SHALL WE REALIZE WAGNER'S IDEALS?

Abstract

ISTORIANS of operatic phenomena have observed that fashions in music change; the popular Donizetti and Bellini of one century are only suffered to exist during the next for the sake of the opportunity they afford to some brilliant songstress. New tastes arise, new styles in music. Dukas' generally unrelished (and occasionally highly appreciated) Ariane et Barbe-Bleue may not be powerful enough to establish a place for itself in the repertoire, but its direct influence on composers and its indirect influence on auditors make this lyric drama highly important as an indication of the future of opera as a fine art. Moussorgsky's Boris Godunow, first given in this country some forty years after its production in Russia, is another matter. That score contains a real thrill in itself, a thrill which when felt makes it just a little difficult to feel the intensity of a Wagner drama again: because Wagner is becoming just a little bit old-fashioned. Lohengrin and Tannhduser are becoming a little shop-worn. They do not glitter with the glory of a Don Giovanni or the invincible splendor of an Armide. There are parts of Die Walkiire which are growing old. Now Wagner, in many ways the greatest figure as opera composer which the world has yet produced, could hold his place in the singing theatres for many decades to come if some proper effort were made to do justice to his dramas, the justice which in a large measure has been done to his music. This effort at present is not being made.