Fragen Sie die Dame vom Lohengrill [19] Showdown

Friday night chinwag at the Lohengrill. A man stands by his man – and stands us all a drink or two.

A free event at the Lohengrill? Sounds fishy to me. What costs nothing’s worth nothing – am I right or am I right?! But of course I take my patrons seriously. After all, their concerns are quite justified, on closer scrutiny actually quite interesting, and their indecision quite comprehensible.

Then again, at first glance, it all looks so clear: Wagner’s simply got the edge on Verdi. But the closer you look, the more it looks like it could actually go the other way.... Let’s stick to the facts and play a set of composer tennis:

The big event at the Munich Opera Festival on the evening of 28 May was called “Wagner vs. Verdi” . The first hint is embedded in the title: even though Wagner comes after Verdi in the alphabet, he comes first in the billing – and no way is that a coincidence! The big Bavarian State Opera definitely does its market research and knows exactly how to woo the masses. So Verdi takes a knock here:

Wagner 1 – Verdi 0

Opera festivals! Now there’s an idea: let’s compare the figures on the operatic oeuvre of these two contemporaries, who – for the as yet uninformed – were born the same year and would have turned 200 this year if they weren’t six feet under. Richard on 23 May, Giuseppe on 10 October. So Richard was born first, which answers the question "Who got there first?" with “It wasn’t Verdi.”

Wagner 2 - Verdi 0

Back to the figures: Wagner completed 13 operas, Verdi 22. In terms of total playing time, though, they’re pretty much even-Steven at about 39 hours each. So let’s give them each a point.

Wagner 3 - Verdi 1

Casa Verdi or Villa Wahnfried? Naturally, the Italian master takes this point, for he himself answers the question what his greatest work was with: “The old age home in Milan." The only ones who actually believe that Wahnfried was Wagner’s greatest work are probably the ticket takers at the Wagner Museum there, which alack alas happens to be closed for repairs these days . Casa Verdi never closes:

Wagner 3 - Verdi 2

Wagner 3 - Verdi 2

Next round: Whom are we actually seeing on the Munich stage these days? For one thing, two ginormous puppet effigies of the composers. For another, the seasoned Bavarian Police Band, the Bad Tölz Town Band, the Eichenau Musical Society, the Bavarian State Orchestra and Munich composer Moritz Eggert to boot. This round sounds like a piece of cake for Wagner, because the only ones in Munich on the Italian team are the Peter Mayr Pfeffersberg Band under the baton of Josef Feichter. Hands down for W:

Wagner 4 - Verdi 2

Now in terms of musical substance, the organizers have provocatively brought the duel to a head thus: "Head or Heart?" If you pick heads, in other words Wagner, then you hook up at 8pm at Karolinenplatz (Munich, not Darmstadt as the web link suggests) and decked out all in blue. Hearts, i.e. Verdi, your procession starts on the corner of Ludwigstraße and Von-der-Tann-Straße and goes to Max-Joseph-Platz and you wear red. The Verdianers’ route is much shorter, which alas doesn’t earn them any points for stamina, so:

Wagner 5 - Verdi 2

Match point: However, as they’ll be no product placement in this episode at the Lohengrill, I’m afraid I can’t disclose the outcome of the duel. But check out the 29 June issue of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Or the Münchener Merkur. Or the Abendzeitung. Better yet, check back in with me next week.