2Ô
February 2 3, 1922
sign—especially if the guarantee fund was not raised as quickly as it should be. She was reappointed— and on Monday of this week she gave an interview in Philadelphia in which she stated that she is considering resigning as General Director at the close of the' present season. In “Carmen” Miss Garden sings to Don Jose, “Va t en, ya t’en—tu feras bien; votre metier ne te vaut rien.” Freely translated this means: “Go away, go away 1 It will be good for you; your present vocation does not suit you.” Can it be that Miss Garden heard in imagination a chorus.of the directors of the Civic Opera Association—the successor to the Chicago Opera Association —singing this warning phrase to her? Without doubt the freedom with which Miss Garden has spent money has put mistrust into the minds of prospective guarantors; the sooner she ceases to be recognized as head of the company, the sooner the balance of the guarantee fund will be raised. Even though her name may be worth $100,000 to the company; even though the performances this season were better than heretofore; and even though the Chicago Opera got more publicity this season than ever before—some of it unwelcome—Miss Garden’s extravagances have nearly wrecked the ship that once navigated so smoothly under the capable guidance of the late lamented Cleofonte Campanini.
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JUSTICE FOR GADSKI
The recent suit brought by Mme. Gadski against the Chicago Opera Association has been interpreted in various ways by different persons, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that she is truly aggrieved and that at the same time she intends the litigation to be a warning to other sources which might have been inclined to continue their slanders and persecutions against Mme. Gadski with a view to forcing her retirement from the musical profession in America. One of the most outspoken and trenchant newspaper comments on the suit was published in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette of February 8, as follows:
Madame Gadski has sued the Chicago Grand Opera Company for failing to observe its contract with her on the ground that the Chicago audiences would resent her appearance on the stage because her husband is a former German officer. It does seem a stupendously stupid excuse. For many years Americans have delighted in the art of this remarkably clever and beautiful woman, and the fact that she married a German who had a commission in the German army does not in any sense affect her art. Nor is there anything sensible in the assumption that the American people are still at war with Germany. What if the husband was a German officer? Germany was his country. And we shall want to sell American products to all the German officers and soldiers who can buy and pay. Such a prejudice in days of war would be possible of comprehension. The prohibition on Wagner’s music during the war, while perfectly silly and idiotic, was not difficult to understand. None of us think straight in a passion. But the war is over. Not only that, but it seems that this former German officer was noted during the war for his friendly attentions to American prisoners; and not only that, but he came to America this last time on the invitation of the American Government to reveal processes of metal manufacture “invented in Germany and hitherto known only in that country.”
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MUSIC MEMORY CONTESTS
It would be curious to know what reasons animate those who make lists for music memory contests in the selections to be remembered ? The Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Mich., has issued such a list, fifty pieces in all, for the contest which began January 2 and will end the week of March 6, under the auspices of the general musical interests of the city with John W. Beattie, supervisor of music in the public schools, as general chairman. The list includes only four American compositions: “To a Water Lily,” MacDowell; “Washington Post March,” Sousa; “By the Waters of Minnetonka,” Lieurance, and “Dagger Dance” from “Natoma,” Herbert. It contains five folk songs, not one of them, properly speaking, American: “All Through the Night,” Welsh; “Loch Lomond,” Scotch; “Volga Boat Song,” Russian; “O sole mio,” Italian; “Deep River,” Negro. The balance of the list is from the standard repertory, ancient and modern, classic and popular.
Such a list might be multiplied by thousands without having any educational significance. It is, no doubt, important and valuable to get people interested in music—any music—by any means. But why not make the music selected really educational and, especially, really national? To instill in the minds of growing children this evident contempt for the composers and the folk music of their own native country certainly is not the way to aid the progress of American art. If these children grow up with the belief that there is no American music except “rag time” and “jazz,” and no folk music except that of the negroes, they will not be blamed— but their teachers and elders will.
Musical courier
German tenor who can sing a better Lohengrin than Mr. Harrold did on Thursday evening, but if so he is not known to New York at the present writing. —---------------------------
Was it a spirit of poetic justice or just business acumen that induced the promoters of the benefit for the National Navy Club, at the Metropolitan Opera House on February 16, to give a German opera— “Lohengrin”—in German, with a German and an Austrian star as drawing cards—Matzenauer and Jeritza? However that may be, it was an enormous success and the house was entirely sold out.
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Our London contemporary, the Musical Mirror, says that there is a rumor which has been considerably talked about to the effect that the Chicago Opera Association with Mary Garden may visit London, and adds that “it is a well known fact that the King and Queen are not over fond of opera. Were it otherwise,” continues the writer, “and the royal patronage was assured, the society backing that is so essential for a successful opera season would soon be forthcoming.” In America we have numerous kings and queens of finance who are not over fond of opera, but they support it just the same; either they think it a duty or for the society prestige it gives them. But is it not decidedly extraordinary to learn that the King and Queen of England allow their personal tastes to enter into a matter of art to such an extent that thereby an opera season is made impossible?
