A NEW OPERA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8414, 13 January 1899, Page 4

A NEW OPERA.

Mascagni's new opera, " Iris," the subject ' of -which is Japanese, has been produced in Rome, and is spoken of as one of the musical events of the year. The music, everywhere melodious, is as emotional as the plot ; and the tenor serenade, which recalls the Siliciana in " Cavalleria Rusticaua," is declared to be certain to become ' popular throughout the world. Si^.nor Maseagni conducted the work himself, and the magnificent overture was encored. The second act was superior in construction to the first, but less easily understood by the public. The third act is considered by the critics to be rather weak in places. Various .writers differ as to the exact value of the .work,' butthey seem to think it will prove Inqt far behind "Cavalieria Rusticana" with the opera-goers of Europe and the New World. Here is the story : — The heroine, Iris, is a young Japanese girl of singular beauty. She lives with her blind father, but one day she is forcibly carried off by a troupe of strolling players, and after being subjected . to all kinds of indignities, she is placed by Osaka, her captor and the villain of the piece, in a Japanese "Green House," a place of evil repute. Here we find her in the second act. Her father has been reduced to extreme poverty, and is now gaining his bread by selling brooni3 as a pedlar. By accident, and while ottering his wares, he enters the Green House, and recognises his daughter's voice. Believing that she has .left his abode for the purpose of leading a 'shameful life, he, in a highly dramatio scene, curses and throws mud on her. The disconsolate heroine thereupon resolves to commit suicide. Iris is supposed to take the fatal plunge early in the act, though not to die until it is concluded. Drowning would not do, poisoning supposes acute bodily agony and contortions, while the knife and the revolver were Rsthetically unfitting. Accordingly Mascagni hitß upon the plan of causing the unhappy heroine to throw herself out of a window. • Her injuries are mortal, but she does not die at once. As she lies on the ground she relates her tragic and unmerited fate, while in the distance are heard the voices of her father and the villain Osaka, who both eventually take part iv the movement. Mascagni declares: " There is something in Oriental music in general, and in Japanese music in particular, which has always appealed to me. Its melody is often superb, but it has a note of savagery, of primitiveness which predominates. Our Italian music, on the other hand, has been cultivated up to a point of almost exaggerated mechanical perfection. My idea has been to marry the two styles of music, to weld together the beauties of the two classes, to take away the uncouth harshness of the Asiatic strains, and to infuse into our Italian notes something that will be a departure from the polish which cloys when it begins to be observed."