Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

The introduction of Richard Wagner’s music dramas in Stockholm
“I am able to enjoy Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, for example, almost without
reservation, because already as operas in the usual sense these works
are already among the best of the century.” (Lindgren 1881, p. 50)
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Lindgren claims that Wagner had introduced justifiable innovations in those
works, “yet without breaking apart the musical form” and developing his
theories ad absurdum. Om Wagnerismen begins with a short résumé of Wagner’s
Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, and continues with a very thorough and
generally accurate summary of the main ideas in Oper und Drama (pp. 10-
23). Lindgren’s conclusion is that these leading ideas constituted “a strange
mixture of sensible opinions and misunderstandings with divine flashes of
genius” (p. 23). He continues with a predominantly polemic evaluation of
Oper und Drama, taking some of the objections from Eduard Hanslick. It is
not possible to give an account of all his criticisms in this article. The focus
is therefore on the topics that were influential later on in the Swedish reception
of Die Meistersinger and Die Walküre, most of which centred around
a group of terms that played a decisive role in the reception of Wagner’s
works from an early stage: ‘infinite melody’, ‘leitmotif’, ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’
and ‘music drama’. As Carl Dahlhaus (Deathridge and Dahlhaus 1984, p.
111) points out, “it is hard to decide whether the assistance they gave in
promoting understanding of the works was greater or less that the harm
they did through oversimplification and trivialization.” 6
Infinite melody
According to Lindgren, Wagner’s music dramas lacked a healthy and satisfactory
periodic melody. Infinite melody raged like a storm in Tristan, Die
Meistersinger and the Ring, “running riot, suppressing almost all musical
form, all unity, all ordered clarity, all posture” (p. 39). He goes on to quote
Hanslick, claiming that infinite melody could not be better described than
in these words:
“Anxiously omitting every conclusive cadence, this boneless tonal mollusk
floats on toward the immeasurable, renewing itself from its own
substance. Fearing the ordinariness of natural perfect cadences or half
cadences, Wagner turns to another, but not better pedantry; he becomes
5 Lindgren is not consistent in his use of terminology, and sometimes designates the
later works as operas and the earlier ones as music dramas.
6 For critical discussions on the history, use, and possible meanings of these terms, see
Carl Dahlhaus 1984, pp. 111-118, and Thomas S. Grey 1995.