Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PAGE5.
With which is incorporated THE KEYNOTE.
VOL. XXVII. No. 14.
Published Every Saturday at 3 East Fourteenth Street. New York, Oct. 1,1898.
VICISSITUDES OF FAHOUS SONQS.
/COMPOSERS may complain of the
^-^ fluctuations of taste as increasing
their difficulty in winning the favor of
audiences, but it is not always impossible
for them to predict the success of their
music even before it has been introduced
to the public, says a prominent critic.
Weber, when rehearsing his new opera,
" Der Freischiitz," which had been selected
as the first work to be produced in a
recently finished theatre in Berlin, June,
182;, was in the best spirits, notwith-
standing the great anxiety felt by his
friends lest his musical success should be
eclipsed by that of the rival composer
Spontini. Spontini was a chief favorite in
Berlin, and to equal him seemed a difficult
task. But Weber would not allow himself
to be discouraged, and the triumphant
reception of "Der Freischiitz" fully
justified his hopefulness. Not only was
it welcomed with enthusiasm throughout
Germany when it first appeared; it still
holds the stage as a favorite opera, despite
the many and great changes in the world
of music since Weber's time.
Another example of this presentiment
of success occurs in the account of the
production of " Rigoletto," brought out at
Venice in 1851. It is related that Verdi,
when at work on this opera, refused to fill
up a certain blank in the score, alleging,
in answer to entreaties from the singer
who was to perform the missing aria, that
there would be plenty of time to study it
—it was nothing difficult. This he con-
tinued to repeat until the actual day fixed
for the performance of Rigoletto, when,
with much mystery and many precautions
against being overheard, he played the
enchanting " La donna e mobile " to the
mystified singer. As the latter was ex-
pressing his delight, Verdi caiitioned him
strictly on no account to hum or whistle
the catching air before the evening; the
orchestra, he said, had learnt it already,
and were also under a solemn vow not to
let one note be heard before the actual
performance.
"Why this mystery?"
inquired the puzzled artist. "Because,"
replied Verdi, " I do not wish all Venice
to be singing it before my opera is brought
out."
Sure enough, the following day
"all
Venice " had caught the facile melody and
" La donne e mobile " was assured of im-
mortality.
However, first performances can not al-
ways be relied upon as tests of popularity.
On the production of La Traviata at the
same theatre, two years later, dead failure
resulted, catching as were the airs and in-
teresting the libretto. Verdi wrote to a
friend next day: "Traviata last night
made a fiasco. Is the fault mine or the
actors'? Time will show."
Time showed plainly that only the ac-
tors could be held responsible for the fail-
ure.
A contemporary account says: The
tenor, M. Graziani, took cold, and sang his
part throughout in a hoarse and almost in-
audible voice. M. Varezi, the baritone,
having what he would call a secondary
role, took no trouble to bring out the dra-
matic importance of this short, but capital
part, so that the effect of the celebrated
duet between " Violetta " and "Germond"
in the second act was entirely missed.
Mine. Donatelli, who impersonated the
delicate, sickly heroine, was one of the
stoutest ladies on the stage or off it, and
when at the beginning of the third act the
doctor declares that consumption had
wasted away the young lady, and that she
can not live more than a few hours, the
audience was thrown into a state of per-
fectly uproarious glee—a state very differ-
ent from that necessary to appreciate the
tragic action of the last act.
No wonder that La Traviata made a
fiasco under these trying circumstances!
Yet, when more adequately performed,
the opera soon became an immense favor-
ite with audiences of all nations, and
Verdi had no reason to remember the dis-
asters attending its first appearance in
public.
One of the most popular operas of the
present day, Carmen, underwent a similar
unfortunate experience, but achieved suc-
cess too late, alas! to console the disap-
pointed composer, whose death was accel-
erated, it is said, by the ill reception ac-
corded to his chef-d'ceuvre. Carmen was,
in fact, actually hissed off the stage on its
first performance (in Paris, 1875), a n d
poor Bizet died shortly after, unable to
foresee the great success in store for his
latest and best work, whose stirring music
$2.00 PER YEAR
SINGLE COPIES, to CENTS.
so admirably fits the thrilling Spanish
libretto it illustrates.
Such are some of
the vicissitudes attending favorite melo-
dies, concerning which a large volume of
interesting matter might easily be written,
were the adventures of our most popular
songs collected from the date of their
composition down to the present time.
*
A NUMBER of musical and scientific pa-
•**• pers have recently been discussing the
singular fact that the musicians who play
wind instruments and who sit on the right
of the leader of the orchestra suffer from
baldness, while the violinists on the other
side, as a rule, have long hair. An inves-
tigation has disclosed the fact that the con-
stant use of most wind instruments pro-
duces an exaggerated form of baldness.
The percentage of bald heads is largest
among the trombone players, the French
horn players coming next, and the per-
formers on the cornet next in order. A
careful study of the orchestras of New
York discloses the fact that there is a lot
of truth in this statement, which at one
time was considered to be merely supersti-
tion. The opinions of the leading musi-
cians of this city, as well as the experi-
ences of a number of trombone players,
agree with the investigations of scientists.
There are exceptions, of course.
One
thing, it is safe to assert that the absence
of hirsute adornment does not decrease
the volume or quality of tone which the
trombonists are able to produce. For in-
stance, hear them in a Sousa march.
*
Y\71LLIAM
II. still shows his interest
* ^
in theatrical affairs when they deal
with history. A popular Berlin actress,
now the manager of a theatre, produced a
play dealing with the early days of the
Hohenzollern dynasty.
The incidental
music did not please his Majesty, who
wrote to the actress that he was surprised
by the use of airs so inappropriate as "Die
Wacht am Rhein," "Deutschland uber
Alles," and "Heil dir im Siegerkranz."
He suggested the substitution of old Bran-
denburg airs.
„,
C E R D I N A N D HUMMEL, whose opera
*
"Mara," in one act, was successful
in Germany, has written a three-act opera
called " Sophie of Brabant."