Significant Moments: Part 12

. . . like everyone else, only more so.
George Devereux, Normal and Abnormal.
This phrase startled me.
Irvin D. Yalom, Love’s Executioner.
All of a sudden I thought of something. . . . I suddenly remembered. . .
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
I have been to—guess whom?—to the master, Richard Wagner!
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents.
Ah, what a day for me, dear gods!
Homer, The Odyssey.
Oh, you should have been there!
But how could you have been?
Charles Kuralt, Horowitz in Moscow.
Very well.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
I will tell you all about it just as it happened. I will copy the words down exactly as I wrote them in my notebook.
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents.
Now to my task.—
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Manfred.
I arrived at the right hour but . . .
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents.
He made us wait. That is probably the way to put it. He heightened the suspense by his delay in appearing.
Thomas Mann, Mario and the Magician.
'Where's-------?' said I, naming our host.
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine.
It was half-past six o'clock and the hands were quietly moving on, it was even past the half-hour, it was getting on toward a quarter to seven.
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis.
Wagner’s . . .
Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt.
. . . practice, on such occasions, of making dramatic entrances at . . .
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
. . . well past . . .
H.G. Wells, The Door in the Wall.
. . . the appointed hour, and regally offering his arm to the lady who will sit at his right, looks suspiciously like imperial pomp.
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
Wagner himself, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . .says Henry James, “is distinctly tending—or trying—to make a court.”
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
Wagner . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . scoffs cheerfully at such gibes. “They even say I want to be a prince myself! Not I! I’ve seen too many of them!”
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
At last Wagner appeared in company with Cosima and Goldmark . . .
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents.
. . . Goldmark . . .
Harold C. Schonberg, The Lives of the Great Composers.
He was clearly Jewish, with a wrinkled, sad face. The eyes seemed to say, "I have seen it all. You can't shock me, you can't even annoy me."
J. Moussaieff Masson, Final Analysis.
I bowed to Cosima very respectfully, but she evidently did not think it worth while to honor me with a single glance.
Hugo Wolf, Letter to His Parents.
He had known Frau Cosima Wagner since his visit to Bayreuth, and now he was . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . to be . . .
William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
. . . introduced to the composer himself, a vigorous and powerful man of sixty-six years.

The composer presided over a large and complex enterprise, more like an imperial court than an ordinary household. There was Cosima, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . once called . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (Part II).
. . . the Baroness, . . .
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
. . . herself a regal figure, the daughter of Franz Liszt and his mistress, the countess d’Agoult. Cosima was the ruler and manager of the household. There were five children—three of whom Wagner had fathered while Cosima was still married to her first husband, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . the Baron . . .
Honore de Balzac, Cousin Bette.
. . . Hans von Bulow. There was a nurse, an English governess, and a tutor for the children.
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
The guests stand about the room in groups or round the table at the window or are seated in a circle by the fireplace.
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
Neither then nor later was I at the heart of things, but I did experience firsthand the workings of charisma. I . . .
Charles B. Strozier, Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst.
. . . sat there a good while: there was a great deal of talk; it was all very friendly and lively and jolly.
Henry James, An International Episode.
As he sat there he . . .
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo.
. . . found in the world without as actual what was in his world within as possible.
James Joyce, Ulysses.
Do you understand? I—
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
I fancied that . . .
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine.
. . . the actual things . . .
U.S. District Court (Southern District of New York), U.S. v. One Book Called “Ulysses.”
. . . about me . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . passed through my mind like the fragments in a kaleidoscope . . .
Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember.
. . . while, simultaneously . . .
Henry James, A Round of Visits.
. . . in a penumbral zone . . .
U.S. District Court (Southern District of New York), U.S. v. One Book Called “Ulysses.”
. . . I experienced . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo.
. . . residua of past impressions, some recent and some drawn up by association from the domain of the subconscious.
U.S. District Court (Southern District of New York), U.S. v. One Book Called “Ulysses.”
Cosima was a woman of beauty and intelligence; Wagner himself, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
I can describe him to you if you care to hear it:
Homer, The Odyssey.
Wagner, . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
. . . aside from being (as . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . Henry James . . .
Charles B. Strozier, Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst.
. . . a young American . . .
Henry James, An International Episode.
. . . noted a little irritably), a fount of wisdom, was a man of immense personal charm.
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
I’ve heard it said . . .
Richard Wagner, GØtterd¬mmerung.
. . . that Wagner, . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
. . . an autodidact with a ferocious literary appetite, . . .
Peter J. Boyer, The Jesus War: Mel Gibson’s Obsession.
. . . was always at his best in small select companies of this kind, where he could . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
. . . play the professor . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . do most of the talking and was listened to with respectful admiration, free from interruption by pestilent people, such as . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
. . . the academicians . . .
TIME, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Paradox of Power.
