In a letter to Grohe, on 28 June, 1890,
he says:
"Wagner has, by and through his art, accomplished such a mighty
work of liberation that we may rejoice to think that it is quite
useless for us to storm the skies, since he has conquered them for
us. It is much wiser to seek out a pleasant nook in this lovely
heaven. I want to find a little place there for myself, not in a
desert with water and locusts and wild honey, but in a merry
company of primitive beings, among the tinkling of guitars, the
sighs of love, the moonlight, and such-like--in short, in a quite
ordinary _opera-comique_, without any rescuing spectre of
Schopenhauerian philosophy in the background."
After having sought the libretto of an opera from the whole world, from
poets ancient and modern,[189] and after having tried to write one
himself, he finally took that of Madame Rosa Mayreder, an adaptation of
a Spanish novelette of Don Pedro de Alarcon. This was _Corregidor_,
which, after having been refused by other theatres, was played in June,
1896, at Mannheim. The work was not a success in spite of its musical
qualities, and the poorness of the libretto helped on its failure.
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