Verdi vs Wagner: the 200th birthday debate with Stephen Fry

Comments · 473

• AR

  @Arkygator · 5 years ago

  The Verdi guy is criticizing Vagner for being pompous while being extremely pompous in the way he argues.

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• GA

  @garylysaght1579 · 6 years ago

  All over in one word: Parsifal

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• DE

  @decemberthee16th · 6 years ago

  <b>When you realize Fry looks like Wagner when he’s shaven</b>

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• RI

  @ricardobauer8335 · 2 years ago

  If someone asked me what I would imagine Wotan to look like, I would say like Sir John Tomlinson.

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• PM

  @pmrossetti1 · 8 years ago

  Fry&apos;s face when Verdi guy is talking cracks me up.:)

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• TI

  @tittletattle100 · 12 years ago

  I&apos;m afraid &apos;Tristan&apos; makes this a non-contest. &apos;The death of Isolde&apos; is simply incomparable in its power to move. That would be my introductory piece every time.

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• JO

  @johnjones6601 · 4 years ago

  His citation of Wagner&apos;s anti-semitism should have no bearing on the task at hand.

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• MA

  @madsgram8437 · 3 years ago (edited)

  What I found in Verdi was an elegance , &nbsp;compassion and sensistivity unmatched. But I must say, that just the prelude to Tristan and Isolde filled me with a prism of fellings. Clairty, confussion, joy, dread, desire, a sense of lightness and the same time a glimpse of a dawning abyss. And that was just the prelude.

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• MA

  @MartyMusic777 · 10 years ago

  The thing that struck me as funny was when the comment was made &quot;where would John Williams be without Verdi?&quot; <br>...<br>Have you EVER listened to Star Wars? Williams&apos; scoring is near-identical to a Wagnerian orchestra, and there are explicit quotations from Tristan in there. This is not to say that other influences aren&apos;t there (Stravinsky&apos;s Rite of Spring, Richard Strauss in a few spots), but to suggest that Verdi had any influence on film score is just ludicrous. More than anything, Verdi more strongly influenced how musical theatre would develop, especially in how songs were written, and this is an enormous influence and shouldn&apos;t be ignored. But let&apos;s face facts: any modern orchestral score composer takes at least a couple cues from Wagner, especially due to his development of leitmotifs in concurrence with the action.

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• TH

  @TheApesofWrath · 13 years ago

  I honestly think the Verdi advocate just had a grudge against Wagner for being an antisemite. How else can he extol Mahler, and then downplay Wagner&apos;s influence?

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• JA

  @jacac · 11 years ago

  The BBC documentary on Verdi made a much better case for the composer than this guy. The Wagner advocate did a great work, on the other side.

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• JP

  @JPVJPV-t3v · 5 years ago

  What a pleasure to hear intelligent people talk (and in complete sentences)

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