Omaha daily bee., 1891-12-06
At THE SHRINE On ST. WAGNER.
Bv MARK TW AIN.
copyrighted by the Author 1871

n chief virtue In song is melody, air,
tune, rhythm, or what you please to
call it, and when this feature is alb
! sent, what remains is a picture WIN tne
color left out. was not ablo to detect in the
vocal parts of "ParsifnP' anything that
| might with confidence be called rhythm or
| tune or melody; one person performed at a
time-and q long time, too-oIten III a hople
and ofton in u high priced voice; but he only
| nuIlnd out long notes, then some short ones,
then another long one. then a sharp, quick,
| peremDtory bark or two-nnd so on and so
on. and when he was done you saw that the
which he had conveyed mad not
compensated for the disturbance. Not
always, but pretty often. III two OF them
would but put in q duet occasionally ana
blend the voices; but no, they don't do That.
The great master, who knew so well now TO
make a hundred Instruments rejoice III unison
and pour out their souls in mingled and
mulodious tides of delicious sound,
deals only in barren solos when
he puts in tho vocal parts. II may be that no
was deep, and only added the singing to his
operas for the sake of the contrast it would
make with the music. Singing! 1t does seem
the wrong name to apply 10 it,. strictly de-
scribed, it Is the practicing OF difficult ana
unpleasant intervals, mainly. An ignorant
person gets tired of listening 10 gymnastic
intervals in tho long run, no matter how
pleasant they may be. In "Phrstfap' there
is Il hermit named Guruemanz who stands on
the stage in the one spot and practices oy the
hOur, W1lle nFSU one anu luCu dbObhOl Shui
acter of the cast endures what he can of 1t
and retires to die.
During the evening there was an lntermlS-
sion of three quarters OF an hour after the
first act and one an hour long after the sec
ond. In both instances the theater was TO-
tally emptied. People who had previously
engaged tables in tho one sole eating house
were able to put in their tine very SAUSAGE
torily; the other thousand went hungry.
The opera was concluded at 10 IN the evening
49,, n itttIa lotnr lNhnn wa rplrhln nome W.
had been gone more than seven hours. Sew
en- hours at So n ticket Is too much Tor the
money.
While browsing about the front yard among
the crowd between tine acts | encountered
twelve or fifteen friends from different parts
of Americ and those of them who wore
most familiar with Wagner, SAID That par
fall, seldom pleased at first, but that after one
had heard it several times it was almost sure
to become the favorite. 1t seemed impossi-
BILE, out it was true. for the statement came
from people whose word was not to be
doubted.
And l gathered some further inform alton.
On the ground | found part OF IL German mus
ical magazine, and in it a letter written by
Uhlic thirty three years ago, IN which he de-
tends the scorned and abused Wagner against
people like me, who found fault with the
comprehensive absence of what our kind re-
CARDS as singing. Uhlic says Wagner de-
spised ''jene' plapperude musik," and there
fore s'runs, trills, and schnorkel are discard
cd by him. | don't know what a schnorkel
is, but now that l know it has been left out
of these operas | never have missed anything
| so much in my life. And Uhiic further says
that Wagner's song is true song; that 1T Is
.'simplv emphasized lntoned speech"
That certainly describes it-in "ParsifaF'
and some of the other operas; and, IL |
understand Uhlic's elaborate German,
he apologies for the beautiful airs in ''Tann-
hauser." Verp well; now that Wagner and
l understand each otner, perhaps we shall
get along potter, and | shall stop calling him
Wagner on the American plan, and here
after call him Voggner, as per German Gus
| tom, for | feel entirely friendly now. The
minute we get reconciled to a person how
willing we are to throw aside little, need
less punctillos ard pronounce his name
right.
I or course / came home wondering why peo-
| pie should come from all the corners of
America to hear these operas, when we have
lately had a season or two of thom in New
York with these same singers in the several
parts, aud possibly the same orchestra. l re-
! solved to think that out at all hazards.
Tuesday Yesterday they played the only
operatic favorite | have ever had-an opera
which has always driven me mad with lgnor-
i, ant delight whenever bave heard it-'Tann-
| hauser." | heard it first when ! was a youth,
T heard it last in the last German season in
New York. | was busy yesterday and l did
not intend to go, knowing | should have an
other "Tannhauser" opportunity in a few
days but after 3 o'clock | found myself free
and walked out to the opera house and ar
rived about the beginning OF the second act,
My opera ticket admitted me to the grounds
in front, past the policemen and the chain.
and | thought l would take a rest on q bench
for an hour or two and wait for the third act.