Omaha daily bee., 1908-08-30
What the Musical Critics of The Bee and the Sun Hear in Europ.

All opera connoisseurs know the difficulty
OF these choral passages. They were sung
here without a flaw in the information and
with exquisite phrasing, study and color.
These comments should serve to make
plain the nature of Beyreuth performances
of today. The spectacular features Of the
dramas, even those which may be called
unsteady observation-disclosures and orches-
tra-receive adequate treatment, and these
features are potent in their influence upon
the Beyreuth public.
To the t~horoughgoing Bayreuth Wag-
nerite a Performance of one Of the great
music dramas means handsome scenery
and costumes, a splendid orchestra and
chorus. clear and even violent enuncia-
ton of the text by everyone on the stage
and intelligent action. No demand is made
for IN exposition Of the musical content of
the work except by chorus and orchestra.
So long as the principals act and hammer
out the outlines of all the words in their
text they may sing in harsh and disagree
able tones and distort Wagner's wonderful
melodic phrases as they please. No one
cares. And yet these people believe that
they are hearing all that the great genius
left for them 10 hear.
In this extraordinary want OF regard for
N"o ~ ANASA Va . WI Ms AAEo
the pronounced difference between the
American ard the German attitudes to-
ward these great creations. For whatever
Berlin. Dresden. Frankfort or Munich may
say about it. their opinion about the true
method Of Interpreting Wagner has been
formed under the Influence Of Bayreuth,
and the belief Of Bayreuth is the doctrine
Of Cosima Wagner.
New York and the rest OF America have
a passionate love for the solo music Of
Wagner, and that love grew out OF an
Intimate acquaintance with this music
made through the art of such singers as
Ldli Lehman, Heinrich Vogl. Emil Fis-
cher, Marianne Brandt. Jean de Reszke,
Nordica, Tornina. Van Rooy and others.
whose names are familiar to lovers Of the
music drama. Bayreuth has never heard,
and today would not wish to hear. such
performances Of Tristan and Isolde" as
the Metropolitan opera house has known.
On the other hand, New York has never
heard such orchestral and choral art in
these dramas as Bayreuth, even In these
days OF the decadence in Germany of the
art Of singing still hears.
Here at the fountain head Of Magnetism
it is an unshakable belief that America
knows nothing OF the true spirit Of Wag-
merriam interpretation AS a matter of fact,
which can be incontestibly proved from
Wagner's own writings, it is Bayreuth. no
America, that misunderstands the regen.
orator Of the lyric drama. In New York
among true music lovers, Richard Wagner
is worshiped; here the deyotees kreel be
fore the altar OF Cosima and SiegfrieC
Wagner. What Wagner wrote about N,
correct method OF interpreting his work.
is forgotten and only what Cosima anC
Siegfrled say about It is observed.
Bayreuth makes the radical. the fata
mistake Of believing that Wagner place,
upon the death pale paper all those ex
q~uisitely beautiful and passionately sig
nificant phrases for the solo voices merel!
as conceptions never 10 be realized. Thesl
phrases are here sung In coarse. unmusica
tone. are chopped into scattered and music
ally formless fragments. and are violently
wrested out OF their organic union will
the text. Wagner's c~antilena-or, as h
called it. ''melos'- exists only IN the or
chestra and in the chorus. II the frs
oboe sang one OF these phrases as the frs
tenor does he would be elected from III
festspielhaus.
All this. too. Is ths result OF deliberat
practice here. and not the outcome OF an
avoidabls conditions. The Wagner singer