And there is
another way in which singers of the new style can become creative.
Chopin speaks in one of his letters of a violoncellist who played a
certain poor piece so remarkably well that it actually appeared to be
good music. Similarly, a good vocalist (like Fraeulein Brandt, for
instance, who is very clever in this respect) can put so much art and
feeling into the weaker parts and episodes of songs and operas as to
make them entertaining where they are naturally tiresome. When we
bear in mind these high possibilities of singing, we must admit that
there is no nobler profession than that of a conscientious vocalist--a
profession without which some of the deepest feelings that stir the
human soul would remain unknown to the world.
VI
GERMAN OPERA IN NEW YORK
Perhaps it is not generally known that Mr. Theodore Thomas some years
ago entertained the project of reviving German opera in New York, in a
manner that should eclipse all previous operatic enterprises in this
country. It was his intention to give in the leading American cities a
series of performances of Wagner's Nibelung Tetralogy, and he looked
forward to this as the crowning achievement of his busy life.
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