Wagner's Conception of the Dream

Abstract

I t is well known that Wagner was familiar with a great many different types of narrative and dramatic literature; his interest extended from legend and epic, through ancient Greek drama and the tragedies of Shakespeare, to the Italian, French, and German opera of his time. Of all the dramatic genres that influenced him, German Romantic opera was certainly the most important, and we can in fact consider his achievement to consist in the perfecting of this operatic genre and in its transformation into the musical drama. 54 German Romantic opera-at the furthest possible remove from the realistic and social concerns of French opera-frequently dealt with dreams and with dreamlike situations. The presence of elements of this kind in the action was an automatic consequence of the sources of Romantic libretti in medieval narrative, the comedies of Shakespeare, and the tales of Gozzi; another basis existed in the Singspiel from which Romantic opera evolved, for this popular genre often made prominent use of supernatural figures and highly imaginative action. Every important aspect of the dream was involved in these traditions: its strange content, its illogical succession of images, its illusory character, and its revelatory power. The strangeness of the figures and scenes of the dream often seems to underlie the fantastic and demonic stories of E.T.A. Hoff-