The influence of Wagner is more plainly seen
in the musicianly development of the melodies than in their employment
as guiding themes, though of this, too, there are not a few instances.
But the parts of the work in which Goetz's indebtedness to Wagner are
most apparent are the choruses, which, both in their tunefulness and in
the elaborate nature of the part-writing, often recall 'Die
Meistersinger,' and in the orchestration, which is extraordinarily
fanciful and imaginative. 'Der Widerspaenstigen Zaehmung' has never been
properly appreciated in this country, in spite of the familiar nature of
the libretto. Goetz left another opera, 'Francesca da Rimini,'
unfinished. This was completed by his friend Ernst Frank, but has never
met with much success.
Cornelius and Goetz would have been the first to admit the influence
which Wagner's works exercised upon their imagination, yet their
admiration for his music never seduced them into anything like mere
imitation. The operas of Carl Goldmark are founded far more directly
upon the methods and system of Wagner. Yet it would be unjust to dismiss
him as a mere plagiarist. In his first work, 'Die Koenigin von Saba'
(1875), there is a great deal which is entirely independent of Wagner's
or any one else's influence. The plot of the work has really nothing
Biblical about it, and if the names of the characters were changed, the
work might be produced to-morrow at Covent Garden without offending the
most puritanical susceptibilities.
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