To be compelled to forego a knowledge of half of what such a master of diction as Mr.Reiss was saying was a new sensation to his admirers who understand German.

Yet the fault was as little his as it was Mr.Goritz's that so much of what he said went for nothing; it was all his misfortune, including the fact that much of the music is not adapted to his voice.
The music offers a pleasanter topic than the action and dialogue.

It is a relief to those listeners who go to the opera oppressed with memories of "Salome" and "Elektra." It is not only that their ears are not so often assaulted by rude sounds, they are frequently moved by phrases of great and genuine beauty.

Unfortunately the Straussian system of composition demands that beauty be looked for in fragments.

Continuity of melodic flow is impossible to Strauss--a confession of his inability either to continue Wagner's method, to improve on it, or invent anything new in its place.