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U
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
a long engagement in the Court Theatre
at Munich, and had sung before that in
Leipsic, Bremen and Hamburg. She ap-
peared here several times during Walter
Damrosch's second season, but attracted no
great attention, as that series of perform-
ances given at the Academy was successful
in few particulars. Fraulein Ternina has
just refused the place of leading dramatic
soprano at the Royal Opera House in Berlin,
which selected her as the best possible suc-
cessor to Rosa Sucher.
*
DADEREWSKI'S much beparagraphed
*
Polish opera is at last finished, but
there does not seem to be any chance that
it will be performed before the pianist's
American tour has taken place.
C M I L PAUR was
*-~* very success-
ful in conducting
" Tannhauser " in
Chicago. The Times-
Herald says: "The
opportunities for an
orchestra in this op
era are, of course,
almost limitless; this
may be realized when
you stop to consider
how many concert
selections it embraces. Mr. Paur, it should
be noted, had never before directed an oper-
atic performance, at least in America, and
therefore his really unusual success is to be
emphasized. Reasons there were for an-
ticipating a depressing lack of enthusiasm,
and it must be admitted that nothing ap-
proaching a tumult was stirred by any of
the singers; but the orchestra won
frequent and cordial demonsrations. The
climaxes were tellingly given; the Ven-
usberg music was read with a feel-
ing and discrimination, while the splen-
did choruses and marches could not
have been improved. Mr. Paur, how-
ever, did not make the mistake of drown-
ing the artists in his endeavor to advance
a comprehensive interpretation of the
score; his reading of 'Dich Theure Halle'
in the second act and the 'Evening Star'
romanza in the last showed how the or-
chestra can be used for accompaniments as
well as aids to the voice; other conductors
seem to entertain the notion sometimes
that the composer's idea includes the sub-
jection of the singers." Mr. Paur has not
conducted opera in recent years, but he has
had abundant experience in this line of
work, and returns to it with enthusiasm.
*
/^•EORGE L. HUMPHREY, the musical
^ * director of the Herald Square Thea-
tre, has been appointed band-master of the
Seventh Regiment, N. G. N. Y., the posi-
tion held by the late Ernest Neyer.
*
IN a conversation with the musical critic
' of a London paper, Horatio Parker,
professor of music at Yale University, has
declared that in a few years all the world
will sicken of Tchaikowsky's music, and
that Wagner is a great bore, and less a mu-
sician with fine inspiration than an archi-
tect of music. Of Wagner, too, he declared
that a great deal will be blown away before
we are very much older. On the other
hand, Puccini's "Boheme"—oh, that's a
very different thing. "All I can say of it,"
quoth Horatio Parker, "is that I think it
great—very great."
*
A LL indications point to a phenomenal
^*- season of grand opera in this city.
The subscriptions have been so large that
when the box office begins the sale of seats
for single performances, on Dec. 12th, it
will be a case of Hobson's choice. The re-
ceipts so far for the advance sale of seats
and boxes approximated $350,000.
The programs for the first week have
been selected. Gounod, who was dispos-
sessed of his traditional rights last win-
ter, will have the honor of opening the
season restored to him. His "Romeo and
Juliet" will be sung on Monday, Dec. 18, and
will serve to introduce Mr. Alvarez to the
New York public. Mme. Eames will be the
Juliet. On Wednesday, Dec. 20, "Carmen,"
with Calve, Saleza and Campanari, will be the
bill. On Friday, Dec. 22, "Tannhauser"
will be sung, with Ternina, Susan Strong,
Schumann-Heink and Van Dyck, Emil
Paur conducting. "Faust,"with Calve as
Marguerite, at the first Saturday matinee
will end the week.
Maurice Grau has announced that he
will not venture again to Chicago with a
good opera company unless he gets a guar-
antee. He declares the Windy City is
apathetic; doesn't know when it sees a
good thing at $3.50 for which more aesthetic
New Yorkers gladly pay $5 and $7, and
that his philanthropy so far as Chicago is
concerned has reached its limit.
*
TXAISER WILHELM is at work on an
* ^ improvement of Weber's Oberon. He
has set Major Lauff, his private dramatist,
to rewrite the libretto, a Vienna decorator
will rearrange the scenery and costumes,
and a Wiesbaden Kapellmeister will correct
Weber's music. Next?
*
A MONG the artists assisting Mme. Ne-
** vada at her first appearance this sea-
son at the Metropolitan Opera House, Nov.
12th, was Mme. Rosa Linde, who has come
to the front within the last few years as
one of our leading contraltos. The range,
volume and quality of her voice, as well as
her artistic interpretation, have deservedly
won for her the widest recognition from
music lovers and leading critics. She will
be heard in a number of prominent mu-
sical affairs this season. She well deserves
the success which is coming her way.
*
R. HARRY FARJEON has just re-
ceived the gold medal of the Musici-
ans' Company of London. He is a son of
the novelist while his moth'er is a daughter
of the distinguished actor, Joseph Jefferson.
*
OME time ago Saint-Saens protested a-
gainst the growing habit of making
speed the main consideration in the perfor-
mance of piano pieces. A London critic took
up the matter, evidently to the relief of
concert-goers, one of whom wrote to him:
" Thank you for speaking out respecting
the absurd tempi now in vogue. Of
M
S
course, a virtuoso can, if he or she chooses,
force the speed of a presto. But is it real-
ly artistic to do so? Surely, the artist's ob-
ject is not vulgarly to 'go one better,' but
to bring out all the grace, all the vivacity,
of the work played."
the past few weeks high-class music
has had full sway. There has been
chamber music concerts, instrumental and
vocal recitals, lectures with musical illus-
trations, orchestral concerts—in fact, exam-
ples of every form of function devoted to
the glorification of the Divine Art. Consid-
ered from an abstract point of view, it serves
to emphasize the oft-repeated assertion that
New York is to-day one of the world's
musical centres. It was not only from
MME. KOSA LINDE.
the range and the character of the offerings
that our musical metropolitanism could be
deduced, but also from the character and
constitution of the audiences. These gath-
erings were of all sorts and descriptions—
special, general, popular, professional, dis-
criminating and otherwise—all, in com-
bination, testifying in a most eloquent man-
ner to a sincere, deep-rooted love of music. ]
*
PEAKING of the purely fanciful values
placed upon old violins, a London pa-
per declares that, when subjected to the
test of the auction room, no old fiddle has
in the history of the sale room yet reached
the price of $5,000. Some old Italian in-
struments were lately sold in London at
prices ranging from $80 to $r,goo. This
would seem to indicate that genuine old
violins can still be bought at a reasonable
rate, at least in the auction rooms.]
*
O ARDOU'S " La Tosca" is to be sung
^
in Rome this winter with Puccini's
music. The heroine is to be Gemma
Bellincioni. Signor Illica arranged the
libretto, which concludes with La Tosca
stabbing herself, and not leaning from a
parapet, as shj does in the Sardou original.
The playwright objected to this change at
first, but was persuaded that the Tiber and
the parapet were too far apart to make the
scene possible in Rome. Stabbing is the
more customary form of suicide in Italy.
S