Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
1848- SCHUMANN —1850 361
the way which Schumann considered necessary
for an opera. The composer was at last obliged
to trust to his own poetic powers, and construct
a, text himself from those already mentioned.
By August 1848 the music for the opera was
so far complete that Schumann thought he
might take steps for its performance. His first
thought was of the theatre at Leipzig, where
he knew that he was most warmly remembered.
"Wirsing was at that time the director, Julius
Kietz the conductor, and the opera was to have
been brought out in the spring of 1849, bxit it
came to nothing. In June, when the preparations
were to have begun, Schumann was
detained by domestic circumstances, and the
rest of the year slipped away with constant
evasions and promises on the part of the
director of the theatre. Even the promise,
'on his honour,' that the opera should be
performed at the end of February 1850, at
latest, was not kept. And so in this, his very
first attempt at dramatic work, Schumann
made acquaintance with the shady side of
theatrical management in a way which must
have disgusted his upright and honourable
spirit. In his indignation, he would have
made the dii-ector's breach of faith public, by
invoking the aid of the law ; but his Leipzig
friends were happily able to dissuade him from
this course. At last, on June 25, 1850, the
fijTst representation of Genoveva ' ' actually took
place under Schumann's own direction. But
the time was unfavourable. 'Who,' he writes
to Dr. Hermann Hartel, ' goes to the theatre
in May or June, and not rather into the woods ?'
However, the number of his admirers in Leipzig
was great, and the first opera by so famous a
master excited great expectations ; the house
was full, and the reception by the public,
though not enthusiastic, was honourable to the
composer. Still, artists and connoisseurs were
tolerably unanimous in thinking that Schumann
lacked the special genius for writing opera.
His almost entire exclusion of recitative was
very widely disapproved of. No one but the
venerable Spohr, who had attended many of
the rehearsals, gave a really favourable verdict
upon the work. In his last opera, 'The
Crusaders,' Spohr himself had adopted similar
methods of making the music follow the plot
closely without ever coming to a standstill,
and he was naturally delighted to find the
same in Schumann's work. After three representations
(June 25, 28, 30) 'Genoveva' was
laid aside for the time. Schumann, already
vexed by the tedious postponements of the
first performance, and disappointed by the cold
reception of the work, was greatly annoyed by
the discussions in the public prints, especially
by a critique from Dr. E. Kruger, one of the
collaborateurs in the Neue Zeitschrift. A letter
from Schumann to Kruger, in stronger terms
than might have been expected from him, put
an end for ever to their acquaintance.
Schumann derived far more gratification
from the reception of his music to Faust.
'
In 1848 he completed the portion he had
originally intended to write first, viz. the
salvation of Faust, which forms the end of the
second part of Goethe's poem, and the music of
which is called the third ' part.' On June 25,
1848, the first performance took place among
a limited circle of friends, upon whom it made
a deep impression. The most cultivated portion
of the audience was of opinion that the
music made the meaning of the words clear for
the first time, so deeply imbued was the composer
with the poet's inmost spirit. As the
100th anniversary of Goethe's birthday was
approaching (August 28, 1849) it was decided
to give a festival concert in Dresden, at which
this ' Faust ' music and Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht'
'
should form the programme.
'
When the Leipzig people heard of this intention,
they would not be behind Dresden, and
also got up a performance of the same works
on August 29. In Weimar too the ' Faust
music was performed for the same festivity.
Schumann was exceedingly delighted that his
work had been employed for so special an
occasion. He writes to Dr. Hartel : 1 should
'
like to have Faust's cloak, and be able to be
everywhere at once, that I might hear it.' In
Dresden the success of the work was very
considerable, but it made less impression at itis
first performance in Leipzig. Schumann took
this quite calmly. 'I hear different accounts,'
says he in a letter, of the impression produced
'
by my scenes from "Faust" ; some seem to have
been affected, while upon others it made no
definite impression. This is what I expected.
Perhaps an opportunity may occur in the winter
for a repetition of the work, when it is possible
that I may add some other scenes.' This
repetition, however, did not take place in Schumann's
lifetime. He fulfilled his scheme of
adding several scenes ;
and in 1853 prefixed
an overture to the whole work, which was
divided into three parts. It was not published
complete until two years after his death.
In the meantime, Schumann's health had
again improved, as was evident from his augmented
creative activity. Indeed his eager
desire for work increased in a way which gave
rise to great apprehensions. In the year 1849
alone he produced thirty works, most of them
of considerable extent. It had never seemed so
easy to him to create ideas and bring them into
shape. He composed as he walked or stood,
and could not be distracted, even by the most
disturbing circumstances. Thus he wrote Mignon's
song Kennst du ' das Land ' at Kreischa,
near Dresden, in the midst of a group of his
noisy children. And in a restaurant near the
post-oifioe, much frequented by the artistic