27
MUSICAL COURIER
February 8, 19 2 3
ESTHER
Soprano
Brings Critics and Good Sized Audience to Rum-ford Hall on January 31.
She has established herself as a singer keen of intelligence and
clear tone......
New York Sun
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Esther Dale’s delivery was artistic and interesting . . .
New York Herald
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Prairie Waters at Night served to display the wide range of her voice to the best advantage with its warm quality and fullness of tone throughout.........
New York Times
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She is a fine intelligent singer at her best in songs of dramatic nature.. .
New York World
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Esther Dale scored an emphatic success.
Morning Telegraph
Mgt. STANDARD BOOKING OFFICE
17 EAST 42nd STREET, NEW YORK
man shipped his Franklin Sedan from New York to Jacksonville and he and Mrs. Chapman have been making a tour of Florida, visiting the places of interest. They are much impressed with Miami, and it is probable that they will make it their winter home hereafter. Mr. Chapman believes that south Florida should become the Italy of America, and it is his opinion that a great music festival should be held there every year. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman spoke at the Daytona Woman’s Musical Club and also at the Miami Music Club. They will return to New York some time this month.	־*
Pauline Cornelys’ Opera Appearances Evoke Praise
Pauline Cornelys, gifted young soprano, who made her operatic debut this season, was compelled to give up all public activities for a few months while convalescing from an operation for appendicitis. Miss Cornelys has now fully recovered, however, and will resume her concert work, appearing in recital, oratorio, and in joint-concert with her husband, Richard Bonelli, in the novel type of program which a few seasons ago won for them such approbation. The two young artists at that time appeared with great success in over three hundred concerts in two seasons. Desiring ׳further study, however, they gave up all public appearances for a year, devoting their entire time to study with a prominent voice teacher of New York.
Miss Cornelys had great ambition to sing in opera, and although her voice at that time did not seem adapted to operatic work, the year’s efforts disclosed a rapidly deve’lop-
PAULINE CORNELYS,
soprano.
ing operatic, lyric soprano. Nor was a lovely voice •her only attribute for an operatic career, for Miss Cornelys is endowed with beauty and unusual ability for acting, so an offer to sing in opera came almost immediately, and she prepared the roles of Micaela in Carmen, Mimi in La Bo-heme, and Marguerite in Faust, which parts she essayed during an engagement at the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto and Montreal last fall, winning flattering recognition.
Of her Micaela the Toronto Daily Star wrote: “The best thing in the whole presentation was the singing of Pauline Cornelys in the role of Micaela. She sang with exquisite loveliness; a voice that in its most delicate nuances lost nothing in transmission, and in its climaxes thrilled the great audience. She made a lovely picture, too, in the smuggler’s camp scene.” The Montreal Herald agreed that “Her fine singing was one of the delights of the ׳performance,” while the Montreal Star commended as well her artistry in La Boheme, declaring: “Mimi, as played and sung by Miss Cornelys, had charm, youth, and good vocalism:” “Pauline Cornelys, the blonde Micaela, showed the most marked delicacy, rhythm, and grace in her. work; the sweetness of quality of her voice well suits her féminine charm and beauty,” La Presse enthusiastically stated after one appearance, and on another occasion: “Pauline Cor-" nelys, beautiful as the legendary Marguerite must be, with sweet, clear voice of luscious quality, gave brilliant colorings to her tones.”
Gaselotti Pupil in Opera
Maria Caselotti, wife and pupil of the well known New York vocal teacher, Guido H. Caselotti, just completed her tour with the International Grand Opera Company, singing ten performances in fourteen. days. The tour comprised: January 9, Easton, Pa., Lucia; 10, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Lucia; 12, Bloomsburg, Pa., Lucia; 13, Mount Car-mel, Pa., Lucia; 16, Scranton, Pa., Lucia; 17, Scranton, Pa., Traviata; 20, matinee, Harrisburg, Pa., Lucia; 20, evening Harrisburg, Pa., Traviata ; 22, Hagerstown, Md., Traviata ; 23, Hagerstown, Md., Lucia.
Althouse in Texas
Paul Althouse, Metropolitan Opera tenor, sang recently in.concert at Belton and Houston, Tex., in joint recital with Arthur Middleton, baritone, formerly ..of the Metropolitan On January 29, he appeared in Dallas, Tex., and two days later with the orchestra in Kansas City, Mo.
Answers to letters received in this department are published as promptly as possible. The large number of inquiries and the limitation of space are responsible for any delay. The letters are answered seriatim.
Foreign Names.
‘There are^ so many foreign names among the musicians wnh combinations of letters quite unknown to the majority of Americans, so I ask why would it not be a good idea for some oi the owners of these names to follow the example set by Mr. Gigli and give the correct pronunciation. One likes to know now names should sound, and the foreign names are sometimes almost impossible for an American to pronounce. It is a great help to know how to say Nyiregyhazi and thanks are due to him for his thoughtfulness in giving the correct sounds of his special combination of letters. Why do not all the queer names have the same treatment? They are queer to us, but perfectly simple when elucidated.”
