vine.

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. 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. He not only rehearses every bar of
the orchestral score with minute care, but each of the vocalists has
to come to his room and go throu