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Date: | Sun, 24 Feb 2002 09:13:01 +0000 |
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Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>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".)
And yet ... some of the most admired scenes in Handel (e.g. the patchwork
of short arias making up the Act 2 'finale' of "Tamerlano"); Mozart (his
major operatic finales) or even Sullivan ("Iolanthe" Act 1 finale) are
esteemed precisely because of their length and musical complexity.
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.
(Personally, I'd put in a word for Bretan's "Golem", which though naive,
is full of good tunes which do hang together dramatically!)
Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"
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