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!"