With the possible exception of the last number in Bach's
Passion music, I regard the choral music of this act as the most
sublime ever written. Here, at any rate, the _vox populi_ is divine.
The magnificent quintet in this act of "Die Meistersinger" also
affords proof that if Wagner banished concerted music from his later
works, it was not because he lacked inspiration for that kind of work.
Although extremely Wagnerian in its harmonies, it is one of those
numbers which even Wagner's enemies admire. Some years ago I witnessed
a curious scene in the Berlin Opera House. According to Wagner's
directions, the curtain goes down after this quintet, but the music
continues until the scene is changed. Now, on the occasion in
question, the quintet evoked so much enthusiasm that a storm of
applause arose. The extreme Wagnerites resented this interruption of
the music, and began to hiss; whereupon the others redoubled their
applause and their calls for an "encore," which finally had to be
granted, as the only way of appeasing this paradoxical disturbance in
which Wagnerites hissed while the others applauded!
At the Metropolitan Opera House the stage arrangements are so clumsy
that it is necessary to have an intermission of over a quarter of an
hour, in order to change this scene.
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