. . . and cynical commentators . . .
Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt.
. . . of this wicked world, who presumptuously advanced opinions of their own instead of humbly taking down the tables of the law as they came straight from Sinai.
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
He was obviously, I believe, hiding the weaknesses in his nature, covering the areas which were most vulnerable to hurt, concealing . . .
Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt.
. . . above all . . .
David C. Large, “Wagner’s Bayreuth Disciples” in Wagnerism in European Culture and Politics.
. . . his need to be accepted by the very people he scorned.
Doris Kearns, Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream.
In the symphony of his public performance these discordances . . .
Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt.
. . . the contrarieties within, . . .
Margaret Brenman-Gibson, Clifford Odets: American Playwright.
. . . sometimes seemed to him intolerable, and control of his resentment was difficult.
Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt.
Prof. Nietzsche, the philologist, announces a visit, . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, June 5, 1869).
. . . Wagner . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . wishes to put him off, . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, June 5, 1869).
. . . but Cosima, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
—her conscience not allowing her to assent to this proposition—
Henry James, An International Episode.
. . . would insist . . .
J. Moussaieff Masson, Final Analysis.
. . . in her regal way, . . .
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court.
. . . that he come.
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, June 5, 1869).
Cosima, . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . contributing her diplomatic best, . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . .smoothed over all disagreements . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . logically and without undue passion
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court quoting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It was she who created and maintained the structure of the court, upon which the whole . . .
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
. . . of Wagner’s . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
. . . great work depended.
Sheldon M. Novick, Henry James: The Young Master.
I hear the sound of steps muffled by the thick carpets. It is the master, wearing his velvet garment with wide sleeves lined in black satin.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Letter to an Unknown Friend.
Wagner and his personal party . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
. . . had emerged from . . .
Henry James, An International Episode.
. . . the library where he had been busy with his old editions . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
. . . and he . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities.
. . . calls for Hebrew wine!
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, July 2, 1881).
He was continually acquiring old books, first editions, in many languages, costly and crumbling trifles.
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
Wagner had . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . . an extraordinary appreciation for learning; . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
. . . and, like . . .
William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
. . . the faithful Jews with whom the composer surrounded himself . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . . revered the cultural heritage of the past.
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
Nietzsche . . .
Truddi Chase, When Rabbit Howls.
. . . who was dressed entirely in black, . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
. . . with pink vest and green bowtie, . . .
Fantasy Costumes, Neon Bunny.
. . . and seemed to Wagner like some figure out of a tale by Hoffmann, had finally . . .
Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner.
. . . appeared.
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
"Good evening, Professor!"
Sigmund Freud, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
Hearing him approach, . . .
Edward Field, Excerpt from Three Frankenstein Poems.
. . . Wagner . . .
K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius.
. . . welcomes him:
Edward Field, Excerpt from Three Frankenstein Poems.
It's high time!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
The Professor . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . seizes the fingers of . . .
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
. . . his host, . . .
Joseph Conrad, The Rescue.
. . . and wrings them with surprising power. “It’s a very full and very firm grip,” . . .
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
. . . said Wagner, . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.
. . . If you press my hand any harder I won’t be able to hold cards for three days. Come on! I’ll introduce you! Why do you draw back?
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
“Come in, my friend,” and . . .
Edward Field, Excerpt from Three Frankenstein Poems.
. . . the Old Man . . .
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
. . . takes . . .
Edward Field, Excerpt from Three Frankenstein Poems.
. . .the Professor . . .
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
. . . by the arm.
Edward Field, Excerpt from Three Frankenstein Poems.
(He walks on with WAGNER.)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust.
I glanced casually toward the main door and there stood General Grant. None of the other guests recognized him, but then he is not, to say the least, a vivid-looking man.
Gore Vidal, 1876: A Novel.
Liszt arrived at last . . .
Martin Gregor-Dellin, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Work, His Century.
There’s papa!
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . embraced his daughter . . .
Gustave Flaubert, Emma Bovary.
. . . and walked on, allowing . . .
Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister.
. . . Frau Wagner . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . to walk by his side.
Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister.
One of the women murmured:
Guy de Maupassant, The Hand.
There he is. Don’t you think he’s elegant?
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
“Papa! Come along!”
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
An admiring group, huddled by the doorway . . .
Henry Adams, Democracy: An American Novel.
—Papa, viens donc!
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
. . . is hushed into admiring awe.
Edna Ferber, The Homely Heroine.
They sat down, they unfolded their stiff table napkins. The immense room was carpeted, the walls were covered with eighteenth-century paneling . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
Frau Wagner . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . gestures to . . .
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . her father . . .
J. Moussaieff Masson, Final Analysis.
. . . to sit down beside her.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
Very relaxed, indeed even very cheerful mood . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Saturday, July 2, 1881).
