For the first time in my life, I watched a four-hour opera on DVD non-stop (except for pee breaks in between Acts). I’m talking about Wagner’s Die Meistersingers von Nuremburg, performed by Deustche Oper Berlin (where Filipina soprano Andion Fernandez is based).
Wagner’s operas are so indulgent-it is so slow-moving and languid, a scene involving a duet (such as in Act II of Tristan und Isolde) can, believe it or not, approach an hour. In fact, if not for the marvelous music, a Wagner opera could easily send one into an instant coma. Tristan and Isolde approached four hours, without intermission; Tannhauser also exceeded the three-hour mark; this one, however was the longest opera I have ever seen on DVD-four and a half-hours without break. Can you imagine the actual performances, which, I reckon ran for around five hours!. I can’t help but visualize the members of the audience squirming in their seats, itching to strangle the musical director.
Opera goers remain divided over their assessment of Wagner. Rabid followers claim he is a genius, the greatest of all opera composers. While others insist he is just an egotistic, self-centered, anti-Semitic composer with an equally egotistic musical agenda. You either love him, or hate him, no in-betweens.
It is easy to see why Wagner remains a controversial figure in the musical world, more than 120 years after his death. Wagner broke with established musical tradition, especially with the staging of Tristan und Isolde. He raged against what he believed then, were the musical excesses that made Italian, and in fact, all opera, absurd. He disposed of the aria, the heart of Italian opera, and the staged ensemble numbers (such as duets, quartets and so forth to which everyone was accustomed), simply because the action on stage gets unnecessarily suspended as the singers engage in vocal acrobatics and fireworks that were not really called for by the text (Rossini and Donizetti comes to mind). This, he believed, reduced the musical drama to a mere “concert in costume”.
He replaced the aria with an “endless melody”, employing a complex system of leading motives (or the leitmotif, a technique he practically invented) that tie the entire music together to a leading musical phrase. For example, snatches of a refrain or a familiar melody introduced earlier in the performance get repeated in different forms to suggest a certain motive associated with a certain character. Puccini (and other post-Wagner composers) employed this technique with the crashing chords of Tosca in the opening Act, effectively associating the ominous chords with the evil henchman Scarpia, and which becomes the defining motive for the evil personality of the character.
Wagner also redefined “music drama” through his characteristic instrumentation. Gone were the days of the plunkety-plunk accompaniments that disfigured much of 18th and 19th century opera. His harmonies are so rich, full of color and vitality and extraordinarily refined many people actually go to “hear” Wagner’s operas, as opposed to “watching” it.
What distinguished Wagner from say, Verdi is that whereas the latter places the dominant musical roles to the voices, the former subordinates these to the orchestra, which for him, is the most important. The orchestra has the unquestionable dominant role, commenting on every psychological and dramatic development through his leitmotifs.
Consequently, Wagner’s ideas created a war of the critics that is still raging up to the present. But clearly, he left a lasting legacy. He remained the chief musical influence on subsequent musical developments for quite a long time.
I will be “reviewing” his works in the future. I look forward to watching his ambitious Ring cycle. I haven’t found a copy yet. I am beginning to suspect that Wagner’s ideas were as large as his ego.
Wagner’s operas are so indulgent-it is so slow-moving and languid, a scene involving a duet (such as in Act II of Tristan und Isolde) can, believe it or not, approach an hour. In fact, if not for the marvelous music, a Wagner opera could easily send one into an instant coma. Tristan and Isolde approached four hours, without intermission; Tannhauser also exceeded the three-hour mark; this one, however was the longest opera I have ever seen on DVD-four and a half-hours without break. Can you imagine the actual performances, which, I reckon ran for around five hours!. I can’t help but visualize the members of the audience squirming in their seats, itching to strangle the musical director.
Opera goers remain divided over their assessment of Wagner. Rabid followers claim he is a genius, the greatest of all opera composers. While others insist he is just an egotistic, self-centered, anti-Semitic composer with an equally egotistic musical agenda. You either love him, or hate him, no in-betweens.
It is easy to see why Wagner remains a controversial figure in the musical world, more than 120 years after his death. Wagner broke with established musical tradition, especially with the staging of Tristan und Isolde. He raged against what he believed then, were the musical excesses that made Italian, and in fact, all opera, absurd. He disposed of the aria, the heart of Italian opera, and the staged ensemble numbers (such as duets, quartets and so forth to which everyone was accustomed), simply because the action on stage gets unnecessarily suspended as the singers engage in vocal acrobatics and fireworks that were not really called for by the text (Rossini and Donizetti comes to mind). This, he believed, reduced the musical drama to a mere “concert in costume”.
He replaced the aria with an “endless melody”, employing a complex system of leading motives (or the leitmotif, a technique he practically invented) that tie the entire music together to a leading musical phrase. For example, snatches of a refrain or a familiar melody introduced earlier in the performance get repeated in different forms to suggest a certain motive associated with a certain character. Puccini (and other post-Wagner composers) employed this technique with the crashing chords of Tosca in the opening Act, effectively associating the ominous chords with the evil henchman Scarpia, and which becomes the defining motive for the evil personality of the character.
Wagner also redefined “music drama” through his characteristic instrumentation. Gone were the days of the plunkety-plunk accompaniments that disfigured much of 18th and 19th century opera. His harmonies are so rich, full of color and vitality and extraordinarily refined many people actually go to “hear” Wagner’s operas, as opposed to “watching” it.
What distinguished Wagner from say, Verdi is that whereas the latter places the dominant musical roles to the voices, the former subordinates these to the orchestra, which for him, is the most important. The orchestra has the unquestionable dominant role, commenting on every psychological and dramatic development through his leitmotifs.
Consequently, Wagner’s ideas created a war of the critics that is still raging up to the present. But clearly, he left a lasting legacy. He remained the chief musical influence on subsequent musical developments for quite a long time.
I will be “reviewing” his works in the future. I look forward to watching his ambitious Ring cycle. I haven’t found a copy yet. I am beginning to suspect that Wagner’s ideas were as large as his ego.
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