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On every point, then, a Wagner theatre and Wagner festivals are
much more generally practicable than the older and more
artificial forms of dramatic music. A presentable performance of
The Ring is a big undertaking only in the sense in which the
construction of a railway is a big undertaking: that is, it
requires plenty of work and plenty of professional skill; but it
does not, like the old operas and oratorios, require those
extraordinary vocal gifts which only a few individuals scattered
here and there throughout Europe are born with. Singers who could
never execute the roulades of Semiramis, Assur, and Arsaces in
Rossini's Semiramide, could sing the parts of Brynhild, Wotan and
Erda without missing a note. Any Englishman can understand this
if he considers for a moment the difference between a Cathedral
service and an Italian opera at Covent Garden. The service is a
much more serious matter than the opera. Yet provincial talent is
sufficient for it, if the requisite industry and devotion are
forthcoming. Let us admit that geniuses of European celebrity are
indispensable at the Opera (though I know better, having seen
lusty troopers and porters, without art or manners, accepted by
fashion as principal tenors at that institution during the long
interval between Mario and Jean de Reszke); but let us remember
that Bayreuth has recruited its Parsifals from the peasantry, and
that the artisans of a village in the Bavarian Alps are capable
of a famous and elaborate Passion Play, and then consider whether
England is so poor in talent that its amateurs must journey to
the centre of Europe to witness a Wagner Festival.
The truth is, there is nothing wrong with England except the
wealth which attracts teachers of singing to her shores in
sufficient numbers to extinguish the voices of all natives who
have any talent as singers. Our salvation must come from the
class that is too poor to have lessons.
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