Mark Twain on opera:
Daniel Winheld wrote:
Is it true that Mark Twain actually wrote: "Wagner's music isn't
nearly as bad as it sounds."?
(Now THAT is clear, concise, communicative writing!)
It appears that Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye had the original quote:
Bill Nye
Born: 1850-08-25
Died: 1896-02-22
Bill Nye Biography
I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
[ Funny Music Quotes]
Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography (re-quoting humorist Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye)
Here are some other Twain quotes on Wagner and opera:
I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which
Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that
one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I
have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an
entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.
- Mark Twain in Eruption
I have never heard enough classical music to be able to enjoy it; &
the simple truth is, I detest it. Not mildly, but will all my heart.
To me an opera is the very climax & cap-stone of the absurd, the
fantastic the unjustifiable. I hate the very name of opera - partly
because of the nights of suffering I have endured in its presence, &
partly because I want to love it and can't. I suppose one naturally
hates the things he wants to love & can't. In America the opera is an
affectation. The seeming love for [it] is a lie. Nine out of every ten
of the males are bored by it & 5 out of 10 women. Yet how they
applaud, the ignorant liars! -
What a poor lot we human beings are, anyway. If base music gives me
wings, why should I want any other? But I do. I want to like the
higher music because the higher & better like it. But you see, I want
to like it without taking the necessary trouble & giving the thing the
necessary amount of time & attention. The natural suggestion is, to
get into that upper tier, that dress circle, by a lie: we will pretend
we like it. This lie, this pretense, gives to opera what support it
has in America.
- Notebook # 15, July - August 1878
One in 50 of those who attend our operas likes it already, perhaps,
but I think a good many of other 49 go in order to learn to like it,
and the rest in order to be able to talk knowingly about it. The
latter usually hum the airs while they are being sung, so that their
neighbors may perceive that they have been to operas before. The
funeral of these do not occur often enough.
- A Tramp Abroad
Do a Google search for Mark Twain quotes and you'll find a lot. Most
of them are shorter than those I've listed above. He has many 1
liners that are truly astounding and humorous.
Best,
Stephen.
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