42
April 19, 1923
N. F. M. C.; Mrs. William Cowen, chairman of the New Musical Club; Mrs. Helen C. Webster, former president of the National Federation, and Mrs. F. S. Wardwell, of Stamford, Conn., president. The judges were: (piano) Edwin Hughes, Augusta Cottlow, Oliver Denton, Leslie Hodgson, and Richard Hageman; (voice) Mrs. Carl Alves, Mrs. Theodore Toedt, Frank La Forge, Richard Hageman, and T. Tertius Noble; (violin) Franz Kneisel, Richard Hageman, Frank La Forge, and T. Tertius Noble.
Conversation with Senator du Pont
The following is a faithful account of a conversation between a Musical Courier staff writer and Senator Coleman du Pont, president of the City Symphony Orchestra.
Musical Courier: “Is it true, Senator du Pont, that you have decided to withdraw your support from the City Symphony Orchestra?”
Senator du Pont: “I don’t expect to be in ■New York very much next winter, so I told them they would have to get a new president—some New York man who could be on the job.”
Musical Courier: “Is if true, Senator du Pont, that you have decided to withdraw your support from the City Symphony Orchestra?”
Senator du Pont: “So far I haven’t done anything except tell them they must get a new president.”
Musical Courier: “Do you want to say anything as to what brought about the contemplated change in conductor-ship?”
Senator du Pont: “Are they going to change conductors?
I haven’t heard anything about it.”
Musical Courier: “We have heard from several sources that Mr. Foch will not direct the orchestra next season.”
Senator du Pont: “Well, I haven’t heard anything about it, and I think I would have if they were going to make a change.”
Musical Courier:	“Good-by, Senator du Pont; thank
you.”
Senator du Pont: “Good-by.”
MUSICAL COURIER SAN CARLO GRAND OPERA COMPANY
OFFERS OPERA DE LUXE IN HAVANA, CUBA
Ruffo, Martinelli, Schipa, Bori, Fitziu, Rappold and D’Arle to Appear with Company’s Regular List of Splendid Artists at the Famous $5,000,000 Teatro Nacional—Box Office Prices $2 to $15 a Seat—Two San Carlo Companies Announced for Next Season
each week for three weeks, making twelve performances in all at the remarkable box office scale of two dollars to fifteen dollars per seat, not including boxes. This is a little more than twice the prices scaled at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
The four performances each week will be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights and Sunday matinee.
The operas to be presented in order to show each star in his or her best roles will include Hamlet, Samson and Delilah, Otello, Lucia di Lammermoor, Aida, The Tales ' of Hoffmann, Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Caval-leria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Rigoletto, II Trovatore, La Travi-ata, The Jewels of the Madonna, La Gioconda, Manon, La Bohême, Faust, Martha, Madama Butterfly and Salome ‘
S. J.
Organists’ Associations Present Unique Program
The Society of Theater Organists, Robert Berentsen president, and the National Association of Organists, T. Tertius Noble president, issued invitations for a unique affair at the Capitol Theater, April 5, consisting of an organ recital by Dr. Mauro-Cottone, chief organist; an address on the Rela-tion of the Organ to The Moving Picture, and presentation of the film, Hope, with interpretive music played by Dr. Cottone. Again it_ was proven that brains control the world, whether musical, artistic or business brains; for the program played by organist Cottone included ancient and modern works, played in intellectual fashion, cleanly and artistically; and Mr. Rothafel’s talk displayed a grasp knowledge, and vision of the organ as related to moving pictures, that was illuminating in the highest degree. President Berentsen introduced both men, and the warm words spoken in appreciation of Mr. Rothafel’s organist was echoed in the applause he received, both for his performance of the recital music, and for the picture; the musical themes for the latter were suggested by Mr. Rothafel. Many leading organists, prominent in both church and secular musical life, attended, and the Estey organ was made to sound its best in the tasteful playing of Mauro-Cottone.
German Opera Plans for 1923-24
Melvin H. Dalberg, general director of the reorganized Wagnerian Opera Festival, has announced that when the company opens next season it will be known as the Wagnerian^ Opera Company. Owing to heavy demands from cities in the Middle West which the company did not visit this year, the season will open on October 15 in Washington, after which the organization will visit Cincinnati Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and St. Louis, and then come to New York for a six weeks’ season at the Manhattan Opera House, beginning on Christmas Day, December 25.
The present company will be augmented by the addition of a number of well known German artists, and the repertory will also be greatly extended. Among the works announced are Wagner’s Rienzi and Parsifal, D’Albert’s Die Toten Augen, Kienzl’s Der Evangelimann, Siegfried Wagner’s Der Baerenhaeuter, Richard Strauss’ Salome and Rosenkavalier, Halevy’s La Juive, Offenbach’s Hoffmann’s Erzehlungen and Orpheus in der Unterwelt, and Johann Strauss’ Ziegeunerbaron and Fledermaus. A Mozart Festival, which will include Don Juan, Zauberflote, Figaro’s Hochzeit and Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, will be held in January under the directorship of Josef Stransky, who will also conduct Die Meistersinger and Tristan and Isolde. The Wagner operas heard this season will be repeated, as well as the matinee cycle of the Ring.
