MUSIC.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9867, 25 March 1893, Page 7 (Supplement)

MUSIC.

SPECIAL TO THE MAIL . (from our own correspondent.) VERDI’S NEW OPERA. London, February 3. The musical event of the winter will be the production of the veteran Verdi’s ‘ Falstaff ’ at La Scala, Milan. Rehearsals have already commenced under the maestro's superintendence, and the premiere is fixed foj* February 8. Verdi and Madame Verdi arrived in the city from their country place on Monday, and the same evening a most awkward contretemps occurred. Out of com pliment to the composer the impressario at La Scala had, for the occasion, staged Verdi’s favourite ‘Rigoletto/ and cast Madame Stehle (the Mrs Ford in * Falstaff ’) for the part of Gilda, As luck would have it, the prima donna was wholly out of voice, and the performance otherwise faulty. A Milanese public never minces matters, and expressed its opinion with the usual symphony of yells and hisses. Verdi sat in hia box white with rage and mortification. Later he sent for the luckless manager and overwhelmed him with vehement denunciations. ‘ Falstaff/ he vowed, should never be murdered, never be annihilated by such a troupe of incompetent, voiceless blockheads. Next morning at rehearsal Verdi’s appearance at rehearsal made the company sink into their boots. ‘ Whoever/ writes an English member of the company, ‘has been spoken to once in his life by Verdi animated or excited is not likely to forget the sight and the way the master looks into your eyes j but when Verdi in a passion buttonholes you and shaking his leonine hoad, begins an argumentum ad homimen, then all present wish they were never born. No good camo of the day's rehearsal; there were tears, and imprecations, and invocations to everv patron saint in the calendar, and in order to soothe the master his attention was diverted into other channels. Jokes were cracked about M Maurel travelling with his fictitious ema bonpoint; the projected Patti performancewere talked about; and, finally, the ‘ vanishing trick of the third act of ‘Falstaff’ was performed, to Verdi’s great satisfaction and amusement. We refer here to a rather clever contrivance invented that the ' defenestration ’ of Sir John might take place in full view of the audience, without any risk to the artist hidden in the li*3n basket and pitched out of the window into the river; a genuine splash of water accompanies the trick, which works very well indeed. Verdi takes a childish delight in scenic devices and mise en scene, and thinks nothing of going through an entire role himself. He has a regular ‘ composer’s voice ’ —voce da maestro; but his art of singing and phrasing and his accents are something so divine as to defy description. He it was who taught Tamagno the wonderful business of the last act in his ‘ Othello/ and day after day he would show him how to sing his farewell or Desdemona and roll down the steps off the death-bed.