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It was something new to hear the role of Gilda entrusted, in the Chicago Opera production, to Edith Mason—a lyric soprano with a large, beautiful voice which even verges on the dramatic—instead of to some coloratura. But Miss Mason’s outstanding success certainly justified the experiment. The point to be made is that when Verdi wrote “Rigo-letto,” about seventy years ago, what he had in mind was a soprano like Miss Mason. Although there is occasional fioritura, the character of the music is decidedly heavy for a coloratura, and certainly Verdi never meant a light, cold voice to sing opposite to the impassioned baritone of the title role. It is a matter of record that in the early days Verdi wrote to the Ricordi publishing house protesting against the singing of the role by a well known coloratura soprano, saying that he did not intend the role for such a singer. Also, in the Chicago production, it was interesting to note that Giorgio Polacco had clipped off all the vocal verbiage, trimmings and furbelows that have been added from time to time at the caprice of one singer or another and reduced the cadenzas and ornaments to proportions distinctly prescribed in the score of Verdi himself.
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A NEW MAGAZINE
The initial number of The Baton, a magazine published by and for the students of the Institute of Musical Art of the City of New York, just reached our office. The front page is graced with a picture of Frank Damrosch, director of the Institute of Musical Art, who likewise contributed an article of welcome, in which he says, among other things: “The Baton should become a channel through which matters of interest to the school as a whole or to any of its departments may be announced or discussed. It should record the various activities of the institute, its recitals, concerts, receptions to artists and commencement and class day exercises. It should contain articles on matters of interest to all students of music, chiefly of the kind which develops a conception of and devotion to true art principles. It should, on the other hand, avoid discussion of the commercial side of music as a profession or, •as is often the case, as a trade. The weighing of musical values in dollars and cents should be discouraged. The striving towards high ideals in musical art, regardless of material considerations, should be encouraged. All these ‘shoulds’ and more are promised us by the editors, and I therefore bespeak for The Baton the wholehearted support and co-operation of everyone connected with the institute.”
The Baton, edited by Dorothy Crowthers, is a neatly printed periodical, its first number containing sixteen pages of interesting articles. The Musical Courier tenders its congratulations, and feels The Baton will tend to maintain the excellent fellowship which has heretofore existed between the students, teachers, director and trustees of the Institute of Musical Art.
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“NE VAUT RIEN”
Months ago the Musical Courier stated that Mary Garden, if reappointed General Director of the Chicago Opera Association, would no doubt re-
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New York Thursday, February 23, 1922 No. 2185
It looks as if there will be opera at Covent Garden during the London season this summer, given by the British National Opera Company. Details later. All that one hears so far is that the extremes of the repertory are likely to be “Parsifal” and Offenbach’s “The Goldsmith of Toledo.”
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Why are these violinists so modest ? Eddy Brown, it will be recalled, got married without telling anybody except his wife about it; then Sascha Jacobsen followed suit, adding the novel feature of going to Europe alone on his honeymoon trip; now Max Jacobs has slipped out of bachelorhood with the soft pedal on. And the next ?
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A wise word, and a word to the wise, from Le Canada Musical: “Fear of the critics is a dangerous thing. It paralyzes the faculties of the artist and destroys self-confidence. Adverse criticism has never yet prevented real art from winning success. The more fearlessly one faces the critics, the more chance one has to succeed in spite of them.”
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The movement for the erection of a monument to the late Jules Massenet, which, put on foot in Paris in 1913, was interrupted by the war, is again active, a recent addition to the funds being some F. 32,000, the net proceeds of a performance of “Herodiade” given at the Opera on December 22. The total amount of the fund at the present time is about F. 140,000. A number of French provincial theaters have promised to devote a performance to the benefit of the fund, the treasurer of which is Jacques Heugel, the well known publisher and editor of the Le Menestrel.
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• The latest organization is the Metropolitan Opera Helping Hand League, which has just been organized by Giulio Gatti-Casazza, who is its managing director and president. All the other officers .and members consist of Orville Harrold. Last Thursday evening Tenor Sembach was ill, so Mr. Harrold jumped in and sang Lohengrin. On Friday he was scheduled for a mere trifle like Mahler’s “Lied von der Erde” in the afternoon and “Snegourotchka” in the evening, but just then Tenor Chamlee fell ill, so the managing director of the Helping Hand League called upon Rafaelo Diaz to sing in Mr. Harrold’s place in “Snegourotchka” and transferred Harrold to the Saturday matinee performance of “The Barber of Seville,” in which he replaced Chamlee as Alma-viva. One does not recall having heard Mr. Harrold sing Radames, but very little else in the repertory is strange to him. Incidentally, there may be a