Wagner as Man & Artist - Ernest Newman

No. 6.

No. 7.

either of which will serve to show the gulf that separates Das Liebesverbot from Die Feen.

The opening scene is very animated, the chorus of the people being full of entrain; the whole manner is thoroughly Italian, the orchestra chattering away more or less irrelevantly, and the voices interjecting their remarks in a facile, half-melodic sort of way. How careless Wagner was with regard to deeper musical characterisation may be seen from the theme that accompanies the entry of Claudio,—one of those typical Italian operatic themes of which we can never be quite sure whether they are meant to be tragic or comic, though here it is apparently meant to be serious—