“It’s progressive music for cats” – Weekend
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May 22, 1813 was born Richard Wagner – the great opera reformer, one of the pillars of German musical culture. The festival in Bayreuth founded by him is still one of the most important events of the summer European theatrical life. The reputation of Wagner himself is not so unambiguous: even during his lifetime, his music divided people into ardent admirers and opponents, and open anti-Semitism and posthumous popularity in Nazi Germany left a serious imprint on the attitude towards him in the post-war period. We studied what we heard in Wagner’s music at different times.
1
Two or three generations before our own day, the “consumer of culture” imagined himself to be a Wagnerian; now he is rather inclined to scold Wagner.
Theodor Adorno
2
Such a knock and noise, a whistle and a creak, I had never heard before. All this, taken together, aroused in me such unbearable aching pain that I experienced when filling my teeth at the dentist.
Mark Twain
3
I would have hesitated for a long time to testify to you in a letter my admiration if I had not daily come across unworthy, absurd articles where every possible effort is being made to discredit your genius. You are not the first person, sir, about whom I have had to suffer and blush for my country.
Charles Baudelaire
4
If Wagner prevails, then what will become of the art of singing? No more bel canto, no more phrasing, no more pronunciation. What is the point of them if the only thing that is required of you is to “roar”.
Gioacchino Rossini
5
We often scold Wagner, but Wagner is strong, and strong in that he feels art and pulls it … If he were more talented, he would not have done it.
Modest Mussorgsky
6
Wagner is still alive and still new; when the revolution begins to sound in the air, the art of Wagner also resounds.
Alexander Blok
7
Wagner is a stupid, farcical buffoon, a mediocre buffoon and a stuffed pea. All this is so stupid, farcical, that you are surprised … thousands of quasi-educated people sit and listen attentively, and look, and admire.
Lev Tolstoy
8
Music for a long time retained a trace of Wagner’s grip, a kind of fever, incurable for everyone who inhaled its marsh fumes.
Claude Debussy
9
You can not put the life of an artist on such unworthy nonsense as politics … in the French Revolution, only one David stained himself by getting into a dirty hustle and bustle. Nor did Wagner bring any benefit by climbing the Dresden barricades, and meanwhile he risked carrying the Nibelungs, Tristan and Parsifal to the grave.
Alexander Benois
10
I thought, well, I will visit Bayreuth, and there it will be possible to die in peace. In fact, it turned out to be rude in every respect.
Valentin Serov
eleven
I have little sympathy for Wagnerism as a principle, Wagner himself as a person arouses feelings of antipathy in me, but I cannot but do justice to his enormous musical talent.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
12
As for music, last fall I consciously and with curiosity set up an experiment to find out how I now feel about the music of Richard Wagner. How disgusted I am with this gloomy, stuffy and, above all, hypocritical and pretentious music! This is the music of a failed composer and person, but at the same time – here I’m ready to swear – a great actor.
Friedrich Nietzsche
13
In Bayreuth, musical dramas are performed in such a way that they resemble serious parliamentary debates, and the presentation of the poetic theme takes on all the qualities of a good speech on the topic of the budget..
Bernard Show
14
The prelude to “Tristan and Isolde” reminds me of an old Italian drawing of a martyr, whose intestines are slowly wound around a shaft.
Eduard Hanslik
15
Open the clavier of “Tristan and Isolde”: this is progressive music for cats. Any crappy pianist who will press white keys instead of black ones, or vice versa, can repeat it.
Heinrich Dorn
16
Wagner is a Saxon dwarf with a phenomenal talent and an insignificant character.
Thomas Mann
17
I have a musical conscience, to which I listen, and Wagner lost this conscience in the pursuit of greatness and novelty.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
18
Imagine a large, beautiful silk tapestry, incredibly multicolored and intricate, that has one indelible stain on it. It’s still a fine tapestry, wonderful craftsmanship, still magnificent colors and silk and pattern, but the stain exists. And I fear that Hitler and Nazism have tarnished Wagner. For some, this blur ruins the whole picture. For others, it’s something to put up with.
Stephen Fry
19
I can’t listen to Wagner for long. I am overcome almost immediately by the desire to invade Poland.
Woody Allen
20
We’ve been rehearsing for two hours now and we’re still playing the same stupid tune.
Thomas Beecham
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