This class of opera-goers never tire of abusing such singers as
Fraeulein Brandt and Herr Niemann because their voices are no longer as
mellow as in their youth, and sometimes weaken in a sustained note or
swerve for a second from the pitch. Such blemishes are no doubt to be
regretted, but they are a hundred times atoned for by the passion and
the variety of emotional expression that animate their voices, and by
their superb acting. Fraeulein Brandt's _Ortrud_, _Eglantine_, and
_Fides_ will be referred to generations hence as models, as will Herr
Niemann's _Tannhaeuser_, _Siegmund_, _Cortez_, _Lohengrin_, _Tristan_,
etc. New Yorkers must consider themselves fortunate in having heard
for two seasons the greatest of Wagnerian tenors--even though he is no
longer in his prime--the man who sang the title _role_ of
"Tannhaeuser" when that opera was produced in Paris in 1861; who
created the part of _Siegmund_ in 1876 at Bayreuth; and who, in his
way, has done as much to popularize Wagner's operas as Liszt did
during the Weimar period, when people had to go to that city to hear
"Lohengrin" and "Tannhaeuser," as they now go to Bayreuth to hear
"Parsifal.
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