Comments on: Pray for Verena’s baby

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:04:41 +0000

Well we could instead listen to Daddy Wagners’ Die Feen (The Fairies) , with Linda Ester Gray, to boot.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:15:30 +0000

I had no idea that this opera existed, and after reading your review, I think I haven’t missed much. But I am glad that you reviewed it for us, bringing it to my attention so that I can rent or seek out a copy and hear the beautiful sections. thank you.

By: miss kitty litter

miss kitty litter — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:00:59 +0000

I have a CD recording of this, which purchase stemmed from an intense (at the time) curiosity as to how far from the tree the apple had fallen.

Listened to it once, possibly twice and came away with the overall feeling that it was cluttered and seemed to lack a proper direction.

By: Avantialouie

Avantialouie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:19:59 +0000

Actfive declares, with considerable merit: “It often seems as if both music and libretto were written by a committee that couldn’t come to agreement.”

But had I been an opera critic in 1918, I might very well have said exactly the same thing about Puccini. His use of whole tone scales, pentatonic scales, and music without an apparant tonal center (is in the prelude to “Il tabarro”) undoubtedly seemed like it had been written by a committee to many audiences back then. Yet today we acknowledge Puccini as a master at bringing the musical innovations of others kicking and screaming into the mainstream of Italian culture. It seems to me that Siegfried Wagner, who must certainly be reckoned a “second-tier” composer in even the most favorable possible scenario, was attempting to do EXACTLY THIS, given the state of German music at the time. So I salute his efforts–I THINK; but reserve absolute opinion until I have heard more of his music and have learned more about the general cultural climate of German music at the time.