Note 364 — Chapter II · THE ARTIST IN THEORY (continued 2)
Reading edition
In the scene of the Contest of Song in the second Act of Tannhäuser, he says, "my real object was, if possible, to compel the hearer, for the first time in the history of opera, to take an interest in a poetic idea, and to follow it up in all its necessary developments." Mein Leben, p. 364.