Richter's Wagner: a new source for tempi in Das Rheingold

Despite the number of musicological studies that have focused upon Wagner’s theories of tempo modification, the basic speeds adopted in practice in early performances of Wagner’s music dramas have been more difficult to identify. This article focuses upon an important new source of information concerning Wagnerian performance – a list of metronome timings made by Edward Dannreuther at the first dress rehearsal of Das Rheingold at Bayreuth in July 1876. After considering the practical difficulties of tempo measurement, and briefly placing the broad implications of Dannreuther’s timings in the context of Wagner’s theories and practice, the dress rehearsal tempi are considered in more detail in terms of their interpretative potential. Six readings of Das Rheingold from the recorded canon (Bodanzky, Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, Soli, Karajan, Boulez) provide a suitable comparative perspective from which to discuss how these tempi might affect perceptions of physical distance, the nature of motifs related to characters or events, tempo relationships within a musical scene, and larger-scale tempo connections in Das Rheingold as a whole. In particular, the very quick tempi identified by Dannreuther (especially in relation to modern sensibilities) might encourage a reassessment of practical possibilities in the realisation of Wagner’s scores, along with a reconsideration of Wagner’s music and its meanings.