Amneris had no sooner disappeared within than Aïda approached the place. It was the last night of Radames's freedom, and he and she had arranged to meet near the Temple to speak together, perhaps for the last time of their lives. As she entered the grove she looked sadly about her.
"My griefs and misfortunes are now greater than I can bear," she murmured. "After to-night, all will be over. It is better to drown myself in the Nile than to live alone, without father, mother, country, or friends." Thinking of her lost country, she leaned against the rock and half forgot why she had come. She recalled the warmth and beauty of her childhood's home, and then by contrast her term of slavery in Egypt. While she waited, thinking of these sad things, she saw a man's form coming toward her, through the night; it was not Radames. As he drew nearer she recognized her father, Amonasro.
"Father, what brings thee here?" she whispered.
"A grave cause, my child. Naught escapes my eye. I know thy heart. I know that Radames loves thee and that thou art here to meet him; – also that thou art in the grasp of this Princess, who hates thee."
"Alas, there is no hope," she cried, despairingly.
"That shall be as you may decide, daughter. Our people are waiting for a signal to strike a blow at these Egyptians. Our backbone is not yet broken. All that is needful for our success is to know by what road our enemies will march in their next sortie upon us. That is for thee to find out for us. Radames alone knows – and Radames loves thee," he finished significantly.
"But since he loves me, how can I betray him, father?" she asked.
"Choose – between thy father and the man who is to marry Amneris. – Or – " with a new thought he hesitated a moment – "or why should Radames not leave these cold people for a fairer place and kinder? Why should he not become one of us?" Aïda stared at her father in amazement.
"Betray his people?"
"Why not? Since he loves thee, shall not thy people become his people, even as thou wouldst have made his people thine, hadst thou been wedding him. Choose between us, child."
Amonasro looked at her menacingly. "Unless thou doest this, it means the destruction of thy people and of me; and, too, thou must live and die the hated bond-maiden of this cruel woman Radames is about to marry."
"Radames is coming," she whispered in affright. "What shall I do?"
"Thy duty to me and to thy people and to thyself. Make Radames join us. I shall wait near thee." So saying, he stepped within the shadow of the trees as Radames approached.
"Art thou there, Aïda?" Radames called softly.
"Alas, why should I meet thee," she sobbed, "since thou wilt marry Amneris to-morrow?"
"Aïda, I have come to tell thee there is hope," Radames whispered, trembling with happiness. "The Ethiopians have again risen against us. I am immediately to go forth to battle. I shall crush them this time, and on my return the King will once more be generous to me, and I shall demand then, that for my reward he free me from Amneris and give me thee for my wife. When I have twice saved his kingdom, he cannot refuse me."
"But do you not see that though the King should favour us, yet Amneris's rage would be beyond all bounds?"
"I would defend thee."
"Thou couldst not. She is nearly as powerful as the King. If you slight her we are lost."
"Alas, then, what can I do?"
"But one thing can save us – all of us – my father, you, I."
"Name it," he cried.
"You would not listen to me," she sobbed, wringing her hands in despair.
"I will do whatever you desire," he cried recklessly.
"Then make my people thy people. Fly with us. Even now the Ethiopians are without the gates ready for battle. Join them, lead them, and – "
"A traitor to my country!" he cried, stricken with horror at the thought.
"Then there is no hope. The Princess will drive us to death and despair." She drew a picture that brought it all vividly into Radames's mind. At last with breaking heart he cried:
"I will go with thee – making thy people my people," and he started to leave the Temple with her.
"What path shall we take to avoid the Egyptian soldiers?" she questioned wildly.
"We may go by the same path that the army will take: the gorges of Napata: the way will be free till to-morrow." That was how Aïda discovered the way the Egyptians would take, while her father listened.
"Ah! I will post my men there," Amonasro cried, stepping forth into the moonlight, that Radames might see him.
"Who has heard?" Radames said, with a start.
"Amonasro, Aïda's father, King of Ethiopia," he answered, proudly facing Radames.
"Thou – thou art the King – Amonasro – Aïda thy daughter! Do I dream? I have betrayed my people to thee!" He suddenly realized all that he had done, in wavering between love and duty.
"No, thy people are the people of Aïda. The throne is thine, to share with her."
"My name will be forever branded – a coward!" He groaned in despair.
"No blame to thee, son. It was thy fate; and with us thou wilt be far from these scenes that try thy heart: far away where none can reproach thee." But Radames knew that he had better die than live, knowing himself for a traitor. He determined that he would not go; that he would remain and undo the wrong that he had blindly done, but even then Aïda was trying to drag him away, and urging him with each loving breath to fly with them. As he would have broken away from her, Amneris, who had heard all, ran from the Temple, crying, "Traitor!"
