Robert Peters <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>The problem is that the Wagner cult (especially of Bayreuth) is dangeroulsy
>near to a religion and this is a concept I (and many others) dislike a lot.
>I am a German and I know from my countries past that no man (and no woman)
>deserves god-like worshipping.  If you want to do Wagner right, give him
>respect and critical consideration, not adoration.  And the Wagnerites
>could begin to stand (and do!) some joking on Richard's costs: it would
>be a sign of inner independence.

Well, when it comes to me, I don't see this as a problem.  I can joke
about Herr Wagner myself, and I have heard several true Wagnerian say some
ironic comments like "A 16 minute solo aria can undoubtessly only come from
Wagner" etc, so I think the humourless aura in Wagnerian camp is a myth.

The contemporary papers teased Wagner a lot, for his behaviour,
pretantions, looking, and supposed Jewish origin pared with his anti-Jewish
propaganda and intellectual hocus-pocus.  There is a sea of caricatures
left from his time, where he looks like an inkfish which has fallen down
from a tree.

But undoubtelessly he was, although one shall not take misunderstandings or
unconscious cursings of Jews for humour, a humouristic person when in the
right mood, in his art (not just Meistersinger) as in his life.  His humour
ranges from bright to naive, from cruel to easygoing.  At some rehersals in
Dresden he said about Schroeder-Devrient, who was getting old and had some
problems with the breathing; "That was the most beautiful astma-attack I
ever heard".  He made himself a SF pionieer when he said that Meyerbeers
grandchildren looked like aliens, he said upon reading the novella "When
died Janos Kovacs?", that it was too long; "It had been a masterwork, had
not Janos Filibuster died 50 years too late!".  and his favourite joke in
old age was to tell about that play he wrote as teenager, "Leubald und
Adelaide", in which he claimed to had murdered 42(!) persons in 5 acts,
and then you come and say that Wagner didn't have selfdistance!!

The works express very fine and subtile humor in many cases.  Meistersinger
is hilarous, and I must say I prefer it to much of Italian opera buffa, but
as I said, also other works contain humour.

I don't remember if it was Liszt or Nietzsche who in jest remarked upon
Wagenrs humour:  "He destroyed me.  I was completely normal before I met
him".

But search teh archieve for my exkurs on humour in Wagenrs works, and my
other recent essays, which I hope shall bring soem new light to some.:-)

Mats Norrman
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