New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-16
BAYREUTH.
REFLECTIONS IN THE wAGNERIAN MECCA.
MADAME wAGNER AND HER REGIME-INNoVA-
TIoNS WEIGH SHE HAS INTRODUCED IN
THE FESTIVAL sCHEME-ALvARY
AND HIS CLOTHES.
AND HIS CLOTHES.
,,t ar,vr copovspoxnRxr or THE TRfT


AND HIS CLOTHES.
PROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TWIBUSEl
Bayreuth, July %.
Madam Wagner is q most extraordinary woman
| No one can study the last twenty years OF the
| composers life without having the fact impressed
upon him that she was in the fullest sense oil the
words a companion and a hepmeet to him. Ills
greatest work was written under the influence OIL
the passion which he conceived for her before
IL was possible for her TO become his Wlie' thc
browning labors Of his life, tle establishment vi
| the BayTeuth festivals and the composition Vi
| Parsifal' achieved under the influence Vi
the unruled domestic life which she brought MIN
after their marriage in 1870. From that time tiIl
his death he was stimulated by her encourage
| ment, stayed by her love, aided by her counsel
That she is strongly mbued with an artistic SpirlV
| seems beyond question; that she Is the ntesO Vi
all persons in the world to carry on the worh ioi
which the festivals were established is not so H.
| disputable. Something more than devotloh W
| great memory and artistic spirit Is eSSeh'lai
| to such a mission. Were she in the true sense VI
the word an interpretative, that is re-creatlve
artist she might have fitted herself by The years
| of intimate companionship with Wagner TO be-
| come his artistic executor She ought 10 De Ile
repository of Wagnerian tradition. But since
respect of many things which it would seem
| tradition might have conserved. There has also
| been wide departure from the purposes for
| which the theatre was built In this laXlty ana
this departure a dispassiOnate critic is Justlhed
| in percevng either q willingness to substitute
other aims for those of Wagner or an inability TO
I rise to the high plane of artistic endeavor upon
| which he moved.
PERHAPS both causes have combined to pro-
| duce the effect we are trying to study. Madame
| Wagner is a woman of the world Her life has
| been passed in comfort, for Wagners days Oh
darkest trial were over when she became MS
wife Ludwig of Bavaria had already become
his guardian angel Like her father, Liszt, she
| is child of the Salon, and though, like him, she
has risen to acts of heroism, she has never fully
escaped the influence of what the Germans call
die clcgante Welt" II would have been asking
| too much of such o nation TO expect her to adj
minister so vast a trust as sne assumed without
yielding 10 some of the promptings which came
| to her naturally by Inheritance and training. In
| the province of the Bayreuth festivals despotic
| power is hers. ParSifal" could not alone
satisfy her ambition. 1t had been staged,
cast and performed under the super
vision of its creator. In respect OF
that work there was only left TO her the selection
| Of the interpreting artists. "Parslfal' was
fixture at Bayreuth, but why might not another
work he consorted with it? The project could
easily lie defended on the same score that had
induced Wagner to select Bayreuth instead Of
q German capital as the seat Of bis theatre. The
| social and artistic environment Of the ordinary
| operl-house intrinsical to an ideal repre-
scntltion. So Tristan und Isolde" was brought
forward in 1886. Now Madame Wagner had an
opportunity to decide upon people, paraphernalia
H.. a,.pfaa IF in
terpretation down to tempt There have been
| singular changes in the tempt of Parsifal" since
1882 although Levi, who conducted the work
under the eyes Of the composer, is still conducting
it, Has Lew changed his mind, or does he con-
duct differently now under orders? l do not
| know: | will not ask. Two years later " Die
Mestersinger" was added and the festival visitors
were privileged 10 hear three works. This year
| Tannhacuser is the novelty
| "Tannhaeuser," some have said, has plunged q
dagger into the heart of the BayFeuth enterprise.
| would not wonder if it were true, but am not
ready yet to discuss the merits and defects OF
| the new production. The additions to the Bay
reuth list have given Madame Wagner new powers
To exercise them as wisely the institution de-
served she should not have been woman sus-
| ceptble TO the myriad of influences which were
| bound to assert themselves soon as the simple
and direct purposes OF wagner were apaiuohcu.
| do not know TO what extent she has been swayed
by those influences. l do know that one by one
the artistic props of the early years are slipping
from under the beautiful ediice which Wagner
reared with the help of his faithful friends.
Singers grow old and their voices fall into decay
/ in their department changes become necessary.
But Hans Richter, Wagners chosen friend and
artistic executive, is as efficient ever he was.
| Yet the festivals no longer know him. The
Younger Mottl, it is whispered, ALREADY sees the
shadow Of the coming Richard Strauss lying across
the conductors chair in the mystic abyss.
OF the old singers few are left Materna will
return 10 Vienna after singing the role of Kundry
for the third time next Sunday. She left the
scllbed of her doomed husband The is dying of
diabetes TO come hither, and is glad to get back
| home Winkclmann was not invited TIL few
weeks before the opening Of the festival, when 1t
seemed that the "Tannhaeuser' representations
were likely to make shipwreck for want of cap
able representative of the hero. Van Dyck was
asked to sing the part but declined. OF all the
singers concerned in the representations he is at
once the most unaffected ard independent.
Madame Wagner made much of Alvary, only to
discover that he is Of the common clay Of which
sinaers are made Alvary bcstrides the cobbe-
stones of Bayreuth's streets like Colossus To
him remark which find in a LeipSlc racOn-
tours account of the last festival aprOpos Of Herr
Reichnann, seems peculiarly applicable; When
a scngstress is vain she demonstrates by that fact
that she has never ceased to he Il woman; when
a singer is vain he proves that lie has never
begun to be man l know many singers whose
brains are becouded by the fumes OF immortality.
Alvary has sung once in "Tannhaeuser' lie
became IA necessity because of Winlelmann's fail
ure at the first representation, n failure plainly
traceabe to his weakened physical condition, the
result of illness from which he has long suf-
fered-catarrh of the stomach. The necessity
gave Alvary a triumph over Madame Wagner. Ii
is unnecessary for me 10 say TO New-NoEi readers
that Herr Alvary is fond OF pretty clothes He
raInurkilhlN tetclinn Inunlneusern COS