'The Lord himself now thy bondage hath riven.
Go, enter in with the blest in His heaven.'




[Illustration: ORTRUD KNEELING BEFORE ELSA.]


LOHENGRIN.


During a summer vacation at Teplitz in Bohemia, in 1845, Wagner
wrote the first sketch of the opera of 'Lohengrin.' The poem
was written at Dresden in 1845, but the score was finished
only in 1848. The opera was first performed at Weimar in 1850,
under the leadership of Liszt, who was greatly interested in it,
and determined to make it a success.

The poet composer had taken the idea for this poem from a
mediæval legend, based upon the old Greek myth of Cupid and
Psyche. Its poetical and musical possibilities immediately
struck him, and when the opera was first played to an audience
composed of musical and literary people from all parts of Europe,
whom Liszt had invited to be present, it produced 'a powerful
impression.' From the memorable night of its first performance
'dates the success of the Wagner movement in Germany.' During
the next nine years this opera was given in fourteen different
cities, and Wagner, who was then a political exile, is reported