The Portland daily press., 1889-03-22
MUSIC AND DRAMA IN BOSTON.
Something About the Entertain
ments Of the Season-The German
Opera and wagner's Music.
Correspondence Of the press.l

BOSTON, March 10, 1889.
Boston theatIe-goers have not lacked for
genuine entertainment during the past win
ter Coauelin and Hading came first ON the
| list, delighting everyone with their histri-
onic talents, and sharpening our abilities to
understand French "as she is spoke" hel-
| loving these foreign stars came BEAUTIFUL
| Mary Anderson, always dttitadndtig ne
turesqne aud interesting rNen II she iack'
| the power to rise to the highest d manu, d
dramatic art. The conjunction Of Booth and
Barrett in short season of Shaksperlan
| dramas, their excellent support and the su
| perb stage appointments rendered the last
| appearance together of these two actors.
memorable event to the lovers OF legitimate
drama. Latterly Mrs. Brown Potter as
| Cleopatra has had the field; clad by Worth
| in garments of barbaric gurgeousness, and re-
| markable alike for her beauty, her ambition
and her utter inaptitude for the part she
assumes.
Nor have we lacked lesser lights In the
| theatrical world, or for great and frequent
feasts There have been numerous notable
chamber concerts. some very good operas,
and above all that perennial soul satisfying
DOStOu luStituhlbl. tht inpuUuy OICHeSLId
concert. Let him who is disposed to scoff
at the general existence of love for classic
music in this city attend Friday rehearsal.
Not as the blest holder of season ticket,
but with the eager throng who crowd the
corridors of Music Hall. waiting half an
hour or more for the doors to be opened that
they may secure seat In the upper balcony.
When, after being jammed, crushed against
| the wall, trodden upon, our caviler at last
sees the crowd give way through the opened
portals, let him note the wild rush of men,
women, youth and maidens up three long
flights of stairs, the mad scramble for seats
that ensues and the rapidity with which
they are filed. Let him but observe the pa
| thence with which these people, having Sc
| cured their places, will wait for three-quar-
tiers of an hour longer to hear the strains of
| their beloved orchestra, and he must ac-
knowledge that 1t is not for fashion, but for
sweet music's sake that this audience will
endure so much
These are the people who will crowd the
upper galleries and stand upon the floor of
the house during the German opera season,
which comes the first and second weeks in
April. Wagner enthusiasts are eagerly an
ticipating this verltabe treat, for the s.Nie-
belungenring" in its entirety, the "Meister-
singers and "Tristan und Isolde" are to be
given.
There probably exists greater diversity
OF opinion among musicians, regarding the
music of Richard Wagner than that of any
other composer. The advanced or radical
party maintains toward him an enthusiasm
amounting almost to alteration while class
more conservative holds for his writings
dislike proportionately intense. To those
who care only for the smooth and melodious
in music, he fails to appeal, but to those who
look for higher intellectual enjoyment in
stead of the mere qualification of the sense
Of harmony, he will always remain a source
OF intense delight.
There may be found this difference be-
tween his operas and those that have pre-
ceded him, that there is between picture of
peaceful smiling landscape by Paul Potter
aud the powerful portrayal of "The Last
Judgment" by Michael Angelo. The char
acters of Othello or of Hamlet, while not
agreeable yet command our deepest interest,
In like manner Wagner, the ''Shakespere of
the musical world" wins our attention and
admiration.
For over quarter of century Wagner was
misunderstood and misrepresented by his
own countrymen and numerically ridicued
by the French. With a total absence of
sympathy from his musical contemporaries,
amid encouragement of poverty which well
might daunt weaker nature, he composed
the "NibeungenriEg" which is called "the
most gigantic musical work of all times.'
During the twenty long years between the
commencement and completion of the
musc-drama List was the only friend to en-
courage him. At last King Ludwig III of
Bavaria was made to see Wagner's genius.
Under bis patronage his complete work of
the Trilogy, as it is usually styled was pre-
sented for the first time in 1876 at Bayieuth
in a theatre built expressly for the purpose.
Wagner's genius was of manifold variety.
He inherited true dramatic instinct from
his father, and this combined with his fine
pictorial sense enabled him to devise scenes
for his dramas unsurpassed for artistic and
dramatic effect. His literary style was clear
and vigorous, he was, according to one writ
er, the most incisiye musical critic the world
has ever known; but high and above all these
gifts was his wonderful poetic genius. As a
OF his latest and greatest work Tristan und
Isolde" literary critic says, ut reveals
greater depth of tragic passion. OF intense
and sustained emotion, than the work of any
dramatist since Shakespeare"
All the force of his superb intellect and his
wonderful musical genius Richard Wagner
brought to aid him in his music-dramas; and
he reyolutionized and reconstructed the
opera. Formerly this style of writing con-
sisted of series of arias, duos, trios, and
choruses, strung together with no apparent
musical sequence, seemingly written more to
exhibit the capabilities of the human voice
than for any intrinsic musical or dramatic
aim. ITO accompany their airs" says
Wagner, the orchestra was used as a huge
guitar" Abandoning their disjointed forms
he constructed his music-dramas on more
consistent, organic plan. He adapted his
music to his words instead of the vice versa
method of his predecessors. He adopted
musical theme or motive for each character
these he connected by means of continuous
melody, and united and blended them in con-
stantly recurring, eyer-varying combinations
of wondruns beauty and power. keeping pace
with grand appropriateness to the action
Of the drama. A perfect master of orcLes-
trail effect he understood h.w to bring out
the individual qualities of each instrument
With what skill be caught the mad merri-
ment of the violin, the sad minor tones of the
cello! What telling effects he produced with
the brave, martial trumpet and the stately
trombone How well he knew the powers
for shedding serene pastoral beauty con-
tanned in the sweet toned flute, or made celes-
tial music for his gods with the ETHEREAL
harp! The beauty and power of his music
never failed him, but ever rose proportion
ately to the impressiveness and grandeur of |
his theme" When the powers of the human |
voice had been exhausted Wagner
expressed by the orchestra alone.
those unutterable emotions of the heart
which song or speech fail to render Certain
musical motives which have been sung by the
dramatis persona in solemn or impressive
moments he often reproduced by the orchestra
without vocal cooperation, with a world of
of suggestiyeness for by this means he not
only brings "reminiscences to his hearer, but
tells him that such are also passing in the
mind of the hero on the stage.