The family table, with its seven places was lost in the void. It was drawn up close to the large French window . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
. . . that opened onto . . .
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Out of Time’s Abyss.
. . . the Winter Garden.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
The principal dish at . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . what Renoir later called a “fairyland dinner”
Margaret Brenman-Gibson, Clifford Odets, American Playwright.
. . . had been croquettes made of turnip greens . . .
Thomas Mann, Disorder and Early Sorrow.
. . . an entrée of . . .
John Kendrick Bangs, The Enchanted Typewriter.
. . . Newcastle salmon, . . .
Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit.
. . . pink and moist, . . .
Jacques Pepin, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen.
. . . and spinach Farfalle.
Il Trullo – The Best of Italy.
The entrée was fish, but the wine was red.
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table.
Renoir, . . .
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
. . . the French painter . . .
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Sunday, January 15, 1882).
. . . said that it was all a lot of nonsense, provided the wine and fish were good; he was certain that the majority of those who upheld the orthodox view could not, blindfolded, have distinguished a glass of white wine from a glass of red.
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table.
The waiter . . .
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
… “Theodore,” . . .
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
. . . whose name I had but recently learned—
Jack London, Mutiny of the Elsinore.
. . . bustles in the kitchen, popping in frequently to refill our glasses.
Frank Rich, Conversations with Sondheim.
. . . wine?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
No!
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals.
To drink good wine . . . what is better?
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.
Nietzsche!
Cosima Wagner, Letter to Richard Strauss.
. . . come drink a little wine with me. I have here a wine that is exquisite.
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
The Kaiser . . .
Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August.
. . . himself sent it me.
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
No!
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals.
Taste it . . .
Homer, The Odyssey.
Alcohol is bad for me: a single glass of wine or beer in one day is quite sufficient to turn my life into a vale of misery—
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo.
O Theodor! Here he is, Theodor!
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
Quick, Water here!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nòrnberg.
. . . a glass of water . . .
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
Forgive me . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
(emptying the glass in one go and holding it up in his right hand)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
. . . around the middle of life, to be sure, I decided more and more strictly against all "spirits": I, an opponent of vegetarianism from experience, just like Richard Wagner, who converted me, cannot advise all more spiritual natures earnestly enough to abstain entirely from alcohol. Water is sufficient.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo.
But friend, . . .
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
. . . The wine is mixed weak and pale.
Richard Wagner, Gotterdammerung.
I shall not say another word.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
(The waiter leaves.)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, Arabella.
(aside) What does he want here?—
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
—At supper the Jewish problem . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Tuesday, November 14, 1882).
. . . is considered at length.
Jon William Toigo and Margaret Romao Toigo, Review of The Holy Grail of Data Storage Management.
Well, then!
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner.
. . . to speak of Heine . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
. . . what a memorable phenomenon this artist Jew has been among Germans!
Thomas Mann, Notiz uber Heine.
“He is the bad conscience of our whole era,” . . .
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Monday, December 13, 1869).
. . . said Wagner, . . .
Bryan Magee, Aspects of Wagner.
. . . very ironical in tone . . .
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Sunday, March 3, 1872).
“the most unedifying and demoralizing matters one can possibly imagine, and yet one feels closer to him than to the whole clique he is so naively exposing.”
Cosima Wagner’s Diaries (Monday, December 13, 1869).
Heine once said that Jews . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron.
Wh-What?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Heine once said that Jews are like the people among whom they live, only more so.
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron.
What does that mean?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nòrnberg.
. . . the meaning was transparent:
Ken Frieden, Freud's Dream of Interpretation.
Germans and Jews were a serious, sober, thorough people . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
. . . with a . . .
William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
. . . long history of disunity, of uncertain nationhood, . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
—that is to say, . . .
K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius.
. . . their sense of identity was precarious . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
—Go on!
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals.
Have you made anything of this torrent of words?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
—proceed.
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Manfred.
I understood nothing of it!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Rarely have you understood me, and rarely too have I understood you.
Heinrich Heine, Buch der Lieder.
(aside) I don't like him!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
"I don't like him."—Why?—"I am not equal to him."—Has any human being ever answered that way?
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
What a fuss!
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Freud shook his head.
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime.
The doctor was the only person in the room who sat normally. All the rest were lolling eccentrically with an air of exaggerated and assumed ease.
Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago.
I glanced over at . . .
Anna Katherine Green, Initials Only.
. . . Nietzsche . . .
T.Z. Lavine, From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest.
. . . who was attired in . . .
Fergus Hume, The Green Mummy.
—did I mention?
Louisa May Alcott, Jack and Jill.
. . . an undertaker-style suit. He was hunched over the table, simultaneously reading and chewing.
Jacques Pepin, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (describing Jean-Paul Sartre dining at La Rotonde).
The conversation was lagging.
