Christopher Webber agrees in response to Steve Schwartz:

>>I suspect the "symphonic" opera easier to write, in the sense that a lot
>>of it can be faked.  A really great melody can't be faked.  Wagner, of
>>course, has all sorts of great melodies, or melodic set-pieces, so he's an
>>exception.
>
>Yes.  Even Wagner's greatest musical heights, in the main, find him in his
>least "symphonic" mode (e.g.  Quintet in "Die Meistersinger", Act 2 Final
>Trio in "Gotterdammerung".)

Sorry, I'll insist:  I don't see why a "numbers" opera should be harder
to write than an opera based on the "endless melody" wagnerian model.
There are thousands easy ways of "faking" both models (being the result, of
course, as cheap as the faking method).  A good faking method for numbers
opera could be this:  you can collect a number of previously written arias
and duets (even written by another composer), adapt the words and change
the keys.  After this, you will have only to write the recitative parts.
Isn't that easy?.

Concerning melody:  aren't some leitmotive glorious melodies?.  The fact
that they are often "smaller" than conventional themes and that they are
spread here and there all over the work doesn't means that they can't be
as great as any aria melody.  Some would say no to this, just as those kids
that cries when you give them a broken cookie, but the true is that great
melodies are not exclusives of any opera model.  In fact, what sometimes is
glorious is not a leitmotiv in itself, but some of its transformations.  If
we agree that Wagner is the exception that confirms the rule, one may skip
to Verdi's last production:  aren't Falstaff and Othello full of great
melodies?.

Concerning formal coherence:  some entire acts in wagnerian operas are
globally builded from schemes like AAB, etc.  They are not divided in
numbers, each of them with a formal unity, but they have indeed a global
form.  I would guess that the greatest difficulty at the "symphonic" model
is to drive the music coherently during a large period, precisely because
you don't have much formal boundaries or "milestones" that can help you.
It takes a great musical maturity to write more than 25 minutes of coherent
undivided music.

>It seems - at least just at present - that we do harbour some sort of
>psychological preference for these more developed spans, even in the
>theatre: though of course the kind of "symphonic" mush that Steve
>isolates is indeed an false evasion rather than a solution.

It's just a way of driving music.  Potentially, it's as bad or good as
the hand of the composer who affords it.  However, about a century and
half ago, many people was of the opposite opinon of Christopher.  What
some wagnerites felt as an "evasion" was precisely the "superficial"
intelligibility and "pleasantness" of numbers opera model.  One can see
this clearly at Nietzsche's "Geburt der Tragoedie" (chapter 19, not "11"
as I wrote in a former message, sorry).

Pablo Massa
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