THE WAGNER OPERAS IN LONDON.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1133, 29 August 1882, Page 4

THE WAGNER OPERAS IN LONDON.

A London lady correspondent writes : —“ The Wagner operas have had a decided success. I cannot speak of them with knowledge—circumstances prevented my attending any of tho representations —but the general verdict upon them is favorable. Wagner did not come to London, and there were several changes in the personnel as at first proposed, but all went well, and it is plain that Wagneristn has taken root in London. The giant city boasts so many ‘ worlds ’ that there is room for every kind of success and popularity, whether they be that of a taste or that of a craze, and for a long time the general notion was that Wagnerism was of the latter order. This notion is now dispelled, and the great composer has conquered a new world here. A friend whom I asked for information about the celebrated ‘ cyclus’ made a remark which I am sure is quite true. ‘ Liking for Wagner’s music,’ he said, ‘ must be genuine ; it is impossible as an affectation. You either understand him or you don’t; you either like him or you don’t. There is no more half-way about it than there is about ovstere. The sublhnest heights of unintelligibility have been reached by the ‘ books of the operas,’ —official programmes written in what their German compilers fondly imagine tobe English, but which is a dialect hitherto unknown, and certainly ‘ not to be understanded of the people.’ This absurd blunder has given rise to a good deal of ‘ chaff ’ of the much-too-learned purveyors of our most recent musical treat: ’