Chris Walton, Richard Wagner and the Artist Gustav Gaul: Newly Discovered Drawings in the Austrian National Library

March 2021, Volume 15, Number 1, 43–9.

The year 1861 began for Wagner with a gigantic flop – Tannhäuser in Paris – but his knack of taking failure as a springboard for success meant he was able to turn the tables just a few weeks later, when he bathed in the applause of the Viennese public at a performance of his Lohengrin on 15 May. Wagner was delighted with both the conductor, Heinrich Esser, and with the tenor in the title role, Alois Ander. Der fliegende Holländer followed just three days afterwards at the same theatre, and the general enthusiasm emboldened Wagner in his desire to stage the world premiere of Tristan und Isolde at the Vienna Court Opera the following autumn, with Ander as Tristan.