Editing Siegfried (opera) (section)

==Background and context==
{{Further|Der Ring des Nibelungen{{!}}''Der Ring des Nibelungen''}}
{{Quote box|width=200px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=|quote=  '''Structure of the ''Ring'' cycle'''<br />
#''[[Das Rheingold]]''
#''[[Die Walküre]]''
#''Siegfried''
#''[[Götterdämmerung]]'' |salign = left|source= }}

The [[libretto]] of ''Siegfried'' was drafted by Wagner in November–December 1852, based on an earlier version he had prepared in May–June 1851 and originally entitled ''Jung-Siegfried'' (''Young Siegfried''), later changed to ''Der junge Siegfried''. The musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871.<ref name= "Millingtonnd">Millington, (n.d.)</ref>

The libretto arose from Wagner's gradual reconception of the project he had initiated with his libretto ''Siegfrieds Tod'' (''Siegfried's Death'') which was eventually to be incarnated as ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'', the final section of the Ring cycle. Having sketched music and worked with the text for ''Siegfrieds Tod'' in 1851, he realized that it would need a 'preface'. At this point he conceived that the prefatory opera, ''Der junge Siegfried'', could act as a comic foil to the tragedy of ''Siegfrieds Tod''.<ref>Bailey (1977), 49</ref> Preliminary musical sketches for ''Der junge Siegfried'' in 1851 were however quickly abandoned, although Wagner had written to his friend [[Theodor Uhlig]] that "the musical phrases are making themselves for these stanzas and periods, without my even having to take pains for them. It's all growing out of the ground as if it were wild." Shortly afterwards he wrote to Uhlig that he was now planning to tell the Siegfried story in the form of "three dramas, plus a prologue in three acts"—a clear prefiguring of the Ring cycle.<ref>Bailey (1977), 49–50</ref>

Full work was finally commenced on the music of ''Siegfried'', as the composer henceforth referred to it, in 1856, when Wagner prepared concurrently two drafts, a complete draft in pencil and a version in ink on up to three [[staff (music)|staves]] in which he worked out details of instrumentation and vocal line. The composition of Acts I and II was completed by August 1857. Wagner then left off work on ''Siegfried'' to write the operas ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' and ''[[Die Meistersinger]].'' He did not resume work on ''Siegfried'' until 1869, when he composed the third act. The final revision of the score was undertaken in February 1871. Performance was withheld until the first complete production of the Ring cycle, at Bayreuth in August 1876.<ref name= "Millingtonnd"/>