Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-04-08

az i the music Of Rossini and Bellini
md Donizetti and Verdi outgrown by
our advancing taste?
Or acain for who walks with the
questioning sage walks more securely
5aeause the American opera was, in
fact n European opera, and because
tbe singers were largely not Americans,
and because the Incompatible orchestra
and its incompatible leader and direct
~. of the music were OF another than
American birth, was the enterprise mis-
named? When Mr. and Mrs Wood
ma Mr.. Brough sang the Smonambula
in English fifty years ago or when,
later. in Madame Augustus Bayadere,
the Oriental leader of the chorus burst
into Highly accented and dramatically
defiant English
"Happy am ]. from care Pm free.
Who would not be happy as NEE
did the opera and She ballet become
American? No; but on the other hand,
when Nilsson sang Marguerite in Gou-
mods Faust. was the opera less French
because the singer was Il SWcde2
The American opera is the name of q
generous and timely enterprise, which
holds that there is now musical taste,
TALENT audience, opportunity, and re-
sources enough in America to be trained
and fostered rs they are trained and
fostercd in Europe. 1t proposes to teach
singers OF whatever nationality, and to
educate n company capable of singing
any opera. and to sing all operas in En-
plish. 1t holds that there will be always
enough good voices in this country TO
furnish q good representation, and that
with due regard to careful mounting
there can be everything amply provided
here which is provided in any European
capital The American school can not,
indeed, furnish the genius OF COM
poser nor the voice, the noble organ to
interpret his work. No, it can not do
that That is the misfortune of the
American school in the world. At Nj
ian, at Naples, at Paris, the schools
could not confer musical genius nor ere
ate voice But they could give the
one an arena, and they could exquisite
" train the other.
The older schools have the advantage
of tradition also, but that is to say only
that they are older. Their other adj
vantage win beshared by the American
school, and that is one Of its chief prom
ises Every such school is a centre of
musical interest and taste and emulu-
ton 1t generates the atmosphere which
tempts the buds Of musical genius to
flower BY providing for the complete
and adequate Interpretation of operas
it fosters the production of operas, and
meanwhileit prepares the scene and the
singers for the proper representation of
amy GOOD opera wherever produced.
This is the American opera. 1t is u
thoroughly appointed school of opera in
America. and its continuance and pros
pority viii prove whether there is TO be
I'm American music rs there is an Italian
and German music. Our only native
music thus far is the plantation melody.
1t has been modified and Transformed
into the song OF the negro minsrels
But the theme the real motif is rs char
acteristic and uudcniabe as the north
ern songs that Jenny Lind sang
Hawthorne, saying that there was no
romance in America, wrote an Ameri-
can romance which is one of the treas
urcs OF literature. The skcpt.c who, re-
calling the great operas and great sing
ers and great performances, smiles to
hear of American opera, viii one day
smile a thousand times more happily,
when, thanks to those who have
smoothcd the way for its coming, he
hears American opera. - george William
curtis, IN Harpcr's HagazicJ0r March.