100th Post! – Richard Wagner in Victoriana

Since we’ve reached another big round number, I’m going to take this opportunity to be self indulgent. I’ve had a topic rumbling around in my head for a while, and I am going to let it out. I try to keep my posts short (450-550 words), clear, and on point, but today we will ramble all over the place because this post covers a topic with no end of weird applications. The World of Victoriana is filled with big, exciting, operatic, mythical characters, but who’s more Wagnerian than Richard Wagner?

(In case you don't get to end, [and I don't blame you, this is a long one] thank so much for reading my blog!)

Birth-1849

In Leipzig (in the Kingdom of Saxony) on May 22, 1813, Willhelm Richard Wagner was born to Carl Freidrich Wagner (a police clerk) and his wife Johanna Rosine. At an early age, Richard developed a love for the theater, no doubt fostered by his stepfather (rumored real father) Ludwig Geyer, an actor. At 13, Wagner started writing his first play. Wishing to write musical accompaniment for it, he persuaded his family let him take music lessons. At university, his teacher refused payment for teaching Wagner, because of his appreciation for his pupil’s ability.

In the 1830’s Wagner worked for a series of choirs, opera houses, and wrote several operas, but was plagued by his debts and a troubled marriage with actress Christine Wilhelmina “Minna” Planer.
The Wagners fled their massive debts in Riga, to London in 1839. That journey inspired Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman”.  After a few days in London, the Wagner’s stayed in Paris until 1842. Richard earned his living writing essays and arranging music for other composers, but he continued to write his own operas.

Wagner returned to Germany (straight from a debtor prison), for a performance of his opera “Rienzi” in the Dresden Court Theater. The performance succeeded and Wagner fell in love with his long missed homeland. Wagner quickly made up for lost time producing his operas, continuing to write new ones, making friends, and gaining a small following.

1849-1858

In 1849, Wagner fled his home in Dresden because of his part in the unsuccessful May Revolution. He had written inciting articles, entertained members of leftist revolutionary groups, and even built hand grenades.

For the next twelve years, the Wagner’s lived as exiles. While Wagner earned a little money from essays, and conducting all over Europe, they chiefly survived on the charity of friends and admirers. In his essays, Wagner extolled his artistic dreams, political views, and anti-Semitic prejudices to the world.

During this time Wagner’s work grew in technique and grandiosity. He began his greatest and most Wagnerian work, “the Ring of the Nibelung” a massive series of four operas telling an epic story of Norse myth.

Wagner’s loss in status after the revolution and his infidelities caused a cooling in his marriage with Minna, which was brought to a head by his barely hidden affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, wife of his generous patron Otto Wesendonck. After confronting Wagner with a found love letter, Mina returned to Germany and Wagner moved to Venice.

Wagner in Victoriana

As many Victoriana campaigns at least start in London, let’s look at Wagner’s visits to London.

In 1839, Wagner and Minna left Riga and spent a few days wandering around London. Wagner hoped to meet two men: the author Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (to discuss dramatizing Wagner’s Opera Rienzi), and Sir George Smart conductor of the Philharmonic Society (to talk about the music Wagner had previously sent him). Neither was in town. After a few days, the Wagners left for Paris.

In 1855, the conductor for the Philharmonic, Sir Michael Costa, resigned. With no suitable replacement available, their first violinist suggested Wagner. Desperate for money, Wagner accepted. He conducted eight concerts from March 12 to June 25, and was able to play selections from his operas a few times. Although his conducting earned him praise, Wagner made few friends in London, and converted few critics to his daring new style. 

Wagner did make one notable convert. His seventh concert on June 11, was a command performance before Queen Victoria. Although, she showed enthusiasm for Wagner to stage his work “Lohengrin” in England, nothing came of it, eclipsed perhaps by Prince Albert’s death soon after.

Wagner left June 26, the day after his last scheduled concert.

Adventure Ideas

What forces stopped Wagner from meeting Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 and will they keep them apart in 1855? What did Wagner really want to talk about? Does it have anything to do with Bulwer-Lytton’s theories on the hollow earth and a long lost civilization of antediluvian magical dwarf kings?

Alternate Histories

Wagner did not come into money and prestige until later in his life under the patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. For much of his travels, a small following of friends and admirers devoted to his music and ideals supported him.

Our history is not Victoriana’s history. The Core Rulebook suggests the Revolutions of 1848 were somewhat successful. Instead of exile, Wagner could emerge as a new musical voice for the German Confederation. A beloved Wagner with powerful political backing could write more ambitious works, or tour Europe to display the new unified German Opera style.  His music might support a different agenda, however. He could secretly work to further revolutionary aims, or work towards a darker goal.

Or, Wagner’s early success could be a result of Queen Victoria’s patronage. Despite the opinions of London’s critical community, the support of the half German Royal family could bring England’s musical tastes twenty years forward. Instead of waiting for the patronage of King Ludwig II, Wagner could have his own opera house in London in the 1850s.

