" It was truly a time of mourning. Perhaps there
was something incongruous in building such a structure when it had
universal death for its conclusion--or at least in making the whole an
object of show and instruction. _Tristan_ achieves the same end with
much more power, as the action is swifter. Besides that, the end of
_Tristan_ is not without comfort, for life there is terrible. But it is
not the same in _Goetterdaemmerung_; for in spite of the absurdity of the
spell which is set upon the love of Siegfried and Bruennhilde, life with
them is happy and desirable, since they are beings capable of love, and
death appears to be a splendid but awful catastrophe. And one cannot say
the _Ring_ breathes a spirit of renunciation and sacrifice like
_Parsifal_; renunciation and sacrifice are only talked about in the
_Ring_; and, in spite of the last transports which impel Bruennhilde to
the funeral pyre, they are neither an inspiration nor a delight. One has
the impression of a great gulf yawning at one's feet, and the anguish of
seeing those one loves fall into it.
I have often regretted that Wagner's first conception of _Siegfried_
changed in the course of years; and in spite of the magnificent
_denouement_ of _Goetterdaemmerung_ (which is really more effective in a
concert room, for the real tragedy ends with Siegfried's death), I
cannot help thinking with regret how fine a more optimistic poem from
this revolutionary of '48 might have been.
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