earthly keeper of the Holy Grail, has built the castle of Monsalvat, and there established a community of stainless knights to guard the sacred chalice, who in their office are miraculously sustained by its life-giving power.  Growing old, he has delegated his headship to his son Amfortas.  Near to the castle of Monsalvat dwells the magician Klingsor, who, having in vain solicited entry to that pure company, is now devoted to the destruction of the knights.  He has transformed the desert into a garden of wicked loveliness, peopled by beautiful sirens, through whose charms many of the knights have already fallen from their state of good.  Lastly Amfortas, sallying forth in the pride of his heart to subdue the sorcerer, armed with the sacred spear that clove the Saviour’s side, has succumbed to the charms of the beauteous Kundry, a strange being over whom Klingsor exercises an hypnotic power.  He has lost the spear, and further has sustained a grievous wound from its point dealt by Klingsor, which no balm or balsam can heal.