But numerous experiences
lead me to believe the contrary. Allow me to quote, for example, an
extract from one of those letters, abusive or censorious, which
musical editors receive almost daily. "Is it not undeniable," writes a
correspondent, "that as long as the world lasts, one of its greatest
delights will consist in listening to the music furnished by the human
voice? The more highly cultivated, pure, sweet, and flexible the
voice, the more the enjoyment derived. And is it not equally true that
Wagner's style of music discourages singing of this sort, or, in fact,
singing of any sort? Are not the principal features of Wagner's operas
the orchestra, acting, and general _mise-en-scene_, and does not
singing, pure and simple, have but little part in it?"
If the writer of these questions had asked them in Wagner's presence I
believe that Wagner would have jumped up and boxed his ears. Nothing
so irritated him as this notion that the singing in his operas is
subordinate to the orchestra, or, in other words, that he puts the
statue in the orchestra and the pedestal on the stage.
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