Joseph Wortis, Fragments of an Analysis with Freud.
as I was listening . . . I felt as if I were falling asleep
Leonard Shengold, Soul Murder.
. . . aware of having been adrift far off in the unknown. What was it that had sent him there, he wondered?
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
Meantime . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
. . . preoccupied and distracted . . .
Natalie Bauer-Lechner, Recollections of Gustav Mahler.
. . . I had been humming a tune to myself which I recognized as Figaro's aria from Le Nozze di Figaro . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
Taking no part in the discussion and unmoved by any of the issues raised in it, . . .
Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago.
. . . Doctor Freud . . .
Billa Zanuso, The Young Freud.
. . . neither spoke nor smiled.
Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago.
He knew that they were united against him, that they despised him: for his origins, for the blood which flowed in his veins . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
You are not one of them, said the inner voice; you and your tribe . . .
Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire.
I dont belong here
William Faulkner, Light in August (Chapter 12)
Freud was by this time however deeply immersed in . . .
Joseph Wortis, Fragments of an Analysis with Freud.
. . . the prevailing banality . . .
Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich.
. . . and simply shrugged his shoulders.
Joseph Wortis, Fragments of an Analysis with Freud.
At length . . .
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
Several voices cried out:
Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.
Quiet!
Candide (Excerpt from “Quiet,” lyrics by Richard Wilbur).
Enough on this subject.
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
And now . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
—finally!—
Harold C. Schonberg, The Lives of the Great Composers.
At last!
Embracing Mahler’s World: Peter Franklin Welcomes the Arrival in English of the Latest Volume in de La Grange’s Epic Biography.
The fish course came on. The servants hurried with it from the sideboard through the length of the room. They handed round with it a creamy sauce and poured out a Rhine wine that prickled on the tongue. The conversation turned to . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
. . . A visit to the opera where I saw . . .
Joseph Wortis, Fragments of an Analysis with Freud.
. . . a production of "Cosi Fan Tutte," . . .
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court.
. . . Mozart's . . .
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
. . . "piece de resistance"—
Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint.
Delightful!
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.
I have always wondered . . .
Sigmund Freud, The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement.
What on earth has given opera its prestige in western civilisation—a prestige that has outlasted so many different fashions and ways of thought?
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
Yes.
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.
Why are people prepared to sit silently for three hours listening to a performance of which they do not understand a word and of which they very seldom know the plot?
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
Bravo!
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.
Why do quite small towns all over Germany and Italy still devote a large portion of their budgets . . .
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
More generous than Croesus.
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.
. . . to this irrational entertainment?
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
What do you ask?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
No doubt there are many reasons for this, but I think . . .
Bryan Magee, Aspects of Wagner.
Partly, of course, because it is a display of skill, like a football match. But chiefly, I think, because it is irrational. 'What is too silly to be said may be sung'—
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
. . . true but boring, . . .
Matt Ridley, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.
—well, yes; but what is too subtle to be said, or too deeply felt, or too revealing or too mysterious—these things can also be sung and only be sung. When, at the beginning of Mozart's . . .
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
I forget. Ah! Ah!
Oscar Wilde, Salome.
Cosima fan tutte.
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Thursday, September 30, 1869).
(looking up, surprised) What's that?
Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
Cosi fan tutte
Peter Gay, Freud, Jews, and Other Germans.
"Ah, yes— . . . "
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
Frau Cosima . . .
Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years.
. . . became visibly embarrassed . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
. . . beneath her mask . . .
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Sunday, March 24, 1878).
. . . of imperturbability.
W.D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham.
She sat motionless, with lowered lids.
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence.
Doctor Freud . . .
Billa Zanuso, The Young Freud.
. . . whose glance . . .
Henry David Thoreau, Walking.
. . . changed to a stare of astonishment and mystification . . .
W.D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham.
. . . poured out wine into a slender glass . . .
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
. . . his hostess's face!
Natalie Bauer-Lechner, Recollections of Gustav Mahler.
. . . it glowed a dark ruby red.
Thomas Mann, The Blood of the Walsungs.
"Cosi Fan Tutte," . . .
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court.
"Oh, it's glorious! But it belongs to one particular style and time . . . "
Cosima Wagner's Diaries (Sunday, March 24, 1878).
. . . the 18th century . . .
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Look of Liberalism on the Court.
. . . the rococo period, . . .
K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius.
. . . a vanished age . . .
Winston Churchill, My Early Life: 1874-1904.
But there is more than this.
Margaret Brenman-Gibson, Clifford Odets: American Playwright.
I like the story of Mozart sitting at table absentmindedly folding and refolding his napkin into more and more elaborate patterns, as fresh musical ideas passed through his mind. But this formal perfection was used to express two characteristics which were very far from the Rococo style.
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
"Is that so?"
W.D. Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham.
Explain yourself.
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff.