Wagner’s other ‘ring cycle’ and its problems.

William Ashton Ellis: 'Less than four months after the words last cited, Richard Wagner sees that even the transcendent ideal which has sustained him in his troubles hitherto must be renounced. Of his own free will he writes Mathilde in December, resigning his last claim to soul-communion, whilst he seeks to turn the mournful stream of his reflections by taking up a “comic opera,” Die Meistersinger.'