Scan 4
Musical Courier 1897-01-13: Vol 34 Iss 880, 1897
67 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3BERLIN BUDGET BRANCH
5GERMAN HEADQUARTERS OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
6BERLIN, W., LINKSTRASSE 17, December 15, 1896.
8BERLIN VERSUS BAYREUTH.
10THE chief event of the entire musical season so far was last week's performances of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen in its completeness, newly studied, newly mounted and given with partially the same solo personnel as that of last summer's Bayreuth performances.
12The last named circumstance seems to make comparisons almost unavoidable. Still I have no intention of deviating from my usual modus of shunning them as much as possible. Moreover, in making them several circumstances ought to be taken into consideration; above all others the one that we are living in Berlin and not in Bayreuth. People who are going to the latter place go there for the especial purpose of attending these performances. They have nothing else to do but to prepare themselves for listening. The performances begin at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and there is half an hour's rest between each of the long acts. Here in Berlin people go to the opera just as in New York. The performances begin at 6:30 p.m., and as they are given without a single cut, just as in Bayreuth, a quarter of an hour's intermission is all that can be allowed between acts if the performances of Die Walküre and Siegfried are to be gotten through with by 11 p.m. and the Götterdämmerung by 11:15 p.m. Under the circumstances, such close attention, and above all such festive Stimmung, cannot be expected here as in Bayreuth, where everything is favorably predisposed.
14What is here said about the audience applies with equal or even much stronger force to the artists who in Bayreuth had nothing else to do but to study the one and only part in which they were to appear, and to identify themselves with it and the work as a whole, while in Berlin or the other cities from which they come they have to sing one part today and another one to-morrow and still another one the next day, and thus they cannot possibly concentrate their whole being and powers upon the one and only impersonation they take in the Nibelungenring, as they can and are forced to do at Bayreuth.
16Then again we have here no covered orchestra, and though the Royal Orchestra is, with possibly a few exceptions, by no means inferior to the band of artists gathered at Bayreuth ad hoc, the effect cannot prove as satisfactory here as at Bayreuth, with its "mysterious abyss." Then take the different size of the two opera houses, and above all the less favorable acoustic properties of the Berlin Theatre when compared with that of Bayreuth, which in this respect stands unique in the wide world. I am told by those who heard Gulbranson as Walküre in Bayreuth, and I believe our Raconteur also testified to the fact, that this woman was in tone volume entirely satisfactory, while here in Berlin she seemed, especially in some portions of Die Walküre, in the final love duet from Siegfried and in the climax of the end of the Götterdämmerung, by no means adequate.
18The same remark applies also to Perron, although to a somewhat lesser degree. Still, his Wotan was at Bayreuth much more imposing, vocally, than in Berlin.
20Still another circumstance—a merely technical but a tremendously important one—in favor of Bayreuth I must mention, in order to maintain fairness of judgment toward Berlin. This preference lies in the fact that the Bayreuth stage is a much larger one than the one of the much bigger opera house of Berlin. It is furthermore equipped with modern machinery and a triple stage, above and below, which admits of quicker and more satisfactory changes of scene than can be effected here in Berlin upon an old-fashioned stage, which cannot for want of space now be enlarged. At present the stage of the Royal Opera is so cramped in size that in Rheingold the new swimming machinery for the Rhinedaughters, which had been specially ordered and built after the Bayreuth patterns, could, after all, not have been adopted for the Berlin model performance, as the apparatus consumed, upon trial, more space than could be granted. Thus the intendency was forced to abandon the innovation, and we had the same old and unsatisfactory chariots, which were also made to do service in Bayreuth in 1876 at the first Nibelungenring performances, under Wagner's own guidance.
22If all these drawbacks are duly taken into consideration I arrive at the conviction that the Berlin model performances of the Nibelungenring last week were as a whole superior to those I heard in Bayreuth last summer, though in some particulars I must admit the superiority of the latter.
24And now let me come to the details of each of the four evenings of the Berlin model reproduction of Wagner's giant work. The opening of the Rheingold performance was not as auspicious as it might have been as far as the orchestra was concerned, and also, as I stated above, with regard to the first scene, which was not well managed. The water did not look half as natural, nor were the light effects as telling as they were in Bayreuth, and these again were inferior to the ones I saw in New York at the first Rheingold production there some seven or eight seasons ago. Especially the lighting up of the clump of gold as the sun strikes the river bed was much more convincingly shown in New York than either in Bayreuth or in Berlin.