"Destruction! She would undo us," Amonasro shouted, and as the people began to pour from the Temple, he sprang forward and would have plunged his sword through her had Radames not sprung between them.
"Thou art a madman," he shouted, horrified at the deed Amonasro would have done. Meantime all was confusion. People shouted for the guard, and Radames cried to Aïda:
"Fly with thy father. Fly or thou art lost." His voice was so full of agony for her that she suddenly turned and fled.
"Follow them," Ramphis demanded of the soldiers, while Radames said hopelessly:
"Ramphis, I yield to thee."
ACT IV
There was no joy in the court, and Amneris sat in the vast hall of the palace between Radames's prison, on the one hand, and the hall of justice on the other, where the trial of the gallant soldier was soon to be held. He was in prison, and Aïda and her father were far away. Amneris still loved him, and hoped yet to save him, and thus to win his love. Presently she called to the guard to bring him before her, and almost at once he was brought through the hall accompanied by the priests who were to try him in the underground dungeon.
"Radames, the priests who are to judge thee are assembled. Consent to clear thyself. Say that thou didst not mean to betray us and I, myself, will kneel to the King, and promise you your freedom. I would give my life and power and country for thee," Amneris pleaded, as he passed before her.
"I would give no less for Aïda," Radames declared sadly. "I shall not try to save myself. I shall say nothing in my own defense. I wish to die."
At the mention of Aïda, Amneris was enraged.
"I'll hear no more of her!" she cried.
"Ah, you have killed her – "
"No! Her father is slain, but she lives. She has vanished – no one knows where!"
"Then may the gods guide her safe to her home and country, and keep her from knowing how I die."
"If you will swear to see her no more, Radames, I will save thee."
"If I were to live I should find her. I will not swear."
"Then you shall die. If you will not hear me, I shall avenge myself," she answered bitterly, motioning to the guards to take him away.
Radames was taken below to the subterranean hall which was to be his grave and judgment hall alike, while Amneris was left alone, both grief-stricken and revengeful. Her jealousy was certain to bring fearful retribution upon her. As more white-robed priests passed below, looking spectral and ominous, she hid her face in her hands.
"It was I who brought him to this fate," she murmured, and then listened in anguish to the chorus of the priests which sounded dismally from below.
Then a voice called from the crypt, three times:
"Radames, Radames, Radames," and it was his summons to judgment.
"Oh, who can save him now?" Amneris murmured, horrified at what was taking place.
"Defend thyself!" she heard voices from below command. There was no answer.
"Radames, Radames, Radames," the High Priest called again in a fearful voice, and again the Princess shuddered.
"Thou hast deserted the encampment the very day before the combat! – defend thyself." She listened, but still no answer.
"Radames, Radames, Radames," again the High Priest called, and for the third and last time. Still no answer.
"Oh, have mercy on him," Amneris then cried, her love becoming greater than her desire for revenge. Then listening again, she heard the judge say:
"Radames, thy fate is decided. It is to be the fate of a traitor. You shall be buried alive beneath the altar of the God of War, whom thou hast derided and betrayed."
"Oh, horror," Amneris shrieked.
"We have spoken," the priests replied, and then ascended.
"Ye priests of Isis, ye are tigers! demons!" and the Princess assailed them bitterly as they came into the hall. She was now mad with grief. Truly loving Radames, she cursed the priests and even the gods. Then the scene changed, revealing the interior of Vulcan's Temple and the crypt beneath the altar. There were spectral statues, and great marble columns which seemed to vanish in the gloom, and all was gloomy as the grave. Stairs led from the temple above into the vault, and Radames sat down upon the steps as the priests let down again the massive stone that covered the opening beneath the altar. Radames watched the closing of the opening, the descent of the great stone into place.
"I can bear my fate, since Aïda may never know. She could not survive such horror," he said, under his breath. The vault, the ghostly cold about him, the rows upon rows of senseless marble, supported by the expressionless stone faces of the gods, these things overwhelmed the great warrior. Then, from the gloom, he saw a white figure emerge. Is it a phantom? At first he thought it some fearful vision. But as he peered through the twilight he recognized – Aïda. Perhaps it was her ghost come to comfort him, he thought, and raised himself to stare at the figure.
"Aïda!"
"I am here to die with thee," she answered, and Radames clasped her in his arms. He had thought her safe, unacquainted with his fate, but she was there to share it.
"My heart foreboded thy fearful sentence," she said. "I hid here till the stone shut down upon thee, and now I am beside thee till the end."
