National Republican., 1874-05-08

I,,.,,,,, ,h- Iirect and positive channels pro,
s;SeS y t6e Universal Central Congress of Ce,
-ostials and the WoIld's Heavenly Congress Of
Spirits, unless
The Lady IN Black Cinterrupting), oh, heay.
ensl let's sdjourn, The Doctor has begun a
speech. ..-.
After an agreement to discuss the propags.
ton question at the next meeting, an adjourn
mentwas had until April 81, at p. m.
IMPRESSION OF "AASTER SINGERS
An anonymous patron of the opera, who
cannot be brought to appreciate Wagner, gives
his impression In q daily paper OF the Master
singers of Nuremburg," as he heard IL In Ber.
lin. The circumstances, he says, were all
favorable to enjoyment; audience and orchestra
in good humor, royalty present, and so on.
He then continued: 81 listened to the opera in
question, and most certainly experienced q
yery small portion of that enjoyment to which
/ am accustomed in listening to those operas
with which we are familiar on our own stage.
In the first place the opera took four hours in
its execution, allowing, of course, the usual
intervals between the acts.
In the second place, apart from the chorus,
there were but two female characters, of whom
one takes an extremely subordinate part, while
the other has but comparatively little to do in
the earlier acts. In the later acts she takes o
more prominent part, and certainly the singing
OF the Eyaof the evening was extremely pleas
ant to listen to. Still, to have to sit for four
mortal hours listening to q number of men
singing to and at each other, with their pro-
ceedings relieved only by the very limited in.
terposition of one lady, is trying operation in
these daye when people are becoming much
more prone to seek relief from the various la
hOr oy1l nj hOnfin
than to sit out even the most popular operas.
Further, it must be confessed that this opera
| of Wagner's embodies too many of those de-
vices, which / may call surprises, by which
the attention of the audience Is drawn to the
orchestra.
It is no exaggeration to say that several
times during the performance, the audience
stolid as a German audience may by so me be
thought-was obliged to break out into laugh
ter. In this laughter the gentlemen of the Or
chcstra joined-or rather it was they who led
Il, in spite of their own obvious desire to pre-
serve their gravity. l noticed this feature of
the performance all the more because 1 remem-
Der once having conversation with the distin-
guished Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, in the
course of which he observed how difficult it
was to get large audience to enter into the
spirit of those portions of his performance which
was to himself the purest pleasure, and he told
me that on one occasion in large public hall,
while discoursing some of the choicest strains,
he felt the attention of the audience was rapidly
declining, and he was obliged to resort to a de-
vice In order to win it back.
His device was that of making stroke with
his bow in such q manner as to give the effe ct
of all his strings having at once broken. This
incident instantly recalled the attention of the
audience, who, believing it to be a legitimate
"phrase," or rather "scream, received it with
rounds Of applause. This was not the effect
of Wagner's devices, but, repeat, over and
over again the orchestra in rendering the scorce
were obliged to set themselves and the audi
enee laughing. In parts OF the opera there is
much to charm the listener, and much that one
would have delighted to find embodied in
work which did not require with usual inter
vals) four hours for its execution, into which
a few feminine voices were allowed to enter,
and from which the mere trickery of the musi-
cal art was eXcluded.-LoRdon Orchestra.