(I really don't have a comment on James Zehm's remarks; I guess if Wagner
wanted his overture played fast, he could jolly well play it himself!  Hah!
:-)

Lately I've been hearing a lot of Wagner, and I've been liking most of it.

The most recent listen was the Solti Chicago recording of Die
Meistersinger.  For those of you who are NOT Wagner fans:  TRY THIS ONE!!!
This is a great new Wagner, funny, intelligent (!!!), quick!  It's full of
repartee and "small" human things, not the "big" human problems that
supposedly inspire the Ring.

There is a rather superfluous peroration on German Art at the very end of
the opera, which I suppose must be taken in context.  In all other respects
this is Wagner about admiring whom I feel far less apologetic (than I do
usually).

In contrast is the Martha Mo:dl / Wolfgang Windgassen 1952-54 recording of
Tristan.  I should not judge an entire composition from one sampling of a
mere selection from it, but, man, this stuff is terrible.  I love the
overture or prelude.  But the rest of the opera seems to self-indulgent
wallowing.  I wonder if I'd be more charmed if I understood German?

I recently read that somebody's wife (or other SO) had remarked that
Tristan was like too much foreplay before the Big Event.  Let me tell you:
that was one incredibly embarrassing Big Event.  I am glad that I was not
a witness to young Martha actually doing her Mo:dling.  Being a Wagnerian
is truly an exercise in humiliation.  But then there is Mastersingers.

At 4 CDs, I think Mastersingers is, by a small margin, the actual longest
of Wagner's operas.  The action, however, takes place over a period of some
48 hours, and there is even a riot!  There is much humor, to say nothing of
the unintended comedy of Wagner trying to be funny.

I often ask this question:  is it TRULY IMPOSSIBLE to have Wagner sung with
lighter voices? Is it impossible to have a young woman of about 20 to sing
the role of Eva? The gal who sings it on this recording is a beauty called
Karita Mattila, and she does a fantastic job.  (And Ben Heppner is superb
as Walther and Jose van Dam is wonderful as Hans Sachs.) But she definitely
sounds a very mature woman.  Wouldn't it be lovely if--I don't even know
the younger, lighter-voiced sopranos, these days--Dawn Upshaw, maybe, sang
this role? I am forever doomed to be a Wagner fan who hates Wagnerian
sopranos.  People delight in pointing out to me that only a Wagneria
soprano can cope with a full Wagner orchestra.

Why can't orchestras play softly?

I have heard some incredible Wagnerian pianissimos.  I suppose they can't
play pianissimo every time the soprano sings.

Dr. S. de Silva <[log in to unmask]>
Lycoming College, Williamsport PA