Radames beat wildly upon the stone above. He called for help. He tried with his great strength to raise the deadly stone with his shoulders, only to sink down, exhausted and horrified. He could not save her. The chorus sung by priests began above; Aïda was already dying. At least she would not live slowly to starve. And while Amneris appeared above in black garments, dying of grief for Radames, and threw herself upon the stone, Radames held the dying Aïda in his arms and waited for death.
"Peace," Amneris moaned while lying prostrate above on the altar stone.
"Peace," and while the women were dying and Radames losing his senses below, the priests of Isis chanted, "Peace," the light faded out, and the tragedy ended.
WAGNER
RICHARD WAGNER was born in Leipzig, on the 22d of May, 1813. His father was Chief of Police and his mother was Johanna Rosina Bertz.
His brothers and sisters were distinguished singers or actors; thus love of dramatic art was common to all the family. His father died and his mother married an actor, Ludwig Geyer. The stepfather became very fond of young Richard and intended to make a painter of him, but upon hearing him play some of his sister's piano pieces Geyer wondered if it were possible that he had the gift of music!
Wagner was a poor scholar during his school days, the only thing he especially enjoyed being literature, mainly Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Æschylus; and about the time the dramatic philosophies of these men filled his attention, he wrote a great drama in which there were forty-two characters, every one of whom was killed or died in the course of the play, so that he was compelled to finish his performance with the spectres of his original characters. Later he wished to put music to that remarkable drama, and he did so, much to the distraction of his family. It was actually performed. He thus described his composition:
This was the culmination of my absurdities. What I did, above all things wrong, was a roll fortissimo upon the kettle-drums, which returned regularly every four bars throughout the composition. The surprise which the public experienced changed first to unconcealed ill-humour, and then into laughter, which greatly mortified me.
It was under Theodor Weinlig's teaching that he finally developed a fixed purpose of composition and something like regular study.
When he first wished to marry, he could not for lack of money to provide a home for his wife. In time this difficulty was overcome, and later he started to London with his wife and his dog, which was named Robber. The terrors of that voyage impressed him so much that he was inspired with the idea for "The Flying Dutchman," one of his great operas. He was told the legend of "The Flying Dutchman" by the sailors; but long before he was able to write that splendid opera he was compelled to write music for the variety stage in order to feed his wife and himself. He wrote articles for musical periodicals, and did a great deal of what is known as "hack" work before his great genius found opportunity. One manager liked the dramatic idea of "The Flying Dutchman" so well that he was willing to buy it if Wagner would let him get some one who knew how to write music, to set it.
After the production of "Rienzi" in Dresden, his difficulties were never again so serious, and soon he became Hofkapellmeister (musical director at court), which gave him an income, leaving him free to write operas as he chose.
When "Rienzi" was produced, a great musician said: "This is a man of genius; but he has already done more than he can! Listen to me, and give up dramatic composition!" But he continued to "do more than he could."
When he wrote "Tannhäuser" he was reduced almost to despair, for nobody liked it. Schumann said of it: "It is the empty and unpleasing music of an amateur." But Spohr wrote: "The opera contains certain new and fine things, which at first I did not like, but to which I became accustomed on repeated hearings."
At last, this composer, whose inspirations had come entirely from historical subjects, found his mythological beginnings in the Scandinavian Eddas; and in a poem of the "Nibelung" he found the germ of "Siegfried."
As Kapellmeister of the court, Wagner did too many indiscreet things: allied himself with revolutionists and the like; and, before he knew it, he found himself an exile. Liszt was his friend, and when, on a visit to Weimar, politics made his presence hazardous, Liszt got him a passport which took him out of the country. He did not return for twelve years.
During his exile, which was passed mostly in Zurich, he had Karl Ritter and Hans von Bülow for pupils, and it was there that he did all of his most wonderful work. There he composed the "Nibelung Ring." He wrote the last of it first, and the first of it ("Das Rheingold") last. This was because his central idea, as it developed, seemed to need explanation, and successive operas upon the same dramatic and mythological theme became necessary.
Wagner's mythology is not the mythology of the Eddas. It is distinctly his own, he having adapted a great and rugged folklore to his dramatic purposes, regardless of its original construction.
In the Ring, the Goddess Fricka is a disagreeable goddess of domesticity, and the story is told of a first reading of the opera series, which involved an anecdote of Fricka and his hostess:
He went to the house of a friend, Wille, to read the poem after it was finished, and Madame Wille happened to be called from the room, while he was reading, to look after her little sick child. When she returned, Wagner had been so annoyed by the interruption that he thereafter named Madame Wille, Fricka.
During a sleepless night in Italy he formed the plan for the music of "Das Rheingold," but not wishing to write on Italian soil, he got up and hastened to Zurich.
