A recent issue of
Opera News reveals that Lorin Maazel is the latest to join the "Wagner should have collaborated with a librettist" camp. Still, I agree with this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dividend
Wagner is the best. Profound story...(emphasis mine),
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... because, upon reflection, don't Wagner Operas contain the best-formed stories in the entire repertory?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yagan Kiely
I honestly prefer R. Strauss, but Wagner is definitely up there.
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Funny thing about that... R. Strauss's professional musician father was an virulent anti-Wagnerian- a rather ironic biographical tidbit in the family bearing Germany's "next phase" of program Romanticism, with R. Strauss later being dubbed "Richard II." I remembering reading somewhere that R. Strauss's development profited when he "stopped listening to his father's words and started listening to his namesake's music."