. Eduard Moericke, whose conducting made such a deep impression the past season, will again assume the baton and Ernest Knoch will be associated with him.
The present season closes at Buffalo on May 9 and the members of the company are booked to return to Germany on the President Harding, sailing May 12. They will return to this country early in October for the opening of the second season in America.
Tittmann for Bach and Cincinnati Festivals
Charles Trowbridge Tittmann, the Washington bass, has been_ engaged for the eighth consecutive year at the Bach Festival at Bethlehem, when he will sing the role of Jesus in the St. John Passion, Dr. J. Fred Wolle, conductor. For the second time he will sing at the Cincinnati Festival, ■being cast for the Bach B minor Mass and the première of Had-eys Resurgam. On May 8 he will sing Elijah with the Washington Choral Society, and on May 16, the bass roles of the Creation at the University of Maryland Festival.
Empire District Contest Winners
The Empire District (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) Young Artists’ Contest of the National Federation of Music Clubs took place at Aeolian Hall, New York, on April 11. The competitors were those who had previously won the State contests in the three States named.
The winner of the district piano contest was Margaret Hamilton, of New York, pupil of Elizabeth Strauss, of the Institute of Musical Art. The winner in the men’s voice contest was Thomas Baur, of Brooklyn. The winner of the women’s voice contest has not yet been announced. In the violin contest there was only a fraction of a point difference between the two leaders, so another test will be held.
The contest committee consisted, of Mrs. Worcester Warner, auditor; Mrs. Russell R. Dorr, historian of the
JOSEPH REGNEAS A WHOLE HEARTED
PARTICIPANT IN MUSIC WEEK CELEBRATION
taught in America, with the composers at the piano A general invitation is extended to the public.
Wednesday, May 2, at 2:30 P.M.—Song recital at Town
tt 11 • , j •	־ * , 7 .— ׳ ׳־■•	‘tuicll clL lown
Hall, introducing compositions by American composers published by American publishers, sung by Alice Godillot mezzo-soprano, with the composers at the piano. A general invitation is extended to the public. Harry Oliver Hirt will accompany the songs of Edward MacDowell.
Thursday, May 3, at 8:15 P.M.—Song recital by Gertrude
ezz0o״°,praS0’ at the home studio of Mr. Regneas, 135 West 80th Street. Admission by invitation only Blanche Barbot at the piano.
Saturday May 5, at 8:15 P.M.—Song recital by Gitla Erstmn, coloratura soprano, at the home studio of Mr. Regneas, 135 West 80th Street. Admission by invitation only. Blanche Barbot at the piano.
Those appearing at these musical events are singers who are studying or have studied with Mr. Regneas and will include: Everett Clark, Gitla Erstinn, Alice Godil’lot (Classen Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn), Mildred Graham (St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, New York Citv) Marguerite Hazzard (Temple Bethel, New York City) Gertrude Levy, Louise Mertens (Temple Bethel, New York City), Ruth MacDonald, Gertrude Nicholas (Munn Avenue Baptist Church, East Orange, N. J.), Frieda Rochen, Andrea Sarto (Temple Bethel and Central Congregational Church, New York City), Anita Self, Mildred Stillwell.
Among the composers represented will be: Gene Brans-comb, Harry T. Burleigh, Clarence Dickinson, James P Dunn, Frank H. Grey, W. H. Humiston, Henry H. Huss! Frank LaForge, Edward MacDowell, Florence Turner Maley, Francis Moore, Geoffrey O’Hara, Arthur Penn Gustav Saenger, Oley Speaks, Charles Gilbert Spross, Wint-ter Watts, and Frederick Vanderpool.
Publications from the following houses will be rendered • Boosey & Company, Breitkopf & Hartel, Inc., John Church Company, Charles Ditson and Son, Oliver Ditson Company Carl Fischer, J. Fischer & Brother, R. L. Huntzinger Luck-hardt & Beider, Erver Novello, G. Ricordi & Company G Schirmer, A. P. Schmidt, M. Witmark & Son.
If every vocal instructor in New York offered as generous a feast of music during music week as will Joseph Regneas audiences would be at a premium in spite of New York’s six million inhabitants. There is perhaps no busier an individual in the field of music in New York than this well known vocal instructor and coach, and yet no worthy public spirited move is refused his support and co-operation.
At the call of the Music Week Committee he has arranged a six^ day contribution which holds the keenest interest, including a feature which has never been attempted before, namely, that some eighteen representative American composers will appear at two principal music halls and play the accompaniments to their own songs, which will be sung by representative American singers, all taught in America. In fact, all are studying or have studied with Mr. Regneas. For this celebration, also, only songs published by American publishers will be presented, and all the publishers have shown their appreciation of this move, and given their hearty co-operation.
