Santu De Silva wrote:

>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.
>
>In contrast is the Martha Mo:dl / Wolfgang Windgassen 1952-54 recording of
>Tristan.  ... 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?

Probably not.  "I love you.  I want to die." Crudely put, that's what a lot
of the dialogue is about.  The irony here is that there is a huge leap in
style from Meistersinger to Tristan.  They are *very* different operas, and
the irony I mention is that they were written one after the other.  Without
in any way being condescending (and I have no reason to be), I'd say that
one could go a lifetime never warming up to Tristan.  Or it may take a
lifetime.  Then again, one could disdain Tristan for years and fall in love
with it to the point of intoxication overnight.  You never know with that
opera and there is nothing else in Wagner (or much of anybody else, though
there are some imitations) like it.

I don't know that experpts recording you heard.  (I never heard of the
conductor, Rother, either, if that means anything, and it might.) I do know
that Modl's Isolde is well thought of in a complete Beyreuth recording she
did with Karajan, but I'm no Wagner scholar: I haven't heard all the
Tristans and I haven't heard this one so I can't comment any further.

What you might try, should you ever venture into Tristan territory again,
is the Kleiber recording.  Margaret Price may be more to your liking, and
Kleiber's conducting is lean and insightful.  The early digital sound is
nothing to crow about, though.  I must admit that these aren't huge voices
and there is some strain.  You might also try the Bohm recording on DG.  He
moves things along, but then, with Birgitte Nilsson, you do get one of the
quintessential Wagner sopranos.  Bernstein's voices are small, but with his
slow tempos, I don't know. . . . I didn't care for it.

And if you want to go with just excerpts, do try the love duet between
Tristan and Isolde and certainly, the Liebestod at the end.

Is there another Wagnerian opera even remotely like Meistersinger? Yes, he
said facetiously.  Try one by Weber.  Sorry.  I would say Rienzi and The
Flying Dutchman get about as far away as Wagner ever does from Tristan.
Gotterdammerung, too, for different reasons (more of a Meyerbeerian grand
opera, if you can imagine such a thing).  Actually, you might like
Gotterdammerung.  Might.  It's no comedy.

But maybe Tristan is never to be for you. Or it could be next week. You
never know.

>I often ask this question: is it TRULY IMPOSSIBLE to have Wagner sung
>with lighter voices? ... 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.

I'm told by singers that I know that most young singers avoid Wagner early
in their career.  Obviously, Beyreuth helps, with its sunken covered pit,
but I've never been there.  I must say, though, that the live Beyreuth
recordings on Philips do have more of a natural vocal balance than the
studio recordings I've heaard.  That Bohm I spoke of is one (though it's
on DG).  You might try it for that reason.  (The Meistersinger isn't bad,
but the tenor gets visibly tired by Act III--not the best time for tenor
fatigue).

>Why can't orchestras play softly?

They can when the conductor demands it.  I often listen to recordings with
a score and am amazed at how often soft markings are ignored.  (I will say
that as a player, that was not one of my many failings.) My guess may be
lack of rehearsal time before recordings.  If an orchestra is not used to
paying close attention to dynamics, even a pretty good conductor may not be
able to change that in a short time.

Roger Hecht