Richard Wagner classical music. His "Tristan und Isolde" is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music. Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The "Ring" and "Parsifal" were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, run by his descendants. His thoughts on the relative contributions of music and drama in opera were to change again, and he reintroduced some traditional forms into his last few stage works, including "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" ("The Mastersingers of Nuremberg"). Until his final years, Wagner's
Lohengrin (opera) opera, the through-composed music drama. The composition is not divided into individual numbers, but is played from scene to scene without any interruption. This style of composition contrasts with that of the conventional number opera, which is divided into arias, recitatives, and choral sections. "Lohengrin" still contains lengthy performances—for example, Elsa's "Alone in dark days" and Lohengrin's Grail aria—which harken back to the classical solo aria form. Wagner made extensive use of leitmotives in his composition (for example, the Grail motif first revealed in the prelude, and the "question" motif first sung by Lohengrin to Elsa). These motives allowed Wagner