He would not come to America to give a series of concerts because he "was not disposed to go about as a concert-pedlar, even for a fabulous sum."
The irony of all the world is epitomized in a single incident that occurred to Wagner in London. He was accused of a grave fault because he conducted Beethoven's symphonies "from memory." Therefore he announced he would thereafter conduct them from the score. He reappeared with the score very much in evidence upon his rack, and won British approval completely. Then he announced that he had conducted from "Il Barbiere de Siviglia" with the Barber's score upside down!
He wrote to his friend Roekel: "If anything could increase my scorn of the world, it would be my expedition to London."
Wagner was fiery and excessive in all his feelings and doings. He hurt his friends without malice, and made them happy for love of doing so. His home was broken up by his own unruly disposition; and when his good, commonplace wife left him, it was said that he neglected to take care of her, but this was not true. She, herself, denied it before she died. His second marriage was a happy one – to the daughter of his friend Liszt.
When his little son was born, he named him Siegfried, after his favourite hero, and at the time of the christening he had a magnificent little orchestra hidden away, conducted by Hans Richter, which played the old German cradle-song, now woven into the third act of "Siegfried."
The manner in which the cycle of the "Nibelung Ring" was first presented was as follows: The first opera was given on a Sunday, the last on a Wednesday, and then there were three days of rest, beginning once more on a Sunday and ending as before. This order continued for three representations, and it has been followed in Bayreuth ever since.
For lack of means, Wagner saw his theatre opened only three times, but since his death there have been several performances.
THE NIBELUNG RING
FIRST DAY
TETRALOGY
The Rhein Daughters: Woglinde, Wellgunde, Flosshilde; guardians of the Rheingold. They appear in the "Rheingold" and in the "Dusk of the Gods."
Fricka: Goddess of Marriage or domesticity, Wotan's wife; sister of Donner, Froh, and Freïa. Appears in the "Rheingold" and in the "Valkyrie."
Freïa: Goddess of Plenty; sister to Donner, Froh, and Fricka. Appears in the "Rheingold."
Erda: Goddess of Wisdom; mother of the three Fates or Norns and of the nine Valkyries. Appears in the "Rheingold" and in "Siegfried."
Sieglinde: Daughter of Wotan under his name of Wälse. Hunding's wife, and then Siegmund's wife. Siegfried is her son. Appears in the "Valkyrie."
Brünnhilde: A Valkyrie; daughter of Wotan and Erda; first Siegfried's wife, then Gunther's.
The Valkyries: Helmwige, Gerhilde, Waltraute, Ortlinde, Rossweisse, Grimgerde, and Schwertleite. Daughters of Wotan and Erda, and sisters to Brünnhilde. Appear in the "Valkyrie," and Waltraute also in the "Dusk of the Gods."
Norns: Earth's daughters who spin men's destinies.
Gutrune: Daughter of Gibich and Grimilde and Gunther's sister, Hagen's half-sister, and Siegfried's wife. Appears in the "Dusk of the Gods."
Wotan: (The Wanderer) King of the Gods, and God of War, Father of the Valkyries, Father of Siegmund and Sieglinde. Appears in the "Rheingold," the "Valkyrie," and as the Wanderer, in "Siegfried." Married to Fricka.
Alberich: Gnome: King of the Nibelungs, Spirit of Darkness. Appears in the "Rheingold," "Siegfried," and the "Dusk of the Gods."
Fasolt: Giant and brother of Fafner; belongs to the race of mortals. Appears in the "Rheingold."
Fafner: Giant and brother of Fasolt, and of the race of mortals. Appears in the "Rheingold" and "Siegfried."
Froh: God of Pleasure; brother of Donner and Freïa, and Fricka. Appears in the "Rheingold."
Donner: God of Thunder, brother to Fricka, Freïa, and Froh. Appears in the "Rheingold."
Loge: Spirit of Fire and Flame. Belongs first to the underworld and then the Gods. Appears in the "Rheingold."
Mime: Dwarf (Nibelung, foster-father of Siegfried.) Appears in the "Rheingold" and in "Siegfried."
Siegmund: Son of Wotan, husband to Sieglinde and Siegfried's father. Appears in the "Valkyrie."
Siegfried: Son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, and grandson of Wotan (Wälse). Husband of Brünnhilde and Gutrune. Appears in "Siegfried" and the "Dusk of the Gods."
Hunding: Sieglinde's husband. Appears in the "Valkyrie."
Gunther: Son of Gibich and Grimhilde and brother to Gutrune and husband to Brünnhilde; half-brother to Hagen. Appears in the "Dusk of the Gods."
Hagen: Son of Alberich and Grimhilde; half-brother to Gunther and Gutrune. Appears in the "Dusk of the Gods."