The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-27


ners last opera
7 xas present the other evening at full
5,oss stage rehearsal of Herr Wagner's DdS
PbeinoOld the Prologue to his three Nibe-
Innoen operas This rehearsal was in most
respects. tantamount to a first performance
elsewhere; and was followed during some two
and-a-half of the dreariest hours which L ever
endured with an amount of readiness to ad-
paire. and patience to listen, creditable to the
good faith of all concerned, but therefore
Rone the less amazing. The Opera Orchestra
in Munich, notoriously superb, had been
strengthened for the occasion, and included
many harps. By new arrangement it was
sunk out of sight, the traditional foot-lights
being also removed. Both innovations seemed
to me open to question. The stage was too
dark; the accompaniments, at the back of the
parterre, sounded weak, wiry, and ill-balanced.
The harps were no more potent than so many
gnats would have BEEN
But the world had been promised scenic
effects of exquisite fantasy. The opening
scene of DGS HteiHq0ld is the bed of the
Rhine, where three swimming nymphs of the
stream are discovered as wheeling upwards
and downwards, in guard of the mysterious
golden treasure AS q stage effect, this
would be- under the best of conditions, OBJ
viously eXtravagant-need it to be said, i'm
possible? Yet the solution of similar diff
Guilty was infinitely better effected at the
Grand Opera of Paris, some thirty-fve years
ago. when Taglioni danced so exquisitely to
Adolphe Adams charming music, in La FGye
dt DdRube. The subsequent scenes, including
q final one with practicable rainbow, low
to earth. and intended for persons to mount
by way of tableau were picturesque enough;
but by those who recolect analogous displays
at Berlin, Paris, and-last, not least-Lon-
DON it could not be accepted as either amaz-
ing or probable. 1t is needful to dwell on,
these facts, because to consider them becomes
Just necessity, when scenic whole, OK
hibited by one who has more impudently sati-
rized his predecessors than any one pretend
ing to the name of musical artist has done be-
fore him-and who has professed toinaugurate
new erals paraded before the public Herr
Waeners dreams of shows, which were to
carry off the ancient legend, monstrous and
dull as arranged by him (yet not without
certain amount of grim, old-world poetry in
its idea), and music such as he is capable of
making, have not-alas the day - been
realized.
Everybody concerned in the failure of the
rehearsal and the postponement of the perform
ance is of course to blame-save the arrogant
author But the work in itself, apart from all
its trappings and paddings and puffs prelimi-
nary and enthusiasm wrought up to fever
heat by the herd ready to wonder, with
foolish face of praise, at any long-bearded
prophet or sepulchral seer who is able, by
force of brass to get a hearing and patron
what is the work, when it is dispassionately
considered? Let it be granted that the NJ
beIungeD Lied offers matter for three sepa-
rate and consecutive musical dramas, TO be
performed on as many successive evenings
after first or predatory one has been devoted
to Dos Rhe5ngOId. This is a concession,
ON the one hand, tolerably sweeping; WHILE
ON the other, such grant inevitably limits
he o4o&, Nf tha, al 1I,,n al
Dds RheiRgOJd consists of four scenes-the
first framing three swimming and singing
nymphs, who caracole up and down the hill
peaks at the bottom of the Rhine, with pain
fully acrobatic gestures, to a gibberish of
vowel-sounds, recalling similar cries in the
Faust of Berlioz, and--prOh pud0r-the
barking dogs in Nj. Offenbach's Roj Borb0lt?
After this water music enters the hero, to the
following euphonious line
"Garsug gatter glitschriger Glmmer."
The entire EJrett0 is wrought out in Ian
guage varying between such hideous caco-
phony as the above and euphuistic allitera-
tion no less remarkable, the source of the
verse considered. The march of the story
(Which marches not) is no less singular and
Wagnerian. The legend is conducted by a
series of monologues, with the occa-
sional production of bystanders who
have nothing to say and do. There
is small apparent reason why (Herr
Wagner's courage holding out) it should not
have been prolonged for some ten hours and
as many scenes more And DGS RtejngOJd,
be it recollected is represented as only the
first of a series of four Festival Perform
ances
Never has partisanship been so unblushing
and unscrupulous as on this occasion Those
who refer to the piano-forte score (MM
Schott q Co. will hear with amazement that
persons of no mean authority promised that
Dds RteingOM was to reveal an entire change
in its masters manner, that the work was
of the simplest possible structure and full
of Ineligible melody So far from this
being the case, all who refuse to surrender
themselves to the insanities of the hour
must agree that the scanty and spare anc
stale melodic phrases which it contains
foisted on the public by feeble and inflated
efforts at orchestral intricacy, are compl
Gated and worked to death with persistency
which, if found in the work of an old master,
would call forth an outpouring of the vials OF
vitriolic sarcasm by these new prophets and
their fanatical congregations.
The opening prelude, however, on meagre
four-bar phrase may be said to produce a
monotonous and flowing water-effect by its
repetition and climax. There is a stately
entrance for the bass voice at the second
scene. The appearance of the Rhine
nymphs is announced by phrase Judi
ciously borrowed from Mendelssohn's
MeguSine overture. Later, in the music foi
the Giants, Meyerbeers resuscitation OF
the Nuns in Robert, with its peculiar 9-s
rhythm, has been no less coolly appro
priated by the unblushing insulter of judaism