Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
VOL. XVIII. No. 21.
published Every Saturday. * flew YorK, D^aember 16, 1893.
SARAH BERN'HARDT EXPRESSES HER VIEWS ON
THE SUPERIORITY OP STAGE SCENERY IN
'•
AMERICA — PATTI FAILED TO CREATE A
SENSATION — SILAS G. PRATT RE-
TURNS TO NEW YORK—EMIL
PAUR'S WIPE IS A MUSI-
CIAN — PADEREWSKI
IN PUNCH—
THE BOY VIOLINIST—THE BELGIAN COMPOSER—
SEEN AT A PRIVATE SEANCE —WHAT THE
BAND PLAYED AT CARTER HARRISON'S
FUNERAL—WHERE BOHEMIANS AS-
SEMBLE—THE KAISER'S COM-
PLIMENT—THE COUNTESS
TOLSTOI—HENRI MAR-
TEAU'S BIG WORK—
A STORY ON ARDITI—AN HISTORIC BUGLE.
@ ARAH BERNHARDT, who, with the aid
^
of Maurice Grau, is now running the
Renaissance Theatre in Paris, in an interview,
gives some of her ideas upon the superiority ot
scenery in America and England and she intends
to devote a part of her time and much of her
means to introduce them and show her com-
patriots their conceit when they boast of being
the best stage managers of the world.
" In America and England, " she said, "stage
scenery is understood a thousand times better
than in France. But I want it known that there
is no question of complicated or expensive scen-
ery, but of a multitude of details which adds so
much illusion and life-like effects that what
happens on the boards becomes as realistic as
reality. Irving is not only a great actor, but
one of the greatest of stage managers. In his
theatre there are effects of light appropriate to
any hour of the day in which the action takes
place. The leaves of the trees are shaken by the
wind before the storm breaks upon them ; the
roads offer a perspective which deceive the eye.
You hear the distant whistle of the locomotive
and the cry of fowl and birds. In the cities you
have the hurry and scurry of the thickly pop-
ulated thoroughfares which have no direct con-
nection nor bearing with the play—newsboys
selling their papers, gamins of all sorts, school-
boys strolling home from school, passers by
whose import is but to add more realism to the
scene. Thus you have a thousand things which
I cannot enumerate, and which add to the im-
pression that things are happening as they do
in real life. In my theatre now I shall endeavor
to introduce all those improvements, and do
away with some customs that even tradition
ceases to make admissible. There will be no
claque in my theatre ; the public must appreciate
without the aid of paid hirelings, who generally
are taught to applaud in the wrong places. The
women ushers will not be allowed to accept
pour-boires from the spectators ; it must be be-
low the dignity of a manager to enter into a
business arrangement with an usher and accept
a part of the gratuitous money that persons who
cannot help themselves give to an employee.
Reserved tickets will not cost more than those
sold at the door the evening of the performance.
It is wrong to make the purchaser of a ticket
who risks eventualities not to use it pay more
than the one who suddenly takes a notion to go
to the theatre and runs no risks. "
* *
#
Well, Pdtti has come and gone without pro-
ducing a ripple of interest among the people
who are really musical. She is no longer a great
singer. Her voice is but the shadow of its
former self. She is merely a curiosity, a sort of
vocal brie-a brae. The veneering is cracked here
and there very perceptibly, and flaws that can
no longer be disguised begin to show. Effort in
singing is often apparent now, and this effort
sometimes is unsuccessful.
When one re-
members that she is an artist who is not forced
to continue her career, that she is not fighting
for any great musical cause, that she is im-
mensely wealthy and still uses her former
reputation to accumulate greater hoards of gold,
then sympathy for her decadence gives way to
disgust and indignation. In truth she is played
out and the people are beginning to learn it.
No need to advertise this as a farewell appear-
ance. The people have settled that fact once
and for all.
*
Silas G. Pratt, the composer and concert
leader, has returned to New York, though Chi-
cago has treated him better than New York has
done.
Emil Paur's wife is a musician, too. She
played on the piano the Schubert-Liszt " Wand-
erer " fantasia at the Boston Symphony concert
recently.
* *
Punch recently exhibited a picture of Pader-
ewski at the piano, surrounded by police who
were to keep the women from kissing him and
cutting his hair.
Alexander Fiedeman, the boy violinist, will
reappear in New York and Boston this winter.
He has been studying with Adolph Brodsky,
who says he is a great man.
• *
*
*
Paul Gilson, the Belgian composer, whose
" Sea " symphony has been played in New York
$3 00 PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
and Brooklyn, is at work on an opera, " Cassan-
dra," with words by Isidore Albert.
The German Emperor is credited by a corn-
temporary with a very prettily turned compli-
ment in favor of Miss Frida Scotta, the young
and accomplished Danish violinist.
After
listening attentively to the delightful strains,
the Emperor expressed his appreciation by say-
ing : " If I shut my eyes when you are playing
I could fancy it was Sarasate, but I much prefer
to keep them open."
*
MM. Ambroise Thomas, Victorien Sardou,
Ernest Reyer, Gerome, Alexander Dumas and
Massenet have consented to form part of a com-
mittee to erect a monument to the memory of
Charles Gounod.
* # *
The first act of "Die Walkure " will be the
main feature of the program for the Datn-
rosch Popular Concerts this afternoon, at 2.30,
and Sunday evening, at 8.15, at Music Hall.
The soloists will be Frl. Olga Pevny, dramatic
soprano from the Liepzig Opera House, Miss
Ellen Beach Yaw, soprano (her first appearance
in New York), Miss Leonora Von Stosch, vio-
linist, and Herr Anton Schott, tenor, who will
be heard here for the first time since his appear-
ances in German opera several years ago at the
Metropolitan Opera House. Following is the
full program: Overture, " Phedre," Massenet,
Orchestra; Proch's Theme and Variations, Miss
Yaw; March of the Pilgrims, from Berlioz'
Haruld Symphony, Orchestra ; Fantasie for vio-
lin, arranged from " Cavalleria Rusticana,"
played by Miss Von Stosch ; Overture, " Romeo
and Juliet,'' Tschaikowsky, Orchestra; Russian
Nightingale Song, Alabieff, Miss Yaw. In part
II. the first act of "Die Walkure," with Frl.
Olga Pevny as Sieglinde, and Herr Anton
Schott as Siegmund, will be given.
* •*
Henri Marteau has plenty of work this sea-
son, as he will play on his violin for concerts of
the Philharmonic society, New York city ;
Symphony society, New York city ; Thomas
orchestra, Chicago, Ills.; Boston Symphony
society; Seidl orchestra, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rub-
instein club, New York ; Apollo club, Chicago,
Ills.; Orpheus club, Philadelphia, Pa.; Buffalo
Symphony society ; Orpheus club, Cincinnati,
O. His repertory includes ten entire concertos
and forty or fifty shorter pieces.
* * *
They say of Arditi, who conducted Patti's con-
certs, that, in company with Mrs. Valleria and
other singers, he joined a coaching party and
went to Stratford on Avon, but he showed no
interest in the famous house and church. Some-
body told him it was where Shakspeare lived.
He asked who Shakspeare was. They told him
that he had written '' Hamlet '' and '' Romeo
and Juliet." " A h ! yes," he replied, " ze lib-
rettist."
THE REVIEWER.