jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (05/17/84)
I am not a perfect Wagnerite. In fact, I find Shaw's statement absurd. However: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of, once again, playing the prelude to the first act of Parsifal on the piano. And the ultimate silliness of all the statements about Wagner's supposed inhumanity, unpleasant personality, "yes, yes, great power of chromaticism but ultimately empty", etc. struck me full force. All of this fades before the beauty of this music. It's worth noting that Debussy, who went from "Wagnerian to the pitch of forgetting courtesy" (his words) to a Wagner debunker later on, still spoke of the beauty of the Good Friday music in this opera. And I haven't seen much mention in all the fuss of my most very favorite Wagner opera - Tristan und Isolde. Granted, the libretto at times is detestably ridiculous, but it also has some fine touches, and the drama is quite plausible (it should be - it's stolen from an old Irish tale). And the music is beautiful from beginning to end, with excellent characterization and following the action perfectly. (Who says I'm opinionated?) This is Wagner's most human opera. It is also one of the most interesting historically - it is probably the single most important work leading to the dissolution of tonality in the early 20th century after the Eroica. (Supposedly Berlioz walked out during the Prelude shaking his head.) Yeah, I know he stole ideas from Liszt. But a great work is more than "ideas". Something else about Tristan and Parsifal. Does it strike anyone else that Wagner made such distinctive use of the "Tristan chord" in the one opera that he would have been better off never using it again? In a passing harmony, it would be OK, but it's reappearance as a major motive in Parsifal always seems a little anticlimactic to me. Jeff Winslow