Untimely Meditations: Richard Wagner in Bayreuth

The concluding essay of the cycle “Untimely Reflections” is devoted to the figure of Richard Wagner and the significance of his work, in particular the discovery of the Bayreuth festival theater as an event capable of renewing art and culture. * * * “For an event to have greatness, two conditions are necessary: the greatness of the spirit of those who carry it out, and the greatness of those who experience it….… into the soul of each person who sees the coming event there creeps the concern whether those who will experience it deserve it. In our affairs we always hope for this mutual correspondence between deeds and receptiveness, and we have it in mind both in the small and in the great; and whoever wants to give must take care that the people receiving his gift stand at the height of the latter. That is why even a single act by a great person lacks all greatness if it is fleeting, dull, and fruitless; for at the moment when he performed it, in any case, he did not have the deep awareness that it was precisely now necessary; he did not quite hit the mark and did not choose the time quite accurately. He was under the power of chance, whereas being great and seeing the necessity are inseparably connected….”