" Finally Wagner
conceived the Twilight of the Gods, the fall of the Valhalla--our
present system of society--and the birth of a regenerated humanity.
Wagner wrote to Uhlig in 1851 that the complete work was to be played
after the great Revolution.
The opera public would probably be very astonished to learn that in
_Siegfried_ they applaud a revolutionary work, expressly directed by
Wagner against this detested Capital, whose downfall would have been so
dear to him. And he never doubted that he was expressing grief in all
these pages of shining joy.
Wagner went to Zurich after a stay in Paris, where he felt "so much
distrust for the artistic world and horror for the restraint that he was
forced to put upon himself" that he was seized with a nervous malady
which nearly killed him. He returned to work at _Der Junge Siegfried_,
and he says it brought him great joy.
"But I am unhappy in not being able to apply myself to anything but
music. I know I am feeding on an illusion, and that reality is the
only thing worth having. My health is not good, and my nerves are
in a state of increasing weakness. My life, lived entirely in the
imagination and without sufficient action, tires me so, that I can
only work with frequent breaks and long intervals of rest;
otherwise I pay the penalty with long and painful suffering.
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