Path to Mazeppa

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Hello!
I am hoping to work my way up to Mazeppa (which I currently consider to be one of the hardest piano works of all time) over the course of the next 10 to 15 years.
I recently finished Fur Elise, crashed and burned on Tristesse, and can play the middle portion of Fantaisie Impromptu (the easy part) at .9x speed.
Any tips on how to easily read the score (I have trouble sight-reading most notes), fingering, a general path through to the Transcendental Etudes over the course of 10-15 years, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
P.S. Not sure if this is relevant, but I'm learning independently.
Sorry if my spelling is off in places.
Thanks!

[lelle]

P.S. Not sure if this is relevant, but I'm learning independently.

I think it's relevant. It's very, very hard to get to the point where you can play Mazeppa competently without guidance. I mean you are asking for guidance here anyways, so why not get a teacher instead?

A good teacher will save you a lot of time and setbacks. There is so much about playing piano at a high level that is not readily apparent if you don't already know about it, and you have to get lucky enough that you figure out most of those things on your first try or you'll establish bad habits that can take somewhere between 1-3 years to eradicate again, and which will directly prevent you from playing pieces like Mazeppa.

A general path to Mazeppa would be something like:
1. Get a teacher who can teach you good fundamentals for technique.
2. Play a lot of pieces that are at your level and target skills you need to develop to have a well rounded technique.
3. Work on exercises that help you target skills you need to develop to have a well rounded technique. Could be scales, arpeggios, or other more specific exercises.
4. Play the occasional piece that is outside your comfort zone (but not too far outside) and stretches your skills. You might not master this piece on the first try, but you'll do a decent attempt and learn a lot in the process. Don't play something that's too hard, it'll likely be a waste of time and make you frustrated, and you'll, in your words, just "crash and burn".
5. Develop your sight reading, theory, ear training and other supplemental skills that are essential to play the harder pieces in the repertoire well.
6. Rinse and repeat items 2-5 until you are at the level of the Transcendental Etudes
7.
8. Profit

Following this plan, you might get to taking a shot at Mazeppa faster than 10-15 years.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Thanks for your response, Lelle! This will help me out a lot.

update: I just finished Raindrop Prelude. Surprisingly easy.