It is evident that only a small number of the composers and publishers could be represented and there is, of course, no reflection upon those not included in his scheme. Without question, this idea of composers’ concerts will be oft repeated in the future, as they will prove a boon for the composer, the publisher and the singer.
A partial list of Mr. Regneas’ Music Week activities is herewith given:
Sunday, April 29, at 4 P.M.—Reception and Musicale, marking the opening day of Music Week, at Mr. Regneas’ Home Studio, 135 West 80th Street. Admission by invitation only, issued by the Musicians’ Club; J. Fletcher Shera, vice-president, and James O. Boone, chairman of the entertainment committee.
Monday, April 30, at 8:15 P.M.—Song recital by Nevada Van der Veer, contralto; Reed Miller, tenor; Blanche Barbot, accompanist. At the Y. W. C. A., Lexington Avenue and _53rd Street. A general invitation is extended to the public.
Tuesday, May 1, at 8:15 P.M.—Song recital at Town Hall, introducing compositions by American composers, published by American publishers, sung by American singers
The San Carlo Grand Opera Company at fifteen dollars a seat!!! That is quite an achievement for a “popular price” grand opera company only twelve years old.
And that is the climax Fortune Gallo has staged with his organization in celebration of its twelfth birthday in the city of Havana, Cuba, where the San Carlo forces will begin a spring series on April 24 in the Teatro Nacional, which Cubans claim is the finest opera house in the Western Hemisphere, and upon which they lavished five million dollars in the building. This metamorphosis of the oldest continuous touring grand opera company is effected by the assemblage of all the notables now on this continent and available from the Metropolitan and Chicago opera companies—Titta Ruffo, Giovanni Martinelli, Tito Schipa, Lu-crezia Bori, Anna Fitziu, Marie Rappold and Yvonne D’Arle to reinforce the usual list of San Carlo favorites, Sophia Charlebois, Josephine Lucchese, Stella De Mette, Anita Klinova, Mario Valle, Giuseppe Interrante, Romeo Bos-cacci, Pietro De Biasi, Natale Cervi and others, with such new additions as Riccardo Bonelli, Lodovico Tomarchio, Rogelio Baldrich, Francesco Cure¡, Antonio Paoli, with conductors Carlo Peroni, Arturo Bori and Giacomo Spadoni, and the entire Chicago Opera ballet, headed by Andreas Pavley and Sergei Oukrainsky.
This venture in de luxe opera is an enlargement on Fortune Gallo’s well known penchant for increasing the importance of his San Carlo offerings on special occasions in certain cities by the introduction of famous guest artists, operatic novelties and augmented forces. Time was when this aggregation contented itself with being a strictly touring company, hitting the San Carlo trail year after year. Its first invasion of New York City years ago was epochal in its career, and since its warm reception and record of capacity houses then, Mr. Gallo has endeavored to make each succeeding visit more notable, with the result that a larger seating capacity was necessary, and the Manhattan and Century theaters have consequently housed the New York engagements of the last three New York visits. These metropolitan successes led to similar enterprises in other large cities, notably Boston and Philadelphia, where long and successful engagements in the past two years have tended to narrow the number of cities visited with longer jumps between stops across the country and back.
Two San Carlo Companies Next Season.
With the longer stay in each big city, and with the impossibility of one company covering all the territory demanding opera in one season, the necessity of two organizations to supply the demand has arisen. Consequently decision was made six months ago that there should be two San Carlo companies for the season of 1923-1924, and booking arrangements were begun accordingly long before any announcement was made of this intention. “There will be no number one or number two company in this arrangement,” says Mr. Gallo. “Both companies will be of the same high standard and size, and the only difference will be that one will be equipped for long engagements where long engagements are demanded, with a repertory of fifteen operas, while the other will employ a shorter list of operas for cities where a shorter stay is indicated.”
^The present season began at the Century Theater in New York on the eighteenth of last September, and the record attendance there prompted the increase to six weeks for next autumn in the same theater. Subsequent engagements of three weeks at the Boston Opera House and two weeks at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia placed those cities permanently on the San Carlo itinerary for later years indefinitely. The magnificent new Eastman Theater in Rochester was officially opened with a week of San Carlo presentations to the largest receipts ever recorded anywhere in the world at the popular operatic scale of “three-dollar-top.” Similar attendance was registered for three weeks in San Francisco, two weeks in Los Angeles and in week-stands in fifteen other cities.
To meet the schedule for the opening in Havana, the organization made one of the longest jumps on record— from Denver to Havana—by rail as far as New Orleans, and by boat from there to the Cuban port.
The Havana season will consist of four performances
SIGNOR ELFERT
FLORIO
DISTINGUISHED VOICE MAESTRO
Unusual opportunity for voice study with one of the most celebrated teachers in the country is afforded this spring by the presence in New York of Signor Elfert Florio recently returned to this city. Teacher of many well-known concert and operatic artists.
For appointment write
SEC’Y FLORIO STUDIOS
170 W. 72d St. New York City