Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

IUntimely MeditationsIIperformance and representation, so as to provide a model no othercould provide and thus fo und a stylistic tradition inscribed, not insigns on paper, but in effects upon the souls of men. This hadbecome all the more serious a duty inasmuch as his other works hadmeanwhile suffered the most intolerable and absurd fate precisely inregard to the style of their performance: they were famous, admiredand - mishandled without anyone's apparently being indignant overthe fact. For, strange though it may sound, as in clearsightedknowledge of what his contemporaries were like he abandoned evermore earnestly the desire for success with them and renounced theidea of power, 'success' and 'power' came to him; at least all theworld told him so. It was no good fo r him to expose repeatedly andemphatically how such 'successes' were complete misunderstandingsand, to him, humiliations; people were so unused to seeing anartist distinguish between the differing effects produced by his worksthat even his most solemn protests were never really taken seriously.After he had realized the connection between our theatrical worldand theatrical success and the character tof contemporary man, hissoul ceased to have anything to do with this theatre; he was no longerconcerned with aesthetic enthusiasms or the jubilation of excitedmasses, indeed he was filled with wrath to see his art fed so indiscriminatelyinto the gaping maw of insatiable boredom and thirst fo rdistraction. Just how superficial and thoughtless every effect producedhere must be, how here it was a matter rather of cramming astomach never satisfied than of feeding a hungry one, he concludedespecially from one regularly recurring phenomenon: everywhere,even on the part of the performers and producers, his art was takento be precisely the same kind of thing as any other music for the stageand subjected to the rules of the repulsive recipe-book of ordinaryopera production; indeed, the cultivated conductors cut and hackedat his works until they really were operas which, now they had hadthe soul taken out of them, the singers felt capable of encompassing;and when attempts were made to perform them properly, Wagner'sdirections were fo llowed with the sort of ineptitude and prudishanxiety that would, fo r instance, represent the nocturnal riot in thestreets of Nuremberg prescribed for the second act of the Meistersingerwith a troop of posturing ballet dancers and in all thiseveryone appeared to be acting in good faith and without any maliciousintent. Wagner's self-sacrificing attempts to indicate by deedand example at any rate simple correctness and completeness in theperformance of his works, and to introduce individual singers to his234