I purposely dwell on the faults of Bayreuth in order to show that there
is no reason in the world why as good and better performances of The
Ring should not be given in England. Wagner's scores are now before the
world; and neither his widow nor his son can pretend to handle them with
greater authority than any artist who feels the impulse to interpret
them. Nobody will ever know what Wagner himself thought of the artists
who established the Bayreuth tradition: he was obviously not in a
position to criticize them. For instance, had Rubini survived to create
Siegmund, it is quite certain that we should not have had from Wagner's
pen so amusing and vivid a description as we have of his Ottavio in the
old Paris days. Wagner was under great obligations to the heroes and
heroines of 1876; and he naturally said nothing to disparage their
triumphs; but there is no reason to believe that all or indeed any of
them satisfied him as Schnorr of Carolsfeld satisfied him as Tristan, or
Schroder Devrient as Fidelio. It is just as likely as not that the
next Schnorr or Schroder may arise in England. If that should actually
happen, neither of them will need any further authority than their own
genius and Wagner's scores for their guidance. Certainly the less their
spontaneous impulses are sophisticated by the very stagey traditions
which Bayreuth is handing down from the age of Crummles, the better.