Pen and ink, wash, white gouache.

18.9 x 14.2 inches. Private collection 

"But for Wagner, too, feeling alone can "captivate to participation," as he explains in Opera and Drama. In the "most perfect work of art" its creator communicates his intention "by using all the artistic expressive abilities of man (...) to the most immediate receptive organs of feeling, the senses". Music, action and scene must thereby produce a "sympathetic effect". In other words: Before understanding, music and scenic representation set a rationally not controllable identification with the represented. The spectator is torn out of his prejudices, out of his everyday point of view, out of his mere opinions about love, power, betrayal, greed – or whatever else is being negotiated in the drama – and drawn into the perspective of the stage action, which is initially alien to him. Wagner's aesthetic program: alienation through empathy, generation of empathy through calculated overpowering."

(From: "The small Wagnerian", Enrik Lauer and Regine Müller, C.H. Beck Verlag)