25
MUSICAL COURIER
February 22, 1923
FRESH OPERATIC TRIUMPHS
for
EDITH
MASON
Soprano, Chicago Civic Opera Association
IN
MARTHA LA JUIVE LA BOHEME RIGOLETTO
LA BOHEME
Edith Mason Wins Big Success as Mimi
At last a Mimi who doesn’t insist ■on herself! Miss Edith Mason, before a matinee audience yesterday, which packed the great opera house, won a great success with her modest concentration on the part of the hapless little brodeuse.—BostonGlobe.
She sang the music admirably, with a past mastery felt at once by the hearer.— Olin Downes, Boston Post.
Miss Mason’s Mimi is one of the lovely experiences which the opera company has given to Chicago, and never more lovely than last night. In quality it represented the perfection of youth; in manner and ease of singing, perfect maturity.—Edward Moore, Chicago Tribune.
9 !GOLETTO
Edith Mason Has Early Triumph in “Rigoletto”
A triumph for Edith Mason. To chronicle the several successes of the evening, first and most convincing, both artistically and in the equally vital matter of the public’s reaction, was Mme. Mason’s delivery of the “Caro Nome.” This was pure vocal virtuosity. It had all the flexibility and precision of the instrumental technic. It had the superbly vital tone that distinguishes her voice among the great coloratura sopranos of the present. It had the poise and serene authority that belong to the mature and ripened art. I can not recall an interpretation of this aria that surpassed Mme. Mason’s.—Glenn Dillard Gunn, Chicago Herald-Examiner.
The first great applause of the evening fell to Edith Mason after the “Caro Nome.” She sang it beautifully, in the notes that Verdi wrote and without aid from subsequent editing.—Edward Moore, Chicago Tribune.
LA JUIVE
Never have we heard Edith Mason bring forth such constant and never-ending streams of silvery, lyric tones and such purity of vocal expression. And to these musical gifts she added a dignity and refinement of bearing which made her characterization of the princess a noble and distinguished	one.—Maurice	Rosenfeld,
Chicago Daily News.
The honors of the evening must go to Edith Mason. Her record this year seems to be “de mieux en mieux,” each solo revealing new beauties of voice and artistry. Sunday her singing was matchless, peerless. The tone seemed fuller, warmer, it gained at times the richness of a dramatic soprano. Coloratura is second nature to her, yet it is coloratura that demonstrates perfect training and perfect control.
Her entrance in the second act had an instant effect upon the atmosphere of the production, one of those impalable effects that give life and nobility to a scene by virtue pf sheer artistic refinement and sincerity.—Herman Devries, Chicago Amer-
Mme. Mason sang beautifully. Tones of velvet richness, fine phrasing, comprehension for musical values and entire self-posesssion. She had her full share in the honors of the evening.—Karleton Hackett, Chicago Evening Post.
It was another great performance, the best I have heard from this singer.—Edward Moore, Chicago Tribune.
Finally she is an honest artist—sincere almost to a fault and humbly, eager to excel her own successes.
If we dilate upon Miss Mason’s talents, it is pardonably comprehensible, if for ño other reason than that she is 100 per cent. American, and again to use a colloquialism, 100 per cent, “on the level” as an artist.— Chicago American.
Never before has “The Last Rose of Summer” been given with such purity of tone, with such simplicity and with such genuine musical taste, as it was sung last evening by Edith Mason.
Edith Mason, as Lady Henrietta, gave one of the finest renditions of this role that we have had. She sang her music with great charm and with beautiful tone effect, and made also a graceful picture as the heronie of the opera.—Maurice Rosenfeld, Chicago Daily News.
There was a burst of applause when Miss Mason sang “The Last Rose of Summer.” She did it twice, in desipte of all warnings against encores, once, which was sufficiently lovely, in Italian, the second time, which was even more attractive, in English.—Edward Moore, Chicago Tribune.
She has warmth and great depth of feeling, which is transmitted to the listeners, not through her song, but through her admirable diction, which stresses and colors the emotional content of the text.—Glenn Dillard Gunn, Chicago Herald-Examiner.
The applause which shook the. house after Miss Mason had sung this favorite (“The Last Rose of Summer”) was^ the heartiest heard all season.—Chicago Journal of Commerce.
“Martha״ A Great Triumph for Edith Mason
By HERMAN DEVRIES
Edith Mason’s singing of “The Last Rose of Summer” was, of course, repeated by order of a clamorous audience, and the second time Miss Mason sang it in English. That was the greatest propaganda in the world for opera in the vernacular in the United States of America. Such diction and phrasing are an ideal for those interested in the opera in our language foundation, an ideal that is truly worthy striving to emulate.
Edith Mason easily was the scintillating, outstanding figure among yesterday evening’s cast.
Exultantly we repeat that she is a glorious propagandist for American art. I can think of no finer singer on any stage. Her Martha is a bit of graceful, dainty play, what we used to call “high comedy.
She was costumed beautifully, with taste and distinction, making a stage picture of winsome grace.
Her singing was another triumph to add to this year’s series of brilliant achievements.
The voice itself is an enchantment and besides its natural and acquired beauty it is managed with peerless skill—in lyric or coloratura roles always exquisitely ravishing in quality, astoundingly flawless in pitch as in execution of all the technical tricks and difficulties.
MANAGEMENT‘:
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