Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-11-27
BETWEEN OURSELVES.

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throng.
Heaves the proud songstress her distended
breath.
In intricacies of laborious song
Now Samuel, this disdainfully candid
bard wouldn't have appreciated our re-
cent "high toned" concerts worth cent
not to speak of two dollars. at all.
So what's the use of quoting him?
He'd have taken the money for opium,
and dreamed of Kubla Khan in Xanadu
and his stately palace. But these italian
concerts weren't an institution for max
ing money easily in the provinces, at
rates which in cities-''musical centres
so called, would have entitled listeners
to whole opera of delectable music,
rendered in voice and dramatic action by
artists equal to the work.
Instead we sean the programmes,
so common place and hackneyed as
to be amusing, if they were not
an affront to musical intelligence which
collectively in the opera house has out
grown the ''sample" period in artistic ex-
cellence and fullness, just like its metro
polltan predecessors-and contempora-
ries.
There is story told of the late Baron
James de Rothschild, that when he had
Napoleon III. as guest at La Eerriere,
there was parrot disguised as part
ridge which tumbled to the imperial gun,
crying "Vive y Empereur!" Audiences,
as amatter of course, are too good natured
and quiescent, and readily fall in with
the 6racas and 6rapos Of past glory.
But after all, it is most likely to be the
parrot saluting US.
Then applause becomes waste of It's
sue and two dollars besides.
There is Brignoli, who might answer
passably well IN opera with Emma Alb
bolt as prima donna, Notwithstanding
that he is queer reminder to
a couple of generations, that he was a
tenor of surprising sweetness and skill.
And now, look at him, with his hideous,
toothless old mug, his baggy, wrinkled
old eyelids, his hawking and throat-clear-
ing, bawling out the tones he can trust
himself with, and his ridiculous old
pianassina0 where there is no voice left
Singing, too, of anaore, and delire, and
dozore just the same as in that sweet old
time when there wasn't such CHASTITY
discrepancy between himself and his
numbers, and he had q voice. Now the
discrepancy is worse than it would be in
opera, because, when he is voicing cru
dele, sorte, tradita, ETC., as tearing words
to express his emotions, there is nothing
in his appearance that justiies it. His
black clothes fit him irreproachably, his
linen is warranty Of the laundress' ex-
cellence, and his whole manner
is subdued to his sine
cure. His bits of Italian
opera given with an unimpaired phras-
ing and method, his grotesque English
concessions in popular songs" his man
ner compounded of original awkwardness,
and ungraciousness are getting to be I'M
pleasantly frequent in high-priced and
far fetched musical entertainments
1t might be well to think about SUBJ
scription or pension for him which would
enable him to spend the remainder of his
life within easy access of Morettl's Ntal-
ian restaurant in New York, corner of
Fourteenth street and Third avenue,
where he could eat his weight in maca-
roni each day, as biography AYERS is his
wont.
Iwonder what the getters-up of concert
tours are thinking about when they get
out Brignoi as an attraction. Is it q
practical joke at his expense, or at ours?
Even as joke it has ceased to be
funny. and while the venerable
tenor is paid, his audiences are
sold, and tacitly given to understand that
he is good enough for the country towns
like st. Paul, which can show a lot of
the finest musicians in the United States
more IN proportion to its population
than any western town.
AS for the fair and plump cancatrice,
she was good enough, but nothing ap
preaching the standard of extraordinary
excellence which the newspapers have
given her. Years ago when she appeared
in opera, her merits were patent. Her
voice was fresh, elastic, and smooth, and
her acting vivacious and arch. But con-
slant use has told upon her singing, and
what was erewhile spontaneous, is labor
ed. To see her trill is unpleasant. be-.
cause like each one of Conkling's
speeches, it appears to be "the
greatest effort of her life. And,
alas, the flirty little ways
of girlhood are scarcely suitable
for so much ripeness and avoirdupois.
Her stage manner in concert is decidedly
vulgar in buxom familiarity with her au
dience right and left. Her very stand is
that of a huckster, and her backward
kick at that jerky train was SO animal
esque as to suggest fy-time. 1t wasn't
artistic enough for the cancan nor grace
full enough for opera bouffe-nor,
What's the use of your writing all
this, says Mrs. Harris, when those "large
and refined audiences (see daily papers)
kept calling, and recalling the high