Mrs. Buce offers a constrained maximization problem: you have a limited budget and you have to present both Gotterdamerung and Traviata. How do you allocate your money?
Her point: for Verdi, you've got to have singers, so in Traviata, you can skimp on the orchestra. But for Götterdämmerung, people don't expect to enjoy the singing anyway, as long (I would rephrase) as the orchestra is loud enough.
I see her point. On the other hand, there may also be a substitution problem. If your Violetta catches a cold, there probably a couple of dozen other Verdian sopranos who can make a plausible claim on the role. But for any Wagner role, is there ever any more than one person--anywhere in the world--who is right for the part?
You can surmise my preference here. I'm one of those who believe that a Wagner opera is one where you go at six o'clock and sit for three hours and check your watch and it's 6:20.
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A person on Opera-L (a worldwide opera listserv) said this about Wagner: "Although there are some beautiful passages, the operas are tedious, pompous, and far too long and I could not sit through one in a live performance if my life depended on it."
He's in the minority on the listserv. I share his view except that the good moments in Wagner are more than "beautiful passages." When Wagner nails it, he really nails it. I'm thinking of the Act II duet and Isolde's final aria in "Tristan and Isolde." Singer and orchestra are one. Just transcendent.
I've tried at Wagner, I really have. I've seen a couple of Meistersingers, a couple of Tristians (one in a Finnish castle, which was kinda cool). I even read and greatly enjoyed the Brian Magee book. But I just don't get it. In hell the elevator music will be Wagner. In heaven, Così Fan Tutte.
Oh, I agree. The elevator will pick us (!) up to the sound of the Addio quintet and ascent accompanied by Soave sia il vento.
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