In describing how Wagner conceived the whole of his ambitious artistic project, Thomas Mann writes: "There is no chronology of his operas: they are born at a certain date, but they are ready before the date all of a sudden". Each of his works is elaborated on a personal, musical and literary, artistic and theoretical, even political context. Lohengrin was conceived at the same time as Tannhäuser (1845), which was conceived at the same time as Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868). Always caught up in the preparations of Tannhäuser, Wagner completed the libretto of Lohengrin. The literary style is deliberately...