Year: 1874

From the London Orchestral


An anonymous patron of the opera,
who cannot be brought to appreciate
Wagner gives his impression in daily
newspaper of the Master Singers of
Nuremburg," as he heard it in Berlin.
The circumstances, he says, were all
favorable to enjoyment audience and
orchestra in good humor, royalty pres
ent, and so on. He then continued : l
listened to the opera in question, and
most certainly l experienced a very
small portion of that enjoyment to which
am accustomed in listening to those
operas with which we are familiar on
our own stage. In the first place the
opera took four hours in its execution,
allowing, OF course, the usual intervals
between the acts.


In the second place, apart from the
chorus, there were but two female char
acters, of whom one takes an extremely
subordinate part, while the other has
but comparatively little to do in the
earlier acts. In the later act she takes
a more prominent part, and certainly
the singing of the Eva of the evening
was extremely pleasant to listen to.
Still, to have to sit for four mortal hours
listening to number Of men singing to
and at each other, with their proceed
ings relieved only by the very limited
interposition of one lady, is a trying op-
Grafton in these days when people are
becoming much more prone to seek
relief from the varioHs labors and en-
gagements of life in opera bouffe than
to sit out the most popular operas.
Further, it must be confessed that this
opera of Wsgner's embodies too many
Of those devices, which l may call sur
prises, by which the attention of the
audience is drawn to the orchestra.


1t is no exaggeration to say that seve-
raj times during the performance, the
audience-stolid as a German audience
may by some be thought-was obliged to
break out in laughter. In this laughter
the gentlemen of the orchestra joined
or rather it was they who led it, in spite
of their own obvious desire to preserve
their gravity. / noticed this feature of
the performance all the more because l
remember once having a conversation
with the distinguished Norwegian vic.
linist, Ole Bull, in the course OF which
he observed how difficult it was to get a
large audience to enter into the spirit OF
those portions Of his performance which
were to himself the purest pleasure, and
he told me that on one occasion in large
public hall, while discoursing some of the
choicest strains, he felt the attention
of the audience was rapidly declining,
and he was obliged to resort to device
in order to bring it back. His device
was that of making stroke with his bow
in such a manner as to give the effect of
all his strings having at once broken.
This incident instantly called the atten-
ton of the audience, who, believing it
to be legitimate phrase" or rather
scream" received it with rounds of
applause. This was not the effect of
Wagner's devices, but, l repeat, over and
over again the orchestra in rendering the
score were obliged to set themselves aud
the audience laughing. In parts of the
opera there is much to charm the listener,
and much that one would have delighted
to find embodied in work which did
not require with usual interyals) four
hours for its execution, into which few
female voices were allowed to enter, and
from which the mere trickery of the mu-
sical art was excluded.