MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 9

MUSIC.

(Ev litEiiix Clef.) A Dlcclplo of Sullivan. The novelty of tho English season at Covent Uarcu.ll is tile piouuetion "tor the first time 011 any stage," of Dr. E. Nayior's opera "iiie Angelus (states tho lattst •'itl.A.iV 1 ;. 'mis worfc, it will be reuiembertd, won the prize. of £o(jO ottered some two or three years ago by Messrs. iticordi for the' best composition by a British subject; and Mr. \ulind Thornely, of Trinity Hail, Cambridge, is tho author of tho libretto. Dr. isaylor is 0110 of our musical ioi-kshiremen. Ho was bom at Scarborough, and has inherited his musical mantle hum his latlier, tho, late Di\ John iNaylor, who was a vety able musician, ami for many years organist of \ork iuinstur. All ins eariy musical education was derived from his father, whose methods of initiation were quite otf the beaten tracii. Since tnose days, much .of lus lite has been linked with Cambridge, where, in 18t>4, lie enteied as a choral, scnolftr at Emmanuel College. He was the hrst successful candidate to bceonie a Musical Doctor under tho new regulations —lor composition only. l''or the last, ten years 110 has been organist at Emmanuel College, and sinco iOOLs also Lecturer m Music to his College—a unique appointment. Dr. Naylor is married, and lives at Cambridge. He has a keen sense of fun, and is now engaged in writing a real comic opera, ,with Mr. Thornely as his "book" collaborator.

"I wish to succeed (when the time comes)," said D. Naylor, speaking of comic operas, "one whoso work 1 admiro'witli all my heart —Arthur Sullivan." And curiously enough Dr. Naylor has in 0110 way followed in Sir Arthur Sullivan's steps, for 110 was organist at St. Michael's, Chester Square, from 18S'J to 1890, tho identical post onco held by the Comic Opera King. So Dr. Naylor has tho omens with him. When you ask him of his other, pursuits ho says, "all bookish,"- and casually mentions his "Shakespearo and Music," and his "An Elizabethan Virginal Book"; for 110 is modest as to his achievements. Ho also made a special study of the: old composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,- such as Gallus and Schutz, and read a paper beforo the Musical Association 011 the latter. In describing "The Angelus," Dr. Naylor points out that tliero are not any leit motives in tho Wagnerian sense, but that there'are associated melodies which appear often ill the work. "Ho also adds that the voices are "at the top,'! aiid not tho band.

Franccs Alda in Mow York. Songstress Frances Alda (of the Simonsen clan, and once of Australia) gets threequarters of a column in a New York paper. Sho was singing in Puccini's " Le Villi," at the Metropolitan Opora House, and when site came off tho stage at 10 o'clock tho human dynamo with the fountain pen pounced, r.ml tho next second Francos Adler-Alda-Savillo was protesting and denying. She never said slw was engaged to marry Uatti-Cnspm. She said she was engaged by him. New York critics had got anonymous letters of tho vilest kind about her, but slio know who sent them, and it wasn't such artists as Caruso or Fames. " 1 liavo sung at the greatest opera houses in.the world, in- London, Paris, Brussels, in Buenos Ayres. At Panna I sang with Uonci. He can tell you of tho success L had: . . ..People say 1 am an English music-hall singer named ISarrison. It is a lie. Everyone knows I am an Australian." There was so much "clawing" implied, aud so many Italian names in (he interview, that it looked like a police-court report of a row in tho peanut and banana quartor of New York,