Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Wagner's "Lohengrin"
Synopsis
In Weimar, Germany, on today’s date in 1850, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt conducted the first performance of “Lohengrin,” a new opera by the 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 himself 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 ProgramRichard Wagner (1813 - 1883) — Lohengrin (Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; Peter Schneider, cond.) Philips 438 500