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Richard Wagner
Tristan und Isolde Synopsis |  |
A vassal is sent to woo a beauteous princess for his lord. While he
is bringing her home the two, by accident, drink a love potion, and
ever thereafter their hearts are fettered together. In the midday of
delirious joy, in the midnight of deepest woe, their thoughts are
only of each other, for each other. Meanwhile the princess has
become the vassal's queen. Then the wicked love of the pair is
discovered, and the knight is obliged to seek safety in a foreign
land. There he marries another
princess whose name is like that of his love, save for the addition
With the White Hand; but when wounded unto death he sends across the
water for her who is still his true love, that she come and be his
healer. The ship which is sent to bring her is to bear white sails
on its return if successful in the mission; black, if not. Day after
day the knight waits for the coming of his love while the lamp of
his life burns lower and lower. At length the sails of the ship
appear on the distant horizon. The knight is now himself too weak to
look. "White or black?" he asks of his wife. "Black," replies she,
jealousy prompting the falsehood; and the knight's heart-strings
snap in twain just as his love steps over the threshold of his
chamber. Oh, the pity of it! for with the lady is her lord, who,
having learned the story of the fateful potion, has come to unite
the lovers. Then the queen, too, dies, and the remorseful king
buries the lovers in a common grave, from whose caressing sod spring
a rose-bush and a vine and intertwine so curiously that none may
separate them.
Richard Wagner Facts and Information
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