.This ought to be a suggestion to musicians who find Americans mispronouncing their names.
Free , Lectures.
“Recently I saw an announcement that there would be free lectures given at one of the high school buildings, the subject to be The Appreciation of Symphonic Music. Can you tell me anything about these lectures? Will they be open to the public, or are they only for pupils of the public schools? Is entrance by ticket, and if so, where can tickets be obtained?”
As the attendance at any such free lectures must be limited to the capacity of the auditorium, and as no high school is of unlimited capacity, it would seem that it would be impossible to admit the general public, for there must be a large number of students of music anxious to benefit by such free instruction. If tickets are distributed, probably they could be procured either at the De Witt Clinton High School, Tenth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, or at the Board of Education, Park Avenue.
Wagner’s Rienzi.
“Did Wagner write the libretto of Rienzi as he did of some of his operas, .1 believe? When did he write it? Was it after or before his series of what are sometimes called his German operas -I mean by the public, for of course all his operas are German? Can you tell me why the opera is not sung as much as the ‘Nibelungen’ series? I do not know what to call them, but I mean the set that are and have been favorites for so many years, although not so much sung as in former years.”
Rienzi was one of Wagner’s early operas, written in about 1836, but he was unable to get it accepted at. any opera house and it was not until 1842 that it was finally produced. He wrote the text from Bulwer’s novel, Rienzi. Meyerbeer, who read the libretto said it was the best he had ever read. In describing the frame of mind in which he began to work on Rienzi, Wagner said: “To do something grand, to write an opera for whose prpduction only the most exceptional means should suffice . . . this is what resolved me to resume and carry out with all my might my former plan of Rienzi.” An English writer says that the opera is a “brilliant exercise in the grand opera manner.” While it is showy ,and effective in parts, its “intrinsic value is very small.” These are probably the reasons why the opera is not given; the public does not demand it. His next opera, The Flying Dutchman was, and still is, such a success that the failure of Rienzi is forgotten. It was in 1843 that the opera was first heard in Dresden. It is said that Wagner made a sketch for the book of The Flying Dutchman, but from poverty was obliged to sell it; this he did, to a composer named Dietsch, who wrote an opera upon the subject, which failed completely. When this work disappeared Wagner, some years later, returned to his original idea and the opera was produced.
In selecting operas for production during a season, the management of any opera company must necessarily decide upon those that will fill the opera house, as it does not pay to make many experiments during a season.
Harriet Story Macfarlane an Unusual Interpreter
American composers approve the way Harriet Story Macfarlane interprets their songs, and composers are notoriously hard to please. Her success with the Historical Song Miniatures of Floy Little Bartlett won this tribute from the song writer: “It is a perfect joy to me always to hear my songs interpreted by Harriet Story Macfarlane. It is one thing for a composer to have his songs sung and quite another thing to have his songs interpreted according to his own ideas and feelings. Mrs. Macfarlane is a true artist and I consider her magnetism, personality and understanding most unusual.”
Airs. Macfarlane has interested herself extensively in American compositions, two of her lecture recitals having as their subject, Native Men and Women Composers. Obviously she loves the quaint and the atmosphere of the outdoors; one might almost say she interprets American folk lore as represented in the Indian songs of Charles Wakefield Cadman; the desert songs of Gertrude Ross, of James R. Rogers, the Indian songs of Thurlow Lieurance, the Negro melodies of Stephen Foster and Negro Spirituals of Jessie Pease Burleigh, Deet, and Danfoot. She was recently made honorary member of the Gamut Club of Los Angeles in recognition of this phase of her work.
Her excellent mezzo-contralto voice is used as a brush to paint the pictures her intelligence sees. She not only senses the soul of the song but is also able to convey it to her public with sympathetic delivery, clear diction and a most charming personality. Everywhere she has appeared in her recent coast to coast tour, she has won a host of friends and admirers.
She has introduced an interesting and novel feature in using slides of famous pictures to illustrate her songs. One of her subjects is Tone Pictures or Songs and their relation to Paintings. Children all over the United States have been delighted with her Children’s Hour. Colored slides are used in conjunction with this lecture-recital, made from the original pictures illustrating the songs of John Alden Carpenter, Alana-Zucca, Margaret Ruthven Lang and the St. Nicholas Song Book. Mrs. Macfarlane has the key to the child’s heart becausfe she herself is such a devoted mother. In a recent interview in the Detroit News, she expressed the opinion that children are a sacred duty and that every mother should make them her first thought; However, she thinks a mother endowed with special gifts should exercise her talents and keep herself in touch with her work during the period of her child’s youth, emerging later into a career.
Other subjects Mrs. Macfarlane uses are Religion in Music, the interpretive Power of Song and English, Scotch, Irish Ballads and Negro Spirituals.
The Chapmans Vacationing in Florida
Mr. and Mrs. William Rogers Chapman, well known for their activities in connection with the Maine festivals and also the Rubinstein Club of New York, are enjoying a well-earned vacation in Palm Beach and Aliami. Air. Chap-