OPERA IN GERMAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18282, 18 December 1919, Page 6

OPERA IN GERMAN.

RIOTS CAUSED IN NEW YORK. " .. /«, ■ A PROJECT ABANDONED. \ fFBOM-Orm Conasmsamtmfi \ LOS ANGELES, Oak, November os. > Mr Harold Mertens Schwab, of New York, has formed a league to (Suppress German opera. He served for America in the navy, and says the Germans muidered American soldiers, but mow want pay for singing to kinsmen or the slain in the language of the foe. Ho would ban Teutonic opera for another ye&x. , While more than 300 patrolmen, detectives and mounted police _ stood guard, German opera was sung in New Tork on October 23 for the third time that week. Although crowds surged through the streets near the theatre, there was no serious disorder, such as marked the two previous performances, when returned men led civilians in an attempt to storm the playhouse. An attempt by the city authorities, booked by the American Legion, to stop the singing of German operas in New York, received a setback when Supreme Court Justice Geigerieh refused to modify a temporary injunction obtained by the producing company. The injunction prohibits tho city authorities from interfering with the performance. On the question of a permanent injunction, the Judge directed counsel for both sides to submit a brief to him & few days later. Although the inner doors were not open till 7.45, fifteen minutes later than usual, there were only about fifty persons at any time in the lobby. Some of these were detectives, of whom there were 100 in and about the theatre to aid the uniformed police in suppressing either riots or egg-throwing, such as took place at previous productions.

MOTHER OF TWO SLAIN SONS. One of those in the lobby was a woman in black, with a band of crepe on her arm. She walked restlessly. To one of the deteotives, who asked if she were looking for anyone, she said: " I am looking to see for myself what kind of persons go to hear German opera sung by Germans. My two sons were killed m France, and I thought if 1 could find out what business some of the men coming here to-night were in I would start a boycott against them.” The cover of every (programme had been torn off before the audience was admitted. On the inside of the cover there had been an advertisement of of fund to buy food for the starving babies of Germany, in which reference was made to the spirit of the German people, which cannon had been unable to break. Mr Harry H. Herts, business manager of the Star Opera Company, said the cover had been torn off on the advice of counsel after a complaint conceming the advertisement had been received. The opera produced was the same as that of the previous evening, "Zar uud Zimmerman.” Hermann Weil, w]m escaped four eggs without missing a note on Wednesday l night, took the stage without a sign of perturbation. His confidence was justified. No eggs were thrown. Otto Goritz, the German who celebrated the sinking of the Lusitania with song, was greeted with cheers when he came on the stage. A VOLLEY OF BOTTLES. It was not till the performance was over at 11.30 that the police found any use for their night sticks. By that time, in spite of the unfavourable weather, a crowd of nearly 1000, many of them in uniform, had oollected just beyond the lines established by the police. Mounted patrolmen and a platoon of foot police were sent to disperse the crowd. They were greeted with a volley of bottles and brickbats, but once the police got to close quarters the drenched rioters became discouraged, While a police captain was cnasing several men through Fifty-third Street, there was a report of a revolver and a bullet sang high oyer the captain’s head. No one was injured and no one was arrested. Mr Herts was asked if it was proposed to carry through the eight weeks' season. A few days later he announced that the project had. been abandoned.