MUSIC

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1681, 18 May 1904, Page 30

MUSIC

NOTES BY B STRIN6

It would have been a thousand pities to have let the Wellington Liedertafel go to" the wall. It is fulfilling a distinctly useful purpose, and its excellent work m cultivating public taste for male partsinging is far too important to be abandoned. Yet the story, told the other night at the special meeting was not a cheery one. The society has received but poor encouragement from the public, and has bad to fight its way while suffering a burden of debt and a want of public interest in its welfare. Had it not Deen lor the efforts of a couple of officers, especially those of Mr J. F. Carr (late secretary), during the year just closed, the balance-sheet presented at the special meeting would not have been by any means so favourable. This shows, however, what may be done by energy outlie part of the members themselves. they frught, at all events, to take some interest in their own societj 7 , and endeavour to secure new subscribers. There is no reason at all why the Liedertafel should not flourish in Wellington, as kindred societies have flourished for so many years in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and it is to be hoped that the record of the year now entered upon will be one of steady progress. . . , Miss Florence Menkmeyer is to give piano recitals shortly in Wellington. The new Royal College of Organists at Kensington, Gore, is to be opened next A remarkable child violinist, Sybil Keymer, aged ten or eleven years, has appeared in London, and at a recent concert given by the Stock Exchange Orchestral Society, played amongst other items the solo music of the .last two movements of Mendelssohn s violin concerto. She is said to have shown amazing feeling and technique for so young a player. M. Leopold Wenzel, a familiar figure as director of the orchestra at the Empire Theatre, London, since 1889, has decided to resign the position. Tho cause of this step is a curious one. He has written a letter to the directors, complaining of their action in prohibiting the orchestra from offering him the customary “salutation” on his entrance. This “salutation” means of the bandstands directly the conductor appears, but the custom lias been abolished in nearly all the leading theatres. Mr J. C. Williamson intends to produce in Australia a dramatic version of Wagner’s great work “Parsifal.. The London critics who despise The, Bohemian Girl” and ff Maritana, and censured Mr Charles Manners, manager of the Moody-Manners Opera Company, for including them in the list of his operas at Covent Garden, were informed by Mr Manners that while thoroughly weary of these two works himself, he has found that the public still demand them. “The Bohemian Girl,” he states, is the best paying opera on my list, It has often happened that on a Saturday morning in some provincial tcwn I have been some <£3o in debt as the result of a. week’s performances. *Tli© Xsoh.em.iaii Girl is put on as a matinee, and I am able to wipe:* off that debt, and end the week with a surplus of, perhaps, £6O. So, you see, we must play Balfe s old-iashioned work;” Does grand opera pay? Mr G. D. Faber, M.P., who has been concerned in the management of the Grand Opera House, Co vent' Garden, emphatically replies., No. Giving some idea of the cost of production by taking the case of a fashionable night when Romeo and Juliet was the piece and all the great artists were singing, Mr Faber said Jean de Reszke, singing Romea, would be taking £200; Melba, as Juliet, £200; Edward de Reszke, as the Friar, <£100; Plancon, as Juliet’s father, <£80; Mercutio (the baritone), and Tybalt (light tenor), each <£4o; the other artists, £4O; the conductor and orchestra, £100;' with the chorus and the attendants bringing it up To £OOO, before the curtain was raised. Govern Garden, when full at top prices, would noly hold £I2OO, leaving a balance of £3OO, which might be all absorbed by a smaller night, and he should certainly say, from his experience that if at the end of the season they could show a profit of £SOOO on the capital expended, that was as good a result as could ever be achieved. There was, in fact, a much greater risk of losing £SOOO. It is impossible, he says, to make grand opera pay in Lpndon except'in two W£i's, neither of which is practicable. The first is to make the auditorium larger, and then they could not hear the singing—two conspicuous examples of which are the Albert Hall and the New York Opera House. The other method is to cut down salaries, but this is regulated bj supply and de-

maud, and great singers are tlie rarest things on tlie face of the earth. The freat opera houses in London, Paris, St. etersburg, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, -Naples and New York all wanted a certain number of stars, and the result was the stars made their own terms. Then it might be asked—-"'Wiiy have they these great stars in some of the smaller opera houses, such as Dresden and Munich, and a few other places; in Germany and Italy they have good singers but no stars ?” His answer was that in> London, at any rate, unless they had great artists opera would not draw, for it was a curious thing that while the British were not a musical people, they were a music loving people—knew what was best, and intended to have it. And in opera it was no good giving mediocre per formances, because they .could not obtain ft remunerative audience if they did. There were so few great artists. Of really < great operatic sopranos there were Patti—who, although she no longer sang Opera, was still, as regards her middle register voice, in force and beauty— Calve, Melba, Ternina (the great Hun!;arian), and Albina, who no longer sang n opera. The great tenors were even fewer—Tamagnp, the Roman tenor; Alvarez, the. great French tenor; and the two Italians, Carruso and Bonchi. "There is honour and glory," pathetically remarked Mr Faber, "to be won in

opera, but not money for the man who gives it.” The only hope of a national opera was for some multi-millionaire to give hald a million to start it, for it would require £300,000 to put it on its legs and £200,000 for contingencies. The three operas by Franco .de Venezia, Gabriel Dupont, and Lorenzo Filiasi, which have been selected by the jury for the Sonzogno prize, are to be performed at Milan next month, first before a jury on three successive evenings, then afterwards in the same way, the public being admitted, and once again all three on one evening. After these various trials the jury will name the fortunate winner. The prize, it may be added, is £2OOO. The competition which takes place every five years for the Rubinstein prize of the value of £2OO will take place necxt year at Paris. The first was held at St. Petersburg, the second at Berlin, and the third at Vienna. M. Albert Visette, the well-known Lradon teacher, writes in a London magazine that it is not at all necessary to go to the Continent to study music thoroughly. An equally good musical education, he says, . may be obtained in London. “Here, thoroughly competent teachers (native or foreign) may be secured, who aro able ■to impart instruction in the pupil’s mother tongue; and who, having studied the idiosyncrasies of English temperment. climatic influence, and the exigencies of English throats, are qualified to produce the best results, both n tons and quality and lasting power. Every facility is afforded at Covent Garden Theatre and our concert-halls _to hear the best exponents of every branch of vocal and instrumental music; for musical London is essentially cosmopolitan. The famous argument that in order to acquire the perfect pronunciation of a language it is necessary to reside in the country where that language is spoken,’ holds good for certain branches of philology, but for singing it is absurd. Fou ror five shillings will purchase the works of Ellis and Sweet, by which 'the necessary singing and speaking pronunciation may be learned. All foreign languages can be studied 7 ’n lpndon, and, equipped with such knowledge, the student is m a position to appreciate at their full worth the literary and artistic masterpieces of the world.” Then, and then only, continues Signor Visetti, is it time to see such treasures in their native atmosphere, for the intellectual capacity of the student having been thus prepared, its receptivity is increased a thousandfold, and the aesthetic side of the training is speedily rendered equal to the technical already achieved.