28
MUSICAL COURIER
Chicago Civic Opera Comfany -	—	..
MARTHA HAS HAPPY REVIVAL IN CHICAGO
Edith Mason, as Lady Henrietta, Scores One of the Biggest Successes of the Season—Schipa, Bourskaya and Rimini Also Win Favor—Garden Rejoins Company, Singing Love of Three Kings and Tosca—Crimi a Dependable Artist
January 18, 1923

GUIOMAR NOYAES,
the brilliant Brasilian pianist, who is now in America for another extensive concert tour. She will be heard in recital at Aeolian Hall, New York, on the afternoon of January 23.
appreciation ■for the voice, and not only the public feted him, but it was said that after the performance Garden effusively thanked the maestro, expressing her warm admiration for the conductor and her gratitude for the manner in which he and his orchestra supported her all through the performance. Garden can be nice when she wants to— a tigress and a lamb, as this reporter once nicknamed her.
Rene Devries.
Lombardo Pupil in Successful Concert
Michele Greco, tenor, an artist pupil of G. Lombardo, New York vocal maestro, gave a concert in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, on Tuesday evening, December 19. Mr. Greco, whose beautiful and well developed voice reflected great credit upon his teacher, sang three operatic arias— Recondita Armania, from Tosca, Puccini; Che Gelida Manina, from Boheme, Puccini, and Cielo e Mare, from Gioconda, Ponchielli. His work won instantaneous recognition, and he was obliged to give six encores. Others on the program were Giovannia Ardizone, baritone; Rita Gal-sen, lyric-soprano; Enrico Pellini, violin and Mae R. Brock.
Jefferson School Parents’ Organization Program
Charles W. Farnsworth will speak on Music in the Home and School, at the conference of the Parents’ Organization of the Jefferson School, to be held at No. 1 West Ninety-second street, January 22, at 8.30. An added attraction will be a talk by Winold Reiss on Art for Young Children. Sylvia J. Marks, director of the Jefferson School, is arranging a series of entertainments similar to this one, to be held during the coming months.
Second Concert of Tillotson Series
On Tuesday evening, January 23, the second concert of the Betty Tillotson’s American Artists’ Series will take place at Aeolian Hall. The soloists are Frederic Baer, baritone; Margel Gluck, violinist, and Sara Fuller, colortura soprano. Charles Baker will be the accompanist for Miss Fuller and Mr. Baer, while Blair Neale will play the accompaniments for Miss Gluck..
The
Maratioti Voice Culture Institute
For Teachers, Singers, and Students of Singing.
The Maratioti Method ot Voice Culture
is endorsed by such authorities as CARUSO, MAUREL, GALLI-CURCI, CALVE and TITTA RUFFO. Their written endorsements can be seen in Dr. P. M. Marafioti’s booklet on Natural Singing, which can be obtained free from the secretary, Miss B. Friede, The Wyoming, 7th Ave. and 55th St., New York City. Circle 3242.
That Great Hungarian Violinist
FERENC
VECSEY
“His tone is ravishing in volume and quality, his technic is impeccable, and his musician-“ ship is of the purest type.”
Coming again for all the Season of 1923-1924— (assisted always by the same superior pianist
[WALTER MEYER-RADON
MANAGEMENT:
R. E. JOHNSTON, 1451 Broadway, New York City
Knabe Piano
English and with such fineenunciation that not a single word was missed. Miss ,Mason is an American who knows how to project English as very few singers do, and this is a quality added to her numerous ones. She is a star among stars.
Tito Schipa, in roles such as Lionel, is in his real realm and almost in a class by himself. In glorious voice, he delighted the public arid was feted as few artists have ever been on the Auditorium stage. Ovation after ovation was: registered for the brilliant tenor, and when he refused to encore the famous aria, M’Appari, many in the audience felt keenly chagrined, as the number was rendered with such mastery as to live as a model of how it should be sung. Schipa belongs to that category of master-singers whose rarity is unfortunately becoming more and more apparent.
Rimini, the distinguished baritone, added much to the good of the performance by a sterling rendition of the role of Plunkett, which he had never sung before but in which he was as much at home as though it had always been part of his repertory. He, too, met with the favor of the public. Bourskaya endowed Nancy with her beautiful voice, but her costumes were far too rich and attractive for a servant maid. Vittorio Trevisan as Sir Tristan and under the disguise of John was irresistible. Happy indeed is the company which holds in its folds such a versatile artist, one who brings out more than, is really in a role and makes it stand out by his own cleverness and artistry as though it were a leading one. Such an artist is Trevisan.
The chorus this season has been good and bad. In Martha it was neither. It performed as though it was for the greater part asleep or weary. The stage management was adequate and the stage settings looked as though they dated from the first performance of Martha.
Richard Hageman was at the conductor’s desk and won with his men, one of the most prolonged ovations registered this season, this after the overture, which was admirably rendered. Hageman has had but few opportunities this year, yet he has proven that the Chicago Civic Opera Company has not placed its confidence in him in vain, as he is a conductor who knows the voice and manipulates his orchestra with the thought primarily for those on the stage Hageman is a finished conductor, a first class musician and a far better French conductor than any of the imported Frenchmen with whom we have been acquainted in seasons gone by.
Tosca, January 12.
