Wagner's 'Lohengrin'

Synopsis

In Weimar, Germany, on today’s date in 1850, Hungarian composer Franz Liszt conducted the first performance of Lohengrin, a new opera by German composer Richard Wagner. Liszt was determined to make Weimar famous, musically-speaking, despite the rather provincial nature of the forces he had at his disposal.

Liszt had to go out and buy a bass clarinet, since the Court orchestra didn’t own one, and he beefed up the number of violins from the usual 11 players to a grand total of 18.

The title role of Lohengrin was sung by a tenor named Karl Beck, who was also a local baker. Even so, Liszt’s unprecedented 46 rehearsals apparently paid off: the premiere of Lohengrin was a big success and helped put both Weimar and Wagner on the map.

Ironically, Wagner was unable to attend the premiere. He was a wanted man on German soil, having participated in the unsuccessful Dresden uprising of 1849, and there was a warrant out for his arrest. Liszt had helped him escape to Switzerland, and while his opera was being staged in Weimar, Wagner was at a hotel in Lucerne, listening in his imagination, he later told Liszt, as each scene unfolded.

Music Played in Today's Program

Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Lohengrin; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; Peter Schneider, conductor; Philips 438 500

On This Day

Births

• 1867 - Italian opera composer Umberto Giordano, in Foggia;

Deaths

• 1572 - Huguenot composer Claude Goudimel, age c. 52-58, in Lyons, sometime between August 28-31, during the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Protestants by Catholic partisans

• 1914 - Russian composer Anatol Liadov, 59, at his estate near Novgorod (Julian date: Aug 16)

• 1959 - Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, 68, in Liestal, Switzerland

Premieres

• 1733 - Pergolesi: one-act opera La Serva Padrona, in Naples, as a comic interlude during the presentation of his serious opera, Il Prigionier Superbo; The comic interlude became his most famous work, while the serious opera has been long forgotten

• 1849 - Liszt: tone-poem Tasso, in Weimarduring Goethe Centennery Festival

• 1850 - Wagner: Lohengrin, in Weimar at the Hoftheater, with Liszt conducting

• 1922 - Gershwin: one-act opera Blue Monday, as a part of George White’s Scandals of 1922 at the Globe Theater in New York City. The opera was cut from the Scandals after its one opening night performance. Reorchestrated by Ferde Grofe, it was given again as a concert performance by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 29, 1925.

• 1954 - Persichetti: Symphony No. 5 for strings, by the Louisville Orchestra

• 1956 - Martinu: Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, for orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, by the Vienna Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik conducting

• 1963 - Tippett: Concerto for Orchestra, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland

• 1999 - Philip Glass: Symphony No. 5 (Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya), at the Salzburg Festival in Austra, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting soloists, choruses, and the Vienna Radio Symphony

Others

• 1949 - Founding of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado as part of a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Goethe’s birth.