26As regards the orchestral deficiencies, which at moments were quite glaring in Rheingold, but which vanished more and more as the performances progressed, the fault must be laid at the doors of our usually irreproachable court conductor, Felix Weingartner. The opera house had been closed for rehearsals, and no performances had taken place on the two days preceding last Wednesday's first night of the Nibelungenring. But instead of holding orchestral rehearsals on these two days Weingartner had conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of Wolff's subscription series in Hamburg on Monday night and in Bremen on Tuesday night. This, of course, he is allowed to do by the terms of his contract with the intendency. Still, if I had been Weingartner, I should either have let the two concerts go or I should have foregone the pleasure and honor of being the conductor of these model performances of the Ring, which would not be model ones as far as the orchestra was concerned if no special orchestral rehearsals had been held. In consequence of this neglect these were some places in the Rheingold reproduction in which the orchestra—which was at moments quite obstreperous—did not hitch well with the actions and singing.
28The scenery from the second scene on, however, was entirely new and very beautiful, especially the Walhalla, which Professor Brückner, of Coburg, had painted. The change from there to Nibelheim and back was as well managed as at Bayreuth, inclusive of the smith's clangings of the Nibelheim dwarfs, and the final scene of the rainbow looked a good deal more gorgeous and natural than it did in Bayreuth, where the gods did not even venture upon this shining bridge across the Rhine, although this is especially demanded in the score. The new costumes were beautiful and much more befitting than they were at Bayreuth last summer, where Mme. Cosima Wagner's fancy was let loose upon the inoffensive Freia and the even more innocuous Froh, which latter god was dressed in apple-green colors, and the poor Goddess of the Golden Apples looked more like Golden than Eternal Youth. Titzlaff in his mise-en-scène outdid and outshone himself, not only in Rheingold, but in the entire cycle.
30Now, as regards the artists in the Rheingold performance, I want to mention first the out of town guests who were to give us the impression of Bayreuth, and—the justification for the considerably raised prices of admission.
32There was first Perron, from Dresden, as Wotan, noble, dignified singer, but whose voice, as I said before, did not come up quite to his Bayreuth representation, and who likewise seemed to save himself somewhat for the greater exertions of the next two nights.
34Frau Ernestine Heink, from Hamburg, created as much of a sensation as Erda here as she had done at Bayreuth last summer. She owns one of the most glorious as well as most sympathetic of true contralto voices the Lord ever created.
36Heinrich Vogl had come from Munich to sing and act for us his inimitable part of Loge. He was, if possible, even more limber and light on his feet than he was in Bayreuth, or even in New York, where he took the part that he had created in Bayreuth in 1876 to the great satisfaction of Richard Wagner. The twenty intervening years seem to have passed over his head without leaving any traces, and as he was in perfect voice you can imagine that his impersonation of the restless, scheming firegod was one of the artistic altitudes of this reproduction of Rheingold.
38Friedrichs, the Bayreuth Alberich, and surely one of the world's best representatives of that difficult and ungrateful part, had been announced for Berlin also. Fate, however, decreed differently. One of the portions of the anatomy of Friedrich's larynx was strained, and thus he was restrained from singing. In his stead Otto Schelpfer, from Leipsic, was heard as Alberich. He, too, is a superb artist, who pronounces admirably, and who in the first scene satisfied me completely. By the time he had reached his final and most important scene, however, the thrice repeated curse, his voice was no longer equal to the occasion, and he could not quite reach the climax for which he was aiming.
40Hermann Bachmann, of Nuremberg, was the Donner, which part he had also sung in Bayreuth, and he pleased me here at least equally well if not more so than he had done there.
42The remainder of the cast consisted of our home personnel, and let me hasten to assure you that in several instances, and assuredly on the whole, it not only equalled but surpassed last summer's Bayreuth personnel of the first cycle.
44In the first place Frau Goetze is vocally as well as historically an imposing Fricka, and in this cycle she gave all she had to give, as her ambitions were aroused through the presence in the cast of Frau Heink, a rival worthy of her mettle.
