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THE
V O L . XXXIII. N o . 1 8 . Publisned Every Saturday bj Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East Fourteenth Street, New York, Nov. 2,1901.
THE BELLINI CENTENARY.
T"* HE people of Catania have arranged an
odd program for the Centenary fetes
in honor of the composer of "Norma," which
will take place this month—a year be-
fore the one hundredth anniversary of Bel-
lini, who was born in November, 1802. The
festival will, curiously enough, include pig-
eon shooting, cycle racing, a fencing match,
a grand ball, a Bellini exhibition in the Ben-
edictine Museum, a procession to place a gar-
land on the tomb, a choral elegy by the direct-
or of the Palermo Conservatoire, a military
band contest, fireworks, a dinner to the poor,
and, the most interesting item of the program
—the commencement of a cycle of Bellini
operas. Truly this is an overwhelming array
of attractions, which could be conceived only
by a Latin people.
There was some talk last year of Mr.
Grau giving a Bellini cycle at the Metropol-
itan. Would it not be most timely this year,
in view of the festivities in his native town ?
It must not be forgotten that, notwithstand-
ing the growth in popularity of the Wag-
nerian school, there are still left a big army
of admirers of bel canto.
A SUCCESSFUL COMPOSER.
A DAINTY little work, recently published,
contains four short songs under the title
of "Four Little Treasures." They are "In-
vestigating Tommy," "The Red, Red Rose,"
"A Child's Idea" and "Wenn Ich Ein V6g-
lein War." Saidee Bourgoin is the composer.
This talented lady is creating quite a furore
in musical circles, and great things are ex-
pected of her. Miss Bourgoin is an Ameri-
can, of French ancestry, and having studied
for many years in Paris, her compositions
possess a decidedly Gallic flavor.
Saidee Bourgoin received her first piano
$2 oo PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES 10 CENTS.
DUDLEY BUCK'S CONDITION.
JV/I UCH sympathy is felt for Dudley Buck,
*
the eminent composer and organist of
Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn, who is
threatened with total blindness. His church
has given him an indefinite leave of absence
and as soon as his health permits he will
journey to Europe, where he will make an
extended stay. Mr. Buck is being treated
by Dr. John C. Lester, the oculist, who prom-
ises, unless some unforseen developments oc-
cur, to effect a complete cure within three or
four months. Mr. Buck's trouble with his
eyes has been augmented by nervous prostra-
tion, due to night work. It is sincerely to be
hoped that Mr. Buck will recover his old-
time sight and vigor and be long spared to
the musical profession, of which he is so
brilliant a light.
KREISLER TO BE HERE IN DECEMBER.
C R I T Z KREISLER will arrive in this
country about the middle of December,
in place of January, as announced by his man-
ager, Henry Wolfsohn. The demand for the
services of Kreisler has been such that Mr.
Wolfsohn cabled him to cancel his early
December dates in Europe and sail for this
country in time to begin his season in Balti-
more, Dec. 10th, when he will appear before
the Peabody Institute. Kreisler has been en-
gaged by all of the large orchestral societies.
He will play in seven concerts with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. With the Chi-
cago, Pittsburg, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Phila-
delphia and the New York Philharmonic
Orchestras. Kreisler will be heard in New
York for the first time this season in an or-
chestral concert in Carnegie Hall during the
Christmas holidays.
A
MISS AILEEN BROWER.
JV/I ISS AILEEN BROWER, prima donna
* ' * soprano, whose portrait appears on the
front page of The Review this week, will
make her American debut in the Astor Gal-
lery of the Waldorf-Astoria, at four o'clock
on the afternoon of Nov. 15th. She will be
assisted by Victor Harris and other artists.
Miss Brower is both young and beautiful,
with a glorious soprano voice which has been
cultivated by the best masters. She has sung
often and with great success in Paris, where
press and public have accorded her praise
in unstinted measure. Her real debut, how-
ever, was made at the Exposition in Paris,
when she scored such a brilliant and unques-
tionable triumph that she was obliged to sing
in the American Pavilion several titties the
following week. Miss Brower is the daugh-
ter of a prominent Iowa banker, and will
tour America under the personal manage-
ment of Charles L. Young.
instruction from her mother, who was a pu-
pil of Mme. Rive and Janatka. When she
was fifteen she was studying composition,
harmony and thorough-bass under J. W.
Patterson. She studied voice under Mme.
La Grange. Possessing a beautiful soprano
voice, a brilliant stage career was promised
for her, and she made a successful debut
with the Whitney Opera Company in "Rob
Roy." She preferred, however, to devote
her life to composition and she is now en-
gaged on a comic opera. May she meet with
the success she deserves.
A LBERT GERARD THIERS has already
** booked a number of engagements for
the coming season, including Sorosis, the
Drawing Room and the lecture course of the
public schools. His program will embrace
"The Technic of Musical Expression," which
won such high praise last season, and "Eli-
land, a song of Chiemsee," a poem by Karl
Stieler, set to music by Alex von Fielitz.
A LONDON paper requested Melba to give
^
a list of her favorite songs. She com-
plied, and the list she furnished shows the
prima donna is nothing if not eclectic in her
musical tastes. She names six compositions :
Verdi's "Ah! fors e lui," Donizetti's "Ardon
gl' Incensi," Tosti's "Good-by," Mozart's
"L'Anero," Elizabeth's Prayer from Wag-
ner's "Tannhauser,"and Bemberg's "Nymphes
et Sylvians."
SAIDEE BOURGOIN.
OPERA HERE AND ABROAD.
HP HE only American city which now can
boast of a regular grand opera season,
lasting several months, is New York; and
even here fifteen to eighteen weeks is the
maximum. In the English capital practi-
cally the same conditions prevail. In Ger-
many, on the contrary, July and August are
the only months which one cannot hear
operas, and even then Bayreuth fills up the
gap-
This is a situation which affords ample
material for consideration as to the difference
in conditions existing here and in Germany,
jn spite of our boasted industrial progress,
we are still behind our brethren across the
sea in support of opera and the higher forms
of music. We are making progress, it is
true, but isn't it a slothful one?