Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music

JAKE AND ELWOOD. AND RICHARD

B

ack to 1850. Around the same time that Turgenev produces his play, A Month in the Country, Wagner is still enjoying the second of his thirteen years of enforced exile in the mountains. But he hasn't stopped writing. Of course not. This is a man who, to borrow from the Blues Brothers, is on a mission from God. Or, as he himself put it: 7 am being used, as the instrument for something higher than my own being warrants… I am in the hands of the immortal genius that I serve for the span of my life and that intends me to complete what only I can achieve.' Mmm. I've got to say, I think the Blues Brothers' line is a little snappier.

But that's not the point in 1850. The point, in 1850, is that Richard 'Don't call me Lindsay!' Wagner comes up with his best work yet - his first TRUE masterpiece, as some would have it. It is, of course, an opera. Sorry, a 'music drama'. But this opera has no overture. Instead, it has a prelude. It has leitmotivs coming out of its ears. It is more seamless, more perfect than any of his other attempts so far. It's fan - bloody - tastic!

But who would conduct it? In Germany, I mean. Let's face it, the world premiere of Wagner's new opera wouldn't create quite as much of a stir anywhere else really - it has to be Germany. But who would be brave enough to stage the work of a self-confessed revolutionary, wanted by the authorities for crimes against the state?

Well, step forward good old Franz Liszt. Liszt has been making people sit up and take notice with his music-making in Weimar. In fact, both he and Weimar are, as a result, the talk of the country. His uncompromising commitment to good music has brought it an international reputation - a bit like Sir Simon Rattle and Birmingham in the 1980s. And where better to premiere the work of the revolutionary exile, Wagner? (That's Weimar, I mean, not Birmingham.) And the work that had them all worked up? Lohengrin. Or to give it its full kennel name: 'HoFjengrin, tlje i^olp???? an amp; tfje legenbarp ????? of kernel itempsiteb, go off for a long toeekeno orienteering in tfje country'© OK, so I'm lying about the full title. So shoot me. Anyway, best get to 1851. I've such a lot to tell you.