FASHIONABLE GRAND OPERA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13636, 2 July 1908, Page 7

FASHIONABLE GRAND OPERA.

NO CHANCE FOR NEW COMPOSERS.

P.y H. R. Marriott Watson

It is difficult to get people to realise that all art undergoes change and development. The underlying foundations undoubtedly are paramount;- but"the spirit and .form "in which , an. art exhibits uself are .continually altering. , , The. fact is that- the 'body; of Ipiiblic that-' appreciates art is highly conservative, as a'-rule, '.and ■'newfangled ways'" are to it anathema. This ,is .more particularly true of followers ;\ of hat'.'. youngest- and: crudest'of all alts'-pthe 'art *>f j musrt'e. v Music ;js.'s-ili so-'juVenile. "that no "one : knows how she is going to grow-up. Hence the interest •with : which, she ; should _be,; and u;,. watched. At present wel are taught -to find the fullest HoVer of music in grand opera, and we have gone on finding it there . for 150- years at least. Any attempt to break away from this tradition would' arouse . the - hu-ter. hostility of the tonservatices.

It is a; question if grand opera does not pass . the : legitimate/bounds' of artificiality; it is a question if it .is not composed of element's too' essentially incongruous,, to be. properly artistic. ; Drama of itself leans more and more to versimilitnde, and pprports. to depict; human life and human action as we see ifcj.day bv day. Music, on. the other hand, • aims' atemotions through ,the medium of sounds. •VVe can geL- emotions from '•■. a- drama, and we can get emotions from a'musical -composition, respectively.; but. it ist.not- too much to say that eveiy time a player becomes a s-nger there is a yioien; break in the continuity 'of performance, and a : : violent change of art. ■'■;'.-. ••;- FASHION MAKES ITvv' v '-'- /: Grand opera .has, been accepted 1 for generations, aud no one is likely; to depose it from, its ' throne. 'Fashion.- made ic the head ,'and \ .front; of > Musical Art, and it remains eo.' •i'ersonaUy ■ I can: sec with prophetrc eyes with -predictive ears 'a development of prograniuiemusic: which;, may* in the future, militate somewhat.'.',against the dominant posA-on' of/the opera. ; {Theiplder order .change's, giving piace to the arid; the classicists-, and academicists' have given place : to masters of programme-music, which, after aU>. : .is'!:nothing;more* formidable or revolutionary" than a'method of linking-up ' music- expressively, witb-.the human eino : tions.. , Tehaikpwsky,; Wagner, even Gho-j-.in, all have utilised piogvamme-n),u.sic, and- none now but obsolete and aggravated purists' would deny"- the : 'legitimacy of this development'.' 7 The extension of programme-music to uses not yet dreamed of .may, as I say, in part; deprive grand dpara -<sf 'its ascendancy;:'but only-'Fas'liipn .'can kill opera, and Fashion, never will ■Grand opera, is everything' that'suits' Pashion, being very costly, spectacular,, and and\ offering social chances litt- ; where else obtainable. ';:-

.; Accepting, then,., grand opera'as coma to stay, it is impossible, not to confess that it practically made no progress, since its institution, tinder Wagner .arrived. And ;Wagnerwas a theorist arid .a propagandist ifirst of all. His influence was resisted ;.'tooth and nail, and- now we-are told, '■after he has come to his own, there kre ;evidenb signs of reaction. In New York jmusical. critics ■ complain that audierites .'do not .want Wagner, ■ that the opera hiuises are empty when he is played, and that the. public flocks to the Italian ;bel .canto. I do nob know how far this-is the case in London, but.it is evident from that the shallow and stagy Italann opera is most in favour on'this side jtlfeo. " -!'■ - ; CONCERT AND OPERA GOERSg :'

'lt. must >ba remembered also that /.the /.concert-going audiences . are by no 'means .identical with the opera-goers. The ojfei'a. ~his other appeals than thai of pure iTJiusic. The public : rushes .in its, thousands to hear -Tetrazzini in the florid and sfinwy works of Yerdi or Donizetti;.; it takes the "Ring," on the other hahd^;as k might a rel gions service, or at- least an oratorio. It is the bel canto thafc.?at.tracts now,- as before! . The fact ic that "the dual nature of the art>, to whicji I Ujave referred-.as. unua tural, • is -pulling an audience two ways, and inevitably .the bulk of the audience will go the 'easier iray, in the direction,.that is, of a dramatic story and outstanding voices. There iis no satisfaction for the highest musical demands to be' found in Italian operaJ As it has been, it remains, bright, fluent, facile, melodramatic, and human of- fitbry, frith most particular attention to tie voice

and the acrobatics of the voice. There "is little, ssympathy between this viei\ and that which would, make the human voice i m-iely the- chief instuiment of the or ches-Ua Wagnei s , concentration upon the on li^Ua' lias led to the l.ittei de velopinenl And we are now divided mt-o two schools. Aie we for bel canto and the stuiy' ot arft we lor evolution along Wagneiiait lines' The public has lie answei leady It lo\eo coloiaUua, itid the ot sopiano and tenor, as, it loved them m the days when gland opera made its bow to the woild. The jub is theie • If we except Wagnei —and, apparently, he is to be ignored—grand opeia remains where it started. It has been left at the post; and no one seems to be m a hurry to " bring it along." It subsi&ts on lte traditions, and has no organic life left in it. : Yet now, it evt'i, one would judge, jb the thince loi a composer to step in between the conflicting publics and reconcile them If we aid going to keep giand opera let iwm ake it up to date No musician leallj wants to letain the old meietncious opeias which keep the boards. And only an obstinate VVagnente would insist on the master's perfection of dramatic gennib The public wants a dramatic human story, and wants it set to music, (surely some modern composer could give it what it wants, and give also what he wants to the music-lover Bel canto is not entirely inconsistent w ltli the 01 ches irarion; 01 is dramatic music riecessai lly confined to mediaeval or legendaiy tales. NKW WORKS NOT WANTED. I had wntten so far, when I came upon a paragiaph in '] The Daily Chi on lcle" conveying the opinions of a director of the Covent Garden op c ra This gentleman states that the public does not wanL new opeias, and "will no even cioss the stieet to hear new works, unless the composei is a Puccini ' If this be the case, fiankly, the, case is hopeless The lemaik wjj. made apiopos of the leftioal of Co\ent Uaiden to pioduce Miss Kdiel bmytlfb opeia. "The Wreckers.' (some poitions ot this opeia weie pioduced by the London Symphony Orchestra, apparently with gieat success But'theie is no hope of its being <een at Covent Gai dtn.

It appears then that the men (and the wom»ii) are heie, but that the t public is a fault. The blight of the clap-trap Italian opeia is on us, and will destroy all the- fnuir* of the-ait. A Puccini may pass thiotigh. but no one <*lse. Is it as hopeless as tJii*. ? If so we shall have to write our London opwa-goers down as the dullards of musical Km ope. Carpentier's "Louise" had an enoimous success in Paris, and it is having an enormous success in America to-day. It has never been proposed to stage it in London. There are comp<eeis among tis to-day who could produce "Lou s c s"' but they ge*fc no chance, and if they do produce opera they have, like Miss "Smyth, to seek their theatre obroart. So much, then, for the discietion and taste of the opera-goers who discovered Tetrazzini.