Beschreibung:

WAGNER, Richard (1813-1883). Autograph musical quotation signed ("Richard Wagner"), Paris, 16 October 1860. 1 page, 4to, 7 bars on two hand-drawn staves, signature a trifle pale, light stains at edges. An attractive quotation of an unidentified passage. A relatively early example, it dates from Wagner's difficult second stay in Paris, 1860-61, when he tried to stage Tristan and Isolde . Three concerts of his works in the Parisian Théâtre-Italien (25 January-8 February 1860) attracted much attention, but left him with a large deficit. His revised Tannhäuser was performed at the request of Napoleon III at the Opéra and for this Wagner composed a new and extended Bacchanale and Venusberg Scene (completed 28 January 1861). But the three performances in March 1861 were disastrous, causing a major theatrical scandal at the instigation of the Jockey Club who objected to Wagner's patron, the Princess Metternich (wife of the Austrian ambassador). The press was generally hostile too, although Wagner found support from a small circle of admirers, including the poet Baudelaire who published a strong defence of Wagner in the Revue européenne (April 1861). By 1860, Wagner had already written some of his key operatic works, including Der fliegende Holländer (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850) and part of his Ring cycle, but his mature works and the construction of the Bayreuth theater still lay ahead of him.