Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07


. Nurnberg, Germany, seems to
have spread its web further this
year than ever before. Reports
i indicate that its present Summer
. season has far outdiStanced previ-
CnS records. Only the sudden and
nl7timely death of Siegfried Wag-
Tfer has clouded what might have
hAen otherwise a near millen-
MUM.
vTScribes, reporting upon the
events that have tranSpired some
what glowingly in this Bavarian
Mecca. although adversely treating
various aspects, converge on one
misunderstanding. He is, in fact,
so,much the hero of the hour that
all else seems a trifle tepid before
and after him. Critics claim that
hts ''Tannhaeuser" and Iris
tram" are the climax of what has
Been a brilliant and climatic sea-
son. Although Karl Muck is still
to be heard conducting his "ParSi-
fal'' with accustomed astuteness
and before his answering admir-
esS, there is very little question
that without Toscanini the audi
ei1ce dwindleS-perceptibly.
This has brought up the QueS-
tiDn: What would happen to Bay
reuth if-through some unfore-
seen musical twist of fate-ToS-
eanini should betake himself else
where for the Summer months?
Might not this town turn once
again into its doldrum days? And
would not the italian maestro be
capable of playing the Pied Piper
and Turing his worshipful follow
ers to any hamlet that he saw fit.
Aaving Bayreuth almost tragical-
~ behind?
1 The Bayreuth heritage and its
future is very much upon the
world at present. Although this
country, during the slumbering
dog days, either frets itself with
out musical stimulus, or betakes
Itself to the New York Stadium, or
the great open bowls" of Cali
f0fnia, the vast majority of must
clans are going to Europe to salts
fy' their inner musical urge.
That the spirit Of Wagner's
great ideal, Bayreuth, should con-
tinue is most essential, and that
ToScanini should continue seems
also quite as much so. The one
needs the other. All OF which
forces the query Is there any
More powerful figure in the must
cal world Of today than ToScanini,
or - for that matter - Richard
Wagner?
4r4s + n
INCIDENTALLY, it is encourag-
= ing to note that the supposed
repression of everything and
Everybody throughout the world
has had little or no effect on the
music of the famous European
cer1ters. While Bayreuth has
been flooded with visitors, as the |
press and public by now are
aware, so also has Munich, where |
the Mozart Wagner Festival has
been in fullest bloom. A rumor |
from that venerable city has it |
tl7at Richard Strauss was given |
On ovation for his magnificent di-
3ection of the final opera "CoSi |
tan tutti."
RACK again to what writer's
have had to say of late con-
cerning Bayreuth's past and pres
ent, 1t is interesting to note that !
10 two agree on its metamorpho- |
sis. What in 1914 was Temporal
lily stopped, after the performance |
Of Gotterdammerung," by the
crying of "War!" in the streets
that supposed intangible "atmos-
bhere' created by Wagnerian in
aistencies-seems to have bobbed
up again with the present year
tor some, and for others not at
eli.
H. C. Cole writer, concerning
this atmosphere" and manners
IN the theater itself: "It was a
Shock to find that there were late
Corners who ratified the door han
dies and raised loud voices, de-
lnanding entrance after the mu-
sic had begun. Within, one heard
whiSperings, even during the deli
cate pianiSsimo passages; people
Shuff1ed in their seats, ruStled
their programs, moved, and even
attempted to applaud before the
music was over. In word, there
were some who behaved as badly
at Bayreuth as they behave at
Covent Garden in London and in
the Metropolitan in New York.
The delight of Bayreuth in the old
days was the complete immunity
that it offered from the aherra-
tons which beset the ordinary
opera houses"
In contrast to this, Mr.. Bechert
says: Surely there is no opera
house in the world where the au-
dience sits in the same dead ST.
ience and attention from begin
ming to end of Wagner perform
anceS and, mind you, perform
ances without cuts. When the
traditional fanfares announcing
the beginning of the performance
have died away, and the lights
are turned out in the house, the
public is at once hushed to still
ness and concentration. Cosby
Italians and laxative American
ladies alike are awed into COM
plete silence. No ruStling of
books, programs and papers. no
tanning, no talking, almost no
breathing. That is the old spirit
of Bayreuth, which still lives, be
it Toscanini, or Muck, or lesser
god who is at the desk, be the
singers great, mediocre or bad"
Which brings to mind the old
saying that no two people think
alike, and that perhaps part Of
the world is sensitive to rational
disturbances, while the other can
sleep quite comfortably through
them. 1t doesn't, however, explain
to the curious and untraVeled