vocal parts are extraordinary in their declamatory significance, the
strength of the opera lies in the instrumentation, and its charm in
the delicious fun and merriment which pervades it all and is aptly
expressed in the closing lines:--

"All in this world is jesting.
Man is born to be jolly,
E'en from grief some happiness wresting
Sure proof against melancholy."




WAGNER.

Richard Wagner, who has been somewhat ironically called the musician
of the future, and whose music has been relegated to posterity by a
considerable number of his contemporaries, was born at Leipsic, May
22, 1813. After his preliminary studies in Dresden and Leipsic, he
took his first lessons in music from Cantor Weinlig. In 1836 he was
appointed musical director in the theatre at Magdeburg, and later
occupied the same position at Königsberg. Thence he went to Riga,
where he began his opera "Rienzi." He then went to Paris by sea, was
nearly shipwrecked on his way thither, and landed without money or
friends. After two years of hard struggling he returned to Germany.
His shipwreck and forlorn condition inspired the theme of "The Flying
Dutchman," and while on his way to Dresden he passed near the castle
of Wartburg, in the valley of Thuringia, whose legends inspired his
well-known opera of "Tannhäuser." He next removed to Zurich, and about
this time appeared "Lohengrin," one of his most favorite operas.