Consequently the last and most
popular part of this master-work is never seen till after midnight;
and many leave the house annoyed by the long intermission.
And this brings us to the weakest part of modern opera. It lasts too
long. Wagner is not the only guilty composer. Gounod's "Faust,"
Weber's "Euryanthe," and most of Meyerbeer's operas, if given without
cuts, would last over four hours. But in these cases no irreparable
harm is done by a few cuts, whereas in Wagner's operas there are very
few bars that can be spared, both on account of their intrinsic beauty
and because they are required to keep up the dramatic continuity of
the story. Nevertheless, Wagner's operas must be cut, in some cases
most unmercifully, as in "Die Goetterdaemmerung," in which Herr Seidl
was obliged to omit the whole of the first prelude--the weirdly grand
scene of the three Fates, and the scene between the two
Valkyries--merely to prevent the opera from lasting till one o'clock.
Herr Seidl is perhaps the greatest living interpreter of Wagner. He
brings to his works the enthusiasm without which they can neither be
interpreted nor fully understood; and his enthusiasm proves contagious
to the orchestra and the singers.
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