I know that this is not the opinion of most
of Wagner's admirers; but, with the exception of a few pages of sublime
beauty, I have never altogether liked the love scenes at the end of
_Siegfried_ and at the beginning of _Goetterdaemmerung_. I find their
style rather pompous and declamatory; and their almost excessive
refinement makes them border upon dulness. The form of the duet, too,
seems cut and dried, and there are signs of weariness in it. The
heaviness of the last pages of _Siegfried_ recalls _Die Meistersinger_,
which is also of that period. It is no longer the same joy nor the same
quality of joy that is found in the earlier acts.
Yet it does not really matter, for joy is there, nevertheless; and so
splendid was the first inspiration of the work that the years have not
dimmed its brilliancy. One would like to end with _Siegfried_, and
escape the gloomy _Goetterdaemmerung_. For those who have sensitive
feelings the fourth day of the Tetralogy has a depressing effect. I
remember the tears I have seen shed at the end of the _Ring_, and the
words of a friend, as we left the theatre at Bayreuth and descended the
hill at night: "I feel as though I were coming away from the burial of
someone I dearly loved.
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