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With thee I would die gladly, But I’ve a wife and child at home, Without me they fare badly!” What' matters my wife, what matters my child, A heavier care has arisen; Let them beg or pray, when they hungry are, My Emperor sighs in a prison! O grant me, brother, but one prayer, ¥ If my hours I now must number, Take with thee my corpse to my native land, In France let me peacefully slumber. | My cross of honor with ribbon red, Then on my bosom place thou, Give me my musket in my hand, My sword around me brace thou. Thus will I listen and lie so still, And watch like a guard o’er the forces, Until the roaring of cannon I hear, And the tramping of neighing horses, Then over my grave will my Emperor ride, While swords gleam brightly and rattle; Then armed to the teeth will I rise from my grave, For my Emperor, my Emperor to battle!! % i OVERTURE TO “RIENZI, THE LAST OF THE TRIBUNES,” in D Major .... Richard Wagner R IENZI der Letze der Tribunen, grand opera in five acts, the text and music by Richard Wagner, was first brought out under the composer’s direction at the Court Opera in Dresden on October 20, 1842. It was suggested to Wagner by reading Bulwer’s novel in Dresden in 1837. He began his sketch of the text in Riga in the autumn of that year, and finished it in the summer of 1838 he almost immediately began the music. When completed, the opera was offered to the Academie de Musique, and then to the Theatre de la Renaissance, but was refused by both. In 1841 Wagner sent the score to Dresden, where it was accepted by the Court Opera; it was owing to this acceptance that he returned to Germany. The music of the opera was written on the general lines of French grand opera, in emulation of the style of Spontini, Meyerbeer, and Halevy; there are few essen- tially Wagnerian traits to be discovered in it, although the composer’s characteristic energy shows itself on almost every page. All the themes of the overture are taken from the body of the work. It begins with a slow introduction, Molto sostenuto e maestoso in D major, opening with a long sustained, swelled and diminished call on the trumpet, the agreed signal for the uprising of the people to throw off the tyrannical yoke of the nobles. Soon comes a majestic cantilena of the violins and celli, the theme of Rienzi’s prayer in the fifth act, the development of which is cut short by some stormy passage-work, leading in crescendo to a fortissimo return of the theme in all the brass. Again is the develop ment of the majestic melody interrupted, and some recitative-like phrases lead to a return of the trumpet call, interspersed with shuddering tremolos in the strings, the last long-drawn A leading over to the main body of the overture.
