WAGNER’S INFLUENCE ON OPERA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 13 June 1925, Page 8

WAGNER’S INFLUENCE ON OPERA

INTEItKSTIXII QI'KSTIOXS IMIstV In an amusing bank of essivs t ill:*.» , Musi,- o-_l 1 ;io," W i 'Tmmv. Um eminent ivaghsh condo-tor and cnL..-, gydy, if Konev.h d i".icc ! .UTf .-'Jy, Hin.i questions (im extent of \Y igm*- , , -.l: * el', e (vi ope - : Tim : x.i i ::: W agner reformed nuera is (it inly established hut exi eedingiy vulnerable. Suppose we ask to he shown the fruits of the reform, wlial should we he confronted with? Blank silence, I should imagine, from any discriminating judge: hut from others a list of post-Wagner-ian operas, of witieli tin* In si known ai'.' ‘La Boheme.' 'Madame Butterfly.' Louise. ' Ragliaeci. Unvelii-iia Bust: cauu : lln- best. ' M i-fisl ol'ele and 'Han si 1 aml ( I ret cl : and the la. 1 1 st 'The I loa I swain's Alai.- (an English i uem hy j Emu I Smyth). Ot all i In-.-e operas one may say tml It fully that the more Wagnerian they are I In* worse they arc. There is scarcely em ol them as good as 'W illiam To!), or l ticriii.ini's Wrier Cm Dei'. or (thick's 'Orpheus' not to bring into comparison W < her or Alozart. I his mav inly moan that those later ccinposcrs are less iiauuallv gifted than the men before Wagner: but it is strange that the decline in talent should lio so general, and il is stranger that il should reach il nadir jus, v\ hero t InWagnerian influence is mo.si mail,cl and il hen tries, more than strange u-u-n VVC (an plot the >.lllll rill \ o in Ihe WI I i of one man. For example, the I lest of Bin-'.mi s works is La I'.olm-uo . v.hich is far less Wagnerian than the much

inferior operas Mamin Lrsrsiii' and 'Tim Gil'l of the Golden Wen.' Borsi iially. 1 Hunk Midi operas as 'Main.n la si-ant.. 'Tin- Boatswain's Male.' and 'Lonisi a gn ai decline on Bellini's Sonnamhiila or Don izel f i‘n 'Daughter ot the Regiment, or Verdi's ’ll Tiovatorc. Il is not I In* fashion to inink ibis. I'm- some reason ir i.thi-r. lo make a singer thunder in a hiavv. mdo dram:,l ie stylo, I lie soup is. ready.' as

C harpen! ier does, is thought far superioi to vocalising it. v.illi a Irill and a nourish- ! hough as a matter of far! Die old Italian composers did nof. introduce soup into i heir operas." We are "with" Air I urner m ids respect for older lln dan operas, hut believe Wagner's reforms were genuine, nonetheless. Gounor. Bizet, and Verdi were eeilaiuly iullueiiced for tin* better hy Wagner in ]•';(list.'' Carmen" and Verdi's Inter works from "Aida" on, as was Meyerbeer. and later—. Massenet ami Sain: Sams. But Wagner's reforms also extended to liliret I o-yvrit ing and singe vetting to a remarkable degree.--'Tin*