Word: wagnerism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Berlin lamp factory. Politburo Member Albert Norden asked assembled workers why, if they had complaints, they did not use the officially provided complaint book. "Sure," came a sneering voice, "it's always full, but no one ever reads it." Out in the potato country, Central Committee Functionary Bruno Wagner was told flatly by a farmer: "One ought to listen more to the West." Refugees arriving in West Berlin said that lesser party hacks were unwittingly contributing to the exodus by boasting ominously that all exit routes to the West would soon be sealed off. Among the 150,000 refugees...
People who listen to contemporary classical music don't expect to like everything, or even to understand it. They often merely endure it, and remind themselves that Wagner and Beethoven were considered far out in their day too. Just how much a listener will unquestioningly endure was acknowledged last week by the British Broadcasting Corporation. On its highbrow Third Program, it recently broadcast a musical "composition"' consisting of twelve minutes of random noise -and received no complaints...
...What Wagner did require was an "elemental, erotic quality," and he found it in Mezzo Soprano Bumbry's voice, a naturally glorious, bronzelike instrument that ranged through the house with impressive power. But because Wieland's concept of the staging allowed Venus about as much movement as a mummy, premiere audiences could not judge whether Bumbry's acting was a match for her singing. As for the new production itself, it was typically spare in detail but marred by the intrusion of a few Radio City Music Hall touches: an angelic choir whose halos gradually became brighter...
Gutsy Bardot. As Kundry in Parsifal, Mezzo Soprano Dalis came close to fulfilling Wieland Wagner's concept of the character as ''a neurotic in the first act. Brigitte Bardot in the second, and a hospital nurse in the third." Dalis has a theory that she can catch Kundry's tempestuous passions more effectively if she does not vocalize before going onstage, thus retaining a certain gutsy quality in her voice. Last week her theory worked just fine: the voice had a raw, fitfully feverish cast, but it never became ugly or strident. Tenor Thomas was less...
President Kennedy was busy, so the owners of the Summit, a brother team named Larry and Bob Tisch, settled for the last best thing, Mayor Robert Wagner, and a monster cocktail party with a flack-picked guest list. The kings, if any, have yet to make their appearance, the chauffeurs' waiting room has given way to a drive-yourself rental agency, and as for the late Mr. Bagby, he was not even replaced by Muzak. The one link to the Waldorf era: Claudius Charles Philippe, for many years the Waldorf's shrewd general factotum, is now the Tisches...