cities.

It was generally known that a new work was soon to issue from Wagner's
brain and soon everywhere from the Rhine to the Danube, from rock to
sea, could be heard the Nibelungen! Wagner had, against his innermost
conviction, consented to permit the use of the work by the larger
theatres in the supposition that such personal experience of the
"prodigious deed" would open heart and hand for a still grander one,
the permanent establishment of a distinctive German art. Vienna came
first. However excellent the performance of a few, for instance,
Scaria as Wotan, Materna as Brunnhilde and the orchestra under Hans
Richter, there was lacking the ensemble! The sensation of something
extraordinary, of grandeur and solemnity, that in Baireuth had
elevated the soul to the eternal heights of humanity, was not there.
It was often as when daylight enters a theatre; the sublime illusion
of such a tragic representation was wanting, and Wagner knew that in
this art it is the very bread of life. "The art-work also, like
everything transitory, is only a parable, but a parable of the
ever-present eternal," he said, in taking leave of his friends and
patrons in Baireuth and his purpose now was deeply to impress the
minds of his contemporaries with this "ever-present eternal" and thus
make it permanently effective. The Holy Grail had first to give forth
its last wonder!

Once more he diverts his attention from "outward politics," as he
called the intercourse with the theatres, and collects his thoughts
for a new deed. This was "Parsifal." With this work, performed for the
first time, July 26, 1882, and then repeated thirteen times, he
believed he might close his life-long labors, and assuredly he has
securely crowned them. It seems indeed as if this has finally and
forever broken the obstinate ban that so long separated him and his
art from his people. The success of the Nibelungen Ring had been
called in question, but that of "Parsifal" is beyond doubt, as
sufficiently demonstrated by the attendance of cultured people from
everywhere for so many weeks! "They came from all parts of the world;
as of old in Babel, you can hear speech in every tongue," said a
participant in the festival. With the final slaying of the dragon,
there fell also into the hero's hand the treasure, inasmuch as the
large attendance left a surplus of many thousand marks, thus assuring
the continuation of the festival-plays.

To be sure, the Nibelungen Ring had