Outside the regular subscription, Mary Garden’s name sold out the Auditorium at her first appearance in several seasons as Tosca. Brains and personality play a big part nowadays in the make-up of an artist, and Garden has all those qualities plus the energy of a youngster, the bulldog determination of the English, the studious aptitude of the German, the chic of the French, the exuberance of the Italian and above all, the indomitable will of the American. Her Tosca, pronounced very fine a few years ago, has been improved upon so much that today it stands as a masterpiece. Garden, though an originator, takes the trouble (or the pleasure, as the occasion may be) to witness performances of others, not only in the opera houses here but in Europe as well, and though she does not imitate other artists, she takes from all of them some good points, eliminating the bad ones and amalgamating all of them with her own original conception. Such in a way is her Tosca of today. There are no superlatives either in English or any other language to sing the praise of Garden in Tosca. Spurred on by the big success scored this season in the same role by Rosa Raisa and later on by Claudia Muzio, Garden had made up her mind that she would surpass any of her own previous efforts in this and other roles. Not only had she studied well all the possibilities in the part, but she also must have worked hard with her voice, as she has never sung in Chicago as . well as on this occasion. Some prejudiced persons may wonder why she dared do things on the stage, and will tell that her scene with Scarpia, Baklanoff, was shocking, that her knocking the wine glass from Scarpia’s hand was not realistic, that every one of her moves was calculated for effect and not spontaneous, but let those-detractors say what they wish, Garden’s interpretation pf Tosca is as emotional a piece of acting as has ever been witnessed on the lyric stage, and her performance equalled that of any living actress of the day. Vocally, as already indicated in this review, she was at her very best and she surprised even her most sanguine admirers by her lovely tones, especially in the low and medium registers, as she still has fear of top notes and this is wrong, as, for the majority, they were brilliant and agreeable to the ear. It was a big night for Mary Garden, who, being a clever woman, will put aside the idea of having a company of her own next season and, as already predicted, will again be a member of the company next season, touring with the Chicago Civic Opera as one of its trump cards and most favorite stars.
Giulio Crimi, who, it may be said now at the end of the season, has been one of the most serviceable men in the company, singing many times, always ready when called upon to fill a role assigned to someone else, always sure of himself and always adding eclat to a performance, was again Cava-radossi. In this he has won many successes this- season and in which at the last performance he was, if possible, even more effective than in previous appearances. Crimi has surely one of the most beautiful voices among tenors, and if he would give just a little more attention to his costumes and to a few details in his acting, he would, soon find to his own surprise what a prominent place he would take among operatic_ singers.
Baklanoff’s Scarpia has received full recognition in these columns and what was said previously stands today. Though he had to play to Garden and exercise himself to keep en rapport with her delineation of Tosca, he did so with no apparent effort. The two had rehearsed the scene many times in the hope of making it stand out better and in this they both succeeded admirably. Trevisan was again splendid as the Sacristan.
Panizza conducted the score with his fine musicianship and
Rigoletto, January 7 (Matinee).
Chicago, January 13.—The ninth week of the present season was begun with Sunday’s matinee performance of Rigo-letto; the last hearing of this work for this season with Galli-Curci, Tito Schipa, Cesare Formichi and Ina Bourskaya in their customary roles. Ettore Panizza conducted.
Samson and Delilah, January 8.
Samson and Delilah, which was one of the best presented operas at the Auditorium this season, was repeated Monday night with Charles Marshall as Samson and Louise Homer as Delilah, each deepening the splendid impression made the previous week. They were feted to the echo by a record attendance. Polacco’s conducting was again an enchantment.
Manon, January 9.
The new Galli-Curci-Schipa medium, Massenet’s Manon, was repeated. Richard Hagemann conducted.
The Love of Three Kings, January 10.
Garden celebrated her return with the company in The Love of ;Three Kings, with the cast the same cast as earlier in the season, including in the leads Crimi, Bak-lanoff and Lazzari.
Martha, January 11.
Von Flotow’s tuneful three-act opera, which had not been given in many seasons at the Auditorium, was happily revived with an homogeneously good cast. The opera was sung in Italian rather than in English or German because of the fact that only a few of the singers could have learned it in either of those languages.
Edith Mason, in the title role, made one of the biggest successes of the present season. As Lady Henrietta, she looked the part to perfection, beautifully gowned in a dress that would have made - quite a stir during Queen Anne’s reign, and disguised as a maid servant she looked much more the part than her real servant in the plot, Nancy, which was handled by Ina Bourskaya. Vocally, Miss Mason gave her hearers much reason for enjoyment, as better clarity of tone would be impossible to imagine from a human throat. With such singing as she did in Martha, the popularity of this great American soprano will rival that of any foreign artist in this or any other company in the world. More exquisite phrasing, more perfect enunciation and a greater understanding of the role has not come to the notice of one who has heard Martha from childhood, and if the no-encore rule was broken after The Last Rose of Summer, which, at its repetition was sung in English, the fault was neither Miss Mason’s nor Hage-man’s, but due to the insistence of the public, which on this occasion was quite justified in clamoring for the encore, as the second hearing was even more appreciated by a large majority of the audience, since it was sung in
THE SOCIETY
of the
FRIENDS OF MUSIC
ARTUR BODANZKY, Conductor
(By kind permission of Mr. Gatti-Casazza of the Metropolitan Opera)
CARNEGIE HALL
Wednesday Afternoon, January 31st, at 3:30
SOLOISTS
Mme. Sigrid Onegin, Contralto
Bronislaw Huberman, Violinist
Overture to Jeanne	d’Arc..........Verdi
Three Songs.....................Berlioz
Mme. Onegin
Two Romances for	Violin.......Beethoven
Mr. Huberman
Two Songs........................Mahler
Mme. Onegin
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. .. .Taneiev (First Performance)
Mr. Huberman
The Steinway Is the Official Piano of the Society
M. Huberman uses	Mme. Onegin uses
the Knabe Piano	the Steinway Piano
Tickets Now at Box Office—$2.50 to 50 cents, Boxes $18, $15.
Management—LOUDON CHARLTON Carnegie Hall, New York