Zitat:
EL: Wieland Wagner [Richard Wagner’s grandson, who ran the Bayreuth Festival in the 1950’s and directed many operas] did things, too, which I thought were completely absurd. I refer here to my own personal acquaintance with a Meistersinger production. In Act Two, where Beckmesser implores Sachs not to disturb him anymore because the window of his house opens up, there is no house and no window! And Magdalena, in order to be replacing Eva in response to Beckmesser’s announced serenade, merely steps on a bench. In a bourgeois comedy like Meistersinger, this is absurd! Of course, anything is accepted in Germany if you give it proper metaphysical explanation, but I have long ago foresworn this kind of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo!
Zitat:
BD: Is opera art, or is opera entertainment?
EL: Opera is one of the most wondrous creations, where the greatest emotional manifestations of dramatic characters are brought forth through great music. No, no, no, opera is definitely art. That it becomes often a caricature in performance has nothing to do with the original creation. In the field of opera we have some of the milestones of music, and we have some of the milestones of the theater.
I think three comedies — Figaro, Meistersinger and Falstaff — will be hard to duplicate in the spoken theater. You will find them, indeed yes, but in their perfection, in the fusion of music and play they are unique. Or if you take tragedies, such as Don Giovanni, Otello, Carmen, you cannot find greater. I didn’t make it up, but a lot of people agree that the libretto of Otello is superior to the play because Boito, a tremendous literary figure — better than as a composer, as we know — condensed the drama to its essence, and what you get on the stage in Otello is certainly much more and has a much greater impact than the Shakespeare play, Othello.
Die Frage ist falsch gestellt. Große Kunst ist auch Unterhaltung, aber noch sehr viel mehr.
Zitat:
BD: I just wondered how much of it was the impact of Verdi.
EL: For instance, in Falstaff, when you get some of the soliloquies which come out of Henry IV, together with Verdi’s music, they certainly are magnificent. He says, “Può l’onore riempirvi la pancia? [Can honor fill your belly?] No!” When this “no” comes in the clarinet and the bassoon — bruh! You almost get the hiccup of his having drunk too much. Opera is that way, at its best.