The ensuing musicological war will have casualties.

Adventure Ideas

The new opera house is under construction, but some of the blueprints are very odd and require some strange materials, including some very complicated Sigil engraving. Wagner brought a dwarf rune smith from Germany, but he has mysteriously disappeared.

The underworld gossips over a plan to kill the Queen at an Operatic Premier. Will Wagner help or hinder the plot?

Wagner oversees concerts of his compositions as a musical ambassador of the German Confederation in London. Strange accidents keep happening during rehearsals and new musicians replace members of his trusted orchestra. Can the players stop the sabotage, or is the sabotage covering a more sinister goal?

A Few Pertinent Operas

Here are some of Wagner’s operas and their timelines pertinent to a campaign in the 1850s:

The Flying Dutchman: Composed 1841/ Premiered January 2, 1842 in Dresden

Tannhauser: Composed 1843-1845/ Premiered October 19, 1845 in Dresden

Lohengrin: Composed 1846-1848/ Premiered August 28, 1850 in Weimar

Das Rheingold: Composed 1853-54/ Premiered September 22, 1869

Die Walkure: Composed 1854-56/ Premiered June 26, 1870

Tristan und Isolde: Composed 1857-1859/ Premiered June 10, 1865

Siegfried: Composed 1856-1857 and 1869-1871/ Premiered August 16, 1876

Adventure Ideas

An encounter with a possessive water spirit in his youth could have inspired the plot of Tannhauser. That water goddess could still be out there looking for Wagner. Perhaps the plot of the Flying Dutchman was inspired by an arrangement he made with unearthly powers to stay out of her grasping clutches.

Portraying Wagner

Wagner was a brilliant, but deeply flawed man. He perpetually lived beyond his mean (as his army of creditors could attest), pursued numerous affairs, and suffered from depression. He could also be affectionate and a welcoming host. He definitely fits in the category of treacherous NPCs Gamemasters love and players hate.

As for physical attributes, Queen Victoria described Wagner in her diary as “"short, very quiet, wears spectacles & has a very finely-developed forehead, a hooked nose & projecting chin." You heard the lady, Wagner makes a great gnome!

Richard Wagner (Operatic composer with vision)

Physical: 5            Initiative: 10

Mental: 7               Health: 12

Social: 9 Quintessence: 40

Damage: Fist (3)

Possible Special Traits:

Entropy 3,

Ahead of his Time and his Creditors +3, Brilliant and Charismatic +2, Touched by Myth +2,

Wagnerian Magic

Wagner felt opera productions as they existed were unable to perform his works adequately. Because of the dominance of Italian Opera, Wagner had trouble finding German singers and musicians of the caliber needed for his music and no opera house could put on shows of the scope Wagner imagined.

With the epic nature of his operas, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine some otherworldly adventures about music with mythic resonances. After a performance of “Tristan and Isolde” Thomas Mann told Wagner  ”You know, that’s not just music anymore.” In a world of gaslight fantasy, that can mean whatever you want.

Wagner’s music stirred hearts, and could not be contained to the stage because it cracked open our world to a more mythic plane of reality. The reality of the pagan Anglo-Saxon Pantheon worshiped by story and song. Each performance loosens the borders between the worlds. What might creep or crash into our reality during a stirring performance?

Wagner’s operas pull together all the arts into a single performance, what Wagner called Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art). This unification opens its spectator’s hearts to a deeper mythic reality ruled by the composer. Wagner can sometimes focus this reality to affect the minds of fans of his music. This explains why he was able to repeatedly get loans from his lover’s husbands.
If he can ever tear open the wall separating our reality from “Wagnerian” reality, he and his followers would be very hard to stop.

As more beneficent use of Wagner’s mythic themes (depending on who benefits), Wagner’s music could inspire heroic action. Characters hearing his music must pass an average Resolve test or be affected by a Leitmotif (a musical theme symbolizing a character, idea, object, or place in an opera). 

The Gamemaster picks a skill. When a character attempts actions with the skill (their Leitmotif) they gain a +2 dice bonus to their rolls. If successful, the next time their Leitmotif bonus is applied they gain an additional +2 dice.  This bonus will grow and grow as the character becomes more possessed by their mythic actions until their Leitmotif bonus dice exceed their Quintessence pips. When this happens, they are lost in a Wagnarian fantasy world, unable to tell fact from fiction or friend from foe until knocked unconscious. Once awake, their mind is clear and their Leitmotif is gone.

While affected by a Leitmotif, characters may be unable to keep from humming, whistling or snapping their fingers to the mysterious tune running through their heads.

100th Post!
Wow, 100 posts. I never thought I would keep up this blog that long. My thanks to everyone at Cubical 7 for their wonderful game! They have made a world worth blogging about. There is no end of material to find, dust off, and make into something new.
I hope you will all stay with me for 100 more.
A very special thanks tor anyone who read the entire 1,748 words about Wagner! You are a fantastic human being!