The Portland daily press., 1878-06-08
Art, Music and the Drama.
GIeaninxs in Foreign Fields.

Edward Kretschmer's new opera, Henry the
Lion, has gained great applause at Cologne,
where it was produced for the first time on any
stage, in the first week in May.
At a recent performance of Wagner's "Tri-
logis' at Leipzig, tickets for the three perform
ances sold in some of the music stores, at the
immense price of sixty five dollars.
It is said that Hans Richter of Vienna, who
directed the Wagner Festival at Baireuth, has
gone SO deeply into "Trilogie" that he knows
bv heart every note of the gigantic score, and
every word Of the text which fills over four
hundred pages of print
Vienna has just had novel excitement 10
the theatrical line. A company of Greek
actors, under the name of the "Menandros,"
stopped there, while on tour, and played
tragedy IN i've acts, entitled "Ga. athea," and
q one act farce: both 10 the Greek tongue
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was given a
few weeks ago in Milan, and for the first time,
as tits believed, before any Italian audience.
The impression caused on the other side of the
Alps by this lightly work is said to have been
wonderful. The Italians applauded it most
vociferously and were almost for demanding
complete encore.
Prince George of Prussia is trying to have
his drama, "Bianca Capello," acted In various
italian cities. But he does not meet with very
much success in his efforts. This is not to be
wondered at, for at least thirty authors have
written plays on the same subject, and not one
of them has succeeded. In fact, the romantic
was all removed tar from Bianco Capello,
when it was discovered that she was not po-
soned by Cardinal Fernando, but died from
eating too many mushrooms
Mr. james Whistler, the distinguished art.
ist-an American of long residence in EGG
land-has very curious art theories. He is
quoted as insisting that as N usc il the poetry
@ sound, so is painting the poetry of sight;
and hat the subject-matter has nothing to do
with harmony Of sound or of color. "The
great musicians knew this he urges. "Beeth-
oven and the ret wrote musio~-simpIy music;
symphony in this key, concerto or sonata in
that. On f and G they constructed celestial
harmonies-as harmones, as combinations,
evolved from the chords of or G ard their
minor correlatives. This is pure music, as dis
tiDguished from airs-commonplace and vul-
gar in themselves, but interesting from their
associations, as for instance, Yankee Doodle
or 'Partant pour la Syrie.' Art should be in
dependent of all claptrap-3hould stand alone
and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear,
without confounding this with emotions entire-
ly foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriot
ism and the like. All these have no KIDD of
concern with art; and that is by insist on
calling my works arrangements and harmones
There, hanging opposite my bed, is the picture
of my mother, exhibited at the Royal Acade-
my as an Arrangement in Gray and Black
Now that is what it is. To me it is interesting
as picture of my mother; but what can or
ought the public to care about the identity of
the portrait? IL m 1st stand or fall on its mer-
its as an arrangement; ard livery nearly fell
that's fact" Mr.. Whistler was Maryander
and still in his English life preserves some of
his American tastes 1t is said of him 10 regard
to his pleasant Sunday breakfasts that, "the
most courteous and vivaci0us of men, be is only
dogmatist on one subject-he insists on his
guests eating buckwheat cakes"
Mr.. Julian Hawthorne in lettsr to the N.
Y. Tribune crticises Mr.. Burne-Jones's odd
picture now on exhibition in London as follows:
"The great Burne-J ones's mystery having once
been revealed, awe is beginning to deteriorate
into criticism, and that again into irreverence.
cannot conceive of man owning any appel
laton less eccentric than Mr.. Jones's, painting
such work as that called sPerseus and the
Graia.' We have heard of apples of gold in
pictures Of silver, and perhaps spsculated as to
how they looked there; but when we behold a
man in brass cloak and three ladies in tin
gowns. we shall be ready humbly to accept any
thing Whether the metal is laid on the pic
ture, or whether, as seems more probable, the
picture is engraved and painted on the metal,
know not. neither do care; but the effect is
little less than petrifying. The three Graia,
bereft of their single eye, are cropping grevously
about in their tin drapsry; while the brazen
robber is slyly making his escape out of the
midst Of them with the eye (which, according
to Mr.. Burne-Jones, is nothing more than a |
round brass button brightly polished by use) |
grssped firmly between his felonous thumb |
and finger. Unless the Graise were deaf as |
we'll as blind PerseuS must have found infinite |
dific ilty in subduing the rattle of his metallic |
drapery sufficiently to conceal his whereabouts.
Let it be distinctly understood that this tin and |
brass is by no means mere sllvering and gliding |
it is solid, massive metal, laid on in thick |
plates, and violently carved into folds; against |
such garments the bullet of an ordinary army |
revolver would fatten harmlessly. Now, a
single picture such as this might, one would
think, be allowed to stand alone, naonunaep.
tuno 9re perenniuS of the genius and unconven-
tiOnality of the accomplished artist. But Mr.
Burne Jones's genius would appear quite insa-
table. Perseus and the Graa, we are ruth
lsssly informed by the catalogue, is the first of
a series intended to illustrate the story of Per-
seus. How well the head of Medusa will look,
w Wicn hci on"hy ioChe ueatou III pure pfdsS, uttO
reEieuoi she will be Gorgon indeed. This is
really Very awful project of Mr.. Jones's.
Does he paint his pictures in a backsmlth's
shop, with an anvil for palette aud hammer
for brush? Will no member of the Philan-
thropic Society intercede with him? And if he
still remained unmaleable, might we not be
justified in dealing with him as his name sng-
yests? Sarely it would be no more than SAT-
sfactiOn of common justice to burn Jones at
me stake as hereto to the religion of art
which he processes.