New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-23
WAGNER,S "TANNHAEUSER."
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IT'S PERFORMANCE AT BAYREUTH
uoyv AN OPERA BECAME A HANDLING LOSS
IN SPIRITUALITY AT THE FESTIVAL
SCENERY AND STAGE MECHANISM.


v,os, STAFF CORRESPONDENT oYTHErErsuSE
IIayreuth, July 80.
aTannhaeuser having been put on the festival
list in spite of Wagners conditional introduction
= r,ust, no assumed that in the opinion of Madame
Wagner. "Parsifal' has 10 a great extent at least
occomplshed its aim in intoxicating knowledge OF
the style Of lyric-dramatic expression, and thao
.ho contemporary operatlc stage has been suf-
ecjently purged Of it's vicious conventions 10
enable her to perform a task from which the
master shrunlk back only nine years ago. fair
inference would also be that the representations
Of Parsifal' are now better than the earlier ones
as the result of nine years schooling. This Is
not the case. There have been many changes
in the manner in which "Parsifal" is performed
since Wagners direct influence was taken away
from the theatre, but through all of them there
has been steady loss in the compelling power OF
the drama. Some Of this loss is. Of course, duo
to change in the character of the audience which
has so much to do with the artistic atmosphere
of the theatre. The percentage of curiosity-seek
ers is much larger than it five years ago; the
percentage of Wagner devotees cOrrespondingly
smaller. But the loss is chiefly due TO a lowering
Of the standard of ability among the performers
Madame Wagner has enistcd many new pco-
pie Most of them are young ana III
experienced. Wagner knew nobody whom
he was willing TO undertake tc Undue
with his conception OF Tannhaeuser. Madame
Cosma took Herr WinlIelmann as she found him
and attempted 10 lift the obscure Herr heller' OF
Weimar, and Herr Alvary who has budded in the
same little town but blossomed in New-York, to
the heroic plane which Wagner feared men like
Niemann Gudehus and Vogl could not reach Per-
haps these artists have personal reasons for hold
ing aloOf from Bayreuth, but if purely artistic
Considerations were as potent now as they were IN
the lifetime of Wagner they would not have.
With marvellous assiduity, patience and zeal,
Madame Wagner has instructed the new
corners in their duties The results, candor
cOmpcls me to say, are external, mechanical
The spirituality which braathed through
the representations when Wagners influence was
not vague tradition but vital thing is all but
absent from the work of Madame Wagners iledge-
ings. 1t was that spirituality which used TO
send the audience out of the playhouse hushed
and awc-stricken 1t was that spirituality which
used 10 take hold of the Imagination and emotions
so powerfully that in the presence Of the drama
it was all but impossible to exercise the critical
faculty. Then 1t was only after experience had
given way to reflection that one was able to
discern those things which gave pause to un-
qualified admiration | know how careful one
ought to he in pronouncing judgment in matter
in which subjective feeling plays so large a
role as it does here, but | am speaking circum-
specify and from experience. From the first the
stage story Of "Parsfal' and the stage
spectacle Impressed me as monkish and
medieval. My gorge rose ut the apotheosis Of On
inactive asceticism which appeared only as the
fruit of a philosophy that degrades womanliind
TO unspeakable depths, philosophy which entered
into the Christian religion through the agency
OF class Of fanatics with whom purity of soul
seemed to be conditioned on hlthiness of body
4 monk who would let his mother perish on the
threshold Of his cell rather than open the door
TO receive her dying bleSSing-a monk who, when
compelled to carry his mother through brook,
would wrap his hands in cloths SO that his sanity
flesh might not be contaminated by contact with
hers that had borne and fed him, never did and
never could conceive o rule of conduct for
the socio-religiOus, or rcieio-social life
Of the nineteenth century. Parsifal" is
symbol, il is true, but IT'S symbolism must be
studied in the coset-there is no time while the
senses are occupied with the stage-pictures The
symbolism of the Holy Grail is very beautiful
and very profound; but the spectacle of the
alteration of a vessel of glowing glass and Of
prostraions and genuhexions before prosaic spear
If
to-day. So potent is Wagner's art, however, and
so powerful was the spell exercised by the sing
ing actors whom Wagner chose 10 interpret his
drama. that such reflections were not permitted
to rise during the representation. Reason yielded
dominion for the time being TO imagination and
emotion.
or the singers who eXemplfcd Wagner's wishes
in the carly performances few remain Age has
not retired them from activity, for they are still
active. But not in Bayreuth. Madame Materna
is here but il is an open secret that she Is only
tolerated and her connection with the festivals
will end fear forever, day after tomorrow.
Yet her Kundry is On ideal which not one OF her
associates has reached, though all of them have
been gifted with the physical charms denied to
her which iH one phase of the dual character are
supposed to BE essential She is a true repository
of Waqnerian tradition because from the first
She has been ore Of the most perfect examples
Of his doctrines In her work as in that of Scaria
the spiritual element dominated the material.
No doubt Madame Wagner is acting as Wagner
would have acted in choosing young singers for
the festival They are nore maleabe than old
and freer from the Stag Of operate conventions.
But Bayreuth was not designed as q training
school in the sense that its festivals should give
occupation to prentice hands The purposes Of
dramatic art are TO be taught 70 the people, not
yocalizaton TO the singers. The pilgrimage is
not made to attend examination or exhibition per-
forrnanccs of Madame Wagners pupils. In the
case Of artists like Materna, Scaria the new Cur
nemanz Greugg, Van Dyck, Madame Sucher and
even Winkelmann, Wagner's purposes have been
achieved through their artistic blending of good
singing and good defamation. which they have
demonstrated 10 De one and the same thing,
coupled with highly emotiOnazed and
natural acting. In most OF the new
corners. Frauein Wiborg as Elizabeth,
Fraeulein Mailhlc as Kundry and Venus, and Fran
Ucrzoa as the shepherd lad tof Iraculen de Alma
I cannot speak. hesides amnteunsh acting, the
uublic were compelled to observe that dramatic
defamation has come 10 mean painfully distinct
cnunciation of consonauts. Madame Wagner. |
am told. has been dubbed Idle Consonan-
tentante" by some Of the festival artists; play.