"Loudly and clearly... a Wagnerian fever pitch"

“The performers arrived, and soon the small basement was filled with the sound of the young tenor Nicholas Simpson singing the title role [Tannhäuser] — loudly and clearly, and without any traces of the so-called “Bayreuth bark” that older singers sometimes use to project over the orchestra in large opera houses. The orchestra and the chorus soon reached a Wagnerian fever pitch.”