46Lieban's Mime stands unrivaled in the wide world. I have never seen anybody who could approach this artist in the perfection with which he sings, looks and carries out the part of the impish dwarf.
48Miss Hiedler, with her beautiful soprano voice and handsome stage presence, was in every way well qualified for the part of Freia. Philipp fulfilled expectations as Froh; Krasa and Moedlinger were a worthy pair of giants, and, above all, our three Rhinedaughters surpassed the Bayreuth trio in at least the two soprano voices. The alto, Miss Deppe, was perhaps not equal to Miss Fremstad, but Frau Herzog, as well as Miss Rothauser, outweighted the Bayreuth sopranos. The three voices blended well, and they sang their difficult music with absolute clearness of intonation.
50***
52The performance of Die Walküre gave the orchestra a chance to redeem itself, and was in this respect, despite some glaring moments of obstreperousness in the brass, a great improvement upon Rheingold. The new scenery à la Bayreuth was beautiful, but I don't admire the imitation of the springing open of a huge barn door when spring enters the hall. The landscape of the second act was grotesque, and the great fight scene between Siegmund and Hunding, with Brünnhilde as sponge holder and Wotan as referee, was so clearly shown and so well managed that the spectator could see and understand all that happened up in the clouds. The Valkyr rock in the third act was also imposing, and the ride of the Valkyries was executed in so glorious and irresistibly swaying a style that the audience broke out into a tempest of applause right in the open scene, which is of course very much against the rule in Wagner opera. The applause, however, was equally spontaneous and hearty after the fall of the curtain of each act of the four performances, but the intendency strictly adhered to Bayreuth prescriptions and did not permit any appearances before the curtain, even to the guests, though on other occasions they are allowed to bow to the audience, while the home personnel is always debarred from this privilege.
54Frau Sucher as Sieglinde we have all admired in Bayreuth, and our former Brünnhilde was equally great in the part on her home stage. Of surpassing merit vocally was Sylva's Siegmund. He has the strong voice and dramatic accents of Wagner's hapless hero. Moedlinger was fierce and lugubrious as Hunding.
56New to Berlin, and also to me, as I had only seen Lilli Lehmann at Bayreuth, was Frau Ellen Gulbranson, from Christiania, as Brünnhilde. From all that has been said and written about her expectations were of course pretty high, and I must say that they were not quite fulfilled. In looks and stage presence the handsome Norwegian was a noble representative of the favorite child of Wotan. Her acting, however, gave the impression of a lack of freedom and self reliance. She walks about like one who wears invisible fetters (perhaps the chains that bound her to Bayreuth), and as for her voice it did not, especially in the intensely tragic Todesverkündigung, quite suffice to fill the vast auditorium with as much sonority, depth and strength as we expect of the chief Valkyrie.
58Perron was far better as Wotan in Die Walküre than in Rheingold on the previous evening, but he was reserving himself and husbanding his vocal resources for the part of the Wanderer, in Siegfried. That it was necessary for him to pursue such tactics shows best that, noble singer though he be, Perron would not do for Berlin.
60***
62Siegfried proved the climax of the entire cycle. It was the best performance of that work that I ever witnessed anywhere. I especially enjoyed the interpretation of the title part through Grünig. He was much better than at Bayreuth, where he was and felt himself under the artistic restraint of Cosima Wagner, while here he gave all he had acquired in Bayreuth, together with an easy grace and fanciful freedom entirely his own. He looked youthful, and sang and acted what he looked. The sword forging scene was also much better done and much more realistic than in Bayreuth. So greatly did Grünig please everybody, the intendency, the audience and especially the Emperor, that negotiations were opened with Pollini for the permanent engagement of the artist for the Berlin Royal Opera, and I just learn that they came to a successful end. Grünig, therefore, will belong next season to the Berlin Royal Opera personnel.
64Of Liban's Mime I spoke before, and I can only say that the artist succeeded in making even the somewhat tedious and long spun out conundrum scene between Wotan and himself more interesting and of greater significance than it ever appeared to me heretofore.
66The dragon scene of the second act, of course, had its usual drawbacks, which it will ever retain, no matter how ugly
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.