I trust that I know as well as anybody that singing is one of the most entrancing and bewitching and moving and eloquent of all the vehicles invented by man for the conveying of feeling;but it seems to me that the chief virtue in song is melody, air, tune, rhythm, or what you please to call it, and that when this feature is absent what remains is a picture with the color left out.I was not able to detect in the vocal parts of "Parsifal"anything that might with confidence be called rhythm or tune or melody; one person performed at a time--and a long time, too--often in a noble, and always in a high-toned, voice; but he only pulled out long notes, then some short ones, then another long one, then a sharp, quick, peremptory bark or two--and so on and so on; and when he was done you saw that the information which he had conveyed had not compensated for the disturbance.Not always, but pretty often.If two of them would but put in a duet occasionally and blend the voices; but no, they don't do that.
The great master, who knew so well how to make a hundred instruments rejoice in unison and pour out their souls in mingled and melodious tides of delicious sound, deals only in barren solos when he puts in the vocal parts.It may be that he was deep, and only added the singing to his operas for the sake of the contrast it would make with the music.Singing! It does seem the wrong name to apply to it.Strictly described, it is a practicing of difficult and unpleasant intervals, mainly.An ignorant person gets tired of listening to gymnastic intervals in the long run, no matter how pleasant they may be.In "Parsifal"there is a hermit named Gurnemanz who stands on the stage in one spot and practices by the hour, while first one and then another character of the cast endures what he can of it and then retires to die.
During the evening there was an intermission of three-quarters of an hour after the first act and one an hour long after the second.In both instances the theater was totally emptied.People who had previously engaged tables in the one sole eating-house were able to put in their time very satisfactorily; the other thousand went hungry.The opera was concluded at ten in the evening or a little later.When we reached home we had been gone more than seven hours.Seven hours at five dollars a ticket is almost too much for the money.
While browsing about the front yard among the crowd between the acts I encountered twelve or fifteen friends from different parts of America, and those of them who were most familiar with Wagner said that "Parsifal" seldom pleased at first, but that after one had heard it several times it was almost sure to become a favorite.It seemed impossible, but it was true, for the statement came from people whose word was not to be doubted.
And I gathered some further information.On the ground Ifound part of a German musical magazine, and in it a letter written by Uhlic thirty-three years ago, in which he defends the scorned and abused Wagner against people like me, who found fault with the comprehensive absence of what our kind regards as singing.Uhlic says Wagner despised "JENE PLAPPERUDE MUSIC," and therefore "runs, trills, and SCHNORKEL are discarded by him." Idon't know what a SCHNORKEL is, but now that I know it has been left out of these operas I never have missed so much in my life.
And Uhlic further says that Wagner's song is true: that it is "simply emphasized intoned speech." That certainly describes it --in "Parsifal" and some of the operas; and if I understand Uhlic's elaborate German he apologizes for the beautiful airs in "Tannh:auser." Very well; now that Wagner and I understand each other, perhaps we shall get along better, and I shall stop calling Waggner, on the American plan, and thereafter call him Waggner as per German custom, for I feel entirely friendly now.
The minute we get reconciled to a person, how willing we are to throw aside little needless puctilios and pronounce his name right!
Of course I came home wondering why people should come from all corners of America to hear these operas, when we have lately had a season or two of them in New York with these same singers in the several parts, and possibly this same orchestra.Iresolved to think that out at all hazards.
TUESDAY.--Yesterday they played the only operatic favorite Ihave ever had--an opera which has always driven me mad with ignorant delight whenever I have heard it--"Tannh:auser." Iheard it first when I was a youth; I heard it last in the last German season in New York.I was busy yesterday and I did not intend to go, knowing I should have another "Tannh:auser"opportunity in a few days; but after five o'clock I found myself free and walked out to the opera-house and arrived about the beginning of the second act.My opera ticket admitted me to the grounds in front, past the policeman and the chain, and I thought I would take a rest on a bench for an hour and two and wait for the third act.
In a moment or so the first bugles blew, and the multitude began to crumble apart and melt into the theater.I will explain that this bugle-call is one of the pretty features here.You see, the theater is empty, and hundreds of the audience are a good way off in the feeding-house; the first bugle-call is blown about a quarter of an hour before time for the curtain to rise.