The Portland daily press., 1876-04-12
Art, Music and the Drama.

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friends, but they were Appropriated by the rebs
| TO their own use. N n
Art. Music and the Drama.
There is one very serious drawback to the
use OF music as a means of preaching the gos-
pei IN China In singing, the word tones can
| not De given, and this destroys the sense. For
IN Ohlnese, as rule, every articulate sound
represents at least two or three different words,
whlle the more common, such as sting"
"hng, and sing" often represent two or
three dozen different words, and without the
help Of the tones they have no meaning what
ever. So when hymnis, sung to o Chinese
audience who are not already familiar with it,
1t has scarcely more meaning to them than it
would have to a foreigner just arrived.
Anna de Belocca, the Russian prima donna
now on her way to this country, is but % years
OF age Her father is Actual Imperial Coun-
cilior OF State; and, being possessed of an in
dependent fortune, has afforded his daughter
every opportunity for the best education in her
profession that money could buy. Her voice is
very deep and rich contralto, and is said BY
competent judges to be unequaled since AL.
boni's time.
Charles Warren Stoddard writes from Mu-
mich to the San Francisco Chronicle of visit
to the studio of Toby Rosenthal: HE posi-
lively glows with enthusiasm, and this element
doubtless has much to do with his success as an
artist. 1t is coupled with a melancholy that
enriches the soul, though heaven knows it Is
paying dearly for development when one must
needs cruelty the flesh to gain that end. This
touch OF melancholy has its charm and its ad-
yantages. Without it believe we should have
had no elaine in her barge of DEATH nor any
OF the earlier works that dealt with the more
sorrowful episodes of life. he has his humor
quite enough of it, but it is never boisterous.
1t is like the sunshine Of summers day partly
soied with the shadow of approaching clouds
Pope Plus TX. is not only man of the purest
artistic sense and culture in music, but a mas
ter of the organ, and a remarkable singer. His
voice is even now very sweet and powerful, and
when he sings at high mass all who hear him
are struck by the superb manner in which he
executes the difficult Gregorian chant. He dis
approves of the tendency to import operatic and
other profane music into the church service.
but does not share the ultra severity of that
party who woull rerofm church music into the
antique plain chant
Barriere's play, "The Gascon," which busies
itself with Mary Stuatr's love affair with Chaste-
lard Cthe person who gave name to one of Mr..
SWinburne's erotic dramas(, has been produced
in London, and is the occasion for severe strict
ures on the acting of Mrs Rousby, who person
ates, Of course, the Queen of Scots. The Athe-
naum, after describing the offensive indelicacy
of the dramatist, adds: This primary vulgari-
ty of conception, is however, intensified by the
| ~ in has nd he
parent intention of the dramatist No very
shocking or unfamiliar picture is presented
when young lover is seen singing beneath the
balcony of his mistress, nor is the guerdon
Judged excessive if the lady, queen though she
be, drops from the opened lattice to her gallant
flower or billet. Far beyond this goes
however, Mary Stuart She realizes to the
utmost the dream that Keats framed for Psyche,
who, bs it remembered is the bride of Cupid, O
dream of
That shadowy thought can win;
bright torch, and easement ope at night
10 let the warm Love in.
Long before the musician is heard, Mary is
'craning' forth from the lattice to watch for his
arrival. Her passion finds voluble utterancs,
and when Chastelard ascends to her chamber,
her arms enfold his neck, and her warm kisses
are showered upon him with such rapture, that
her subsequent ayowal that she loves him, in
stead of coming to him as a surprise, is start
ling for its hardness rather than for its vehe-
mence."
Rud Aronson, "the young American compos-
er," says the American Register of Paris, is
writing in Paris comic opera, '"The Jolly Stu
dents" to words of Charles Cadot which he
hopes to produce in this country in 1877.
Liszts oratorio, the "Legend of Saint Eliza
beth" which is. by some considered his master
piece, was produced recently for the first time
in London by Walter Bache, one of the COM
poser's pupils, who regularly once year loses
money for the sake of introducing Lszt in a
two hours coLcert at st. James hall The
legend is that of st. Elizabeth of Hungary,
told in KiDgsley's Saints Tragedy" the
libretto by Otto Roquette. Ebenezer Prout,
criticising the oratorio in the Academy, de-
clares that of all the musical torture he has
had to undergo, never does he remember one
'of such intensity, or of such prolonged dura.
ton. More than once / was inclined to sx-
claim with Goethe: Five minutes more Of
this, and confess everything" Aud he pro-
ceeds to justify in detail this severe remark.
The Athenaum, on the other hand, thinks il
reaches ''the loftiest heights of dramatic
music" and that this is no part of the music
of the future, and has no more to do with
Wagner than with Handel.
Strauss is as nervous as a composer as he is
as director. Clad in a velvet costume, patent
leather boots reaching to his knees, his eyes
afame, and in fit of inspiration" he goes
stridiDg through the house like a maniac. If
iuspration does notl come In him in the SnIon
he clutches his papers together and rushes
off to his bedroom or to his wfes boudoir.
Sometimes it happens that waltz begun in
the parlor is finished in the kitchen. Frau
Strauss, who appreciates and Understands her
Johns habits, has half dozen pianos scat
tered throughout the house, and in each room
table with writing materials, ETC., so that
in whatever nook her Herr finds himself he Is
quite at home. twas only through her influ.
ence that be was induced to undertake dra-