Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-06-02

head bordered by thick curls. His man
ner was marked by extreme courtesy
and consideration for others. When re-
hearsing his operas he was, unlike most
of the maestros, never known to lose his
temper. :,
my dear MASTER he would say, with
the utmost gentleness, to some num- pie
member of the orchestra, will you Tor
give me? but l think you we're little IN
error in the phrasing of that last pas
sage
"Meyerbeer died in 1864 at hotel in
in the Champs Elysees, which hotel after
his death took his name. he died at
O'Clock in the morning, in the arms OF
| Louis and Gemmy Brandus. Louis
Brandus was Meyerbeer's executor, and
took the body back on special tram TO
Berlin. where Meyerbeer had held the
official position of Director General OF
Music to His Majesty the King OF Prus-
STA. 1t is buried there. =,
''Flotow, the composer OF Martha, used
to dye his hair and moustache to
yery deep and glossy black. Upon one
occasion he was taken sick and was con-
fined to his bed for some time. One fine
afternoon an old man with long white
beard presented himself at the thester.
The doorkeeper did not know him and
refused to admit him. 1t turned out to
be Flotow, who had allowed his beard to
grow during his illness, and, not being
accustomed to beard, had forgotten to
dive it, 1t contrasted very strongly with
| the dyed moustache and hair. He was
then over so years of age. His visiting
cards were inscribed Baron Won Flotow.
1.-THE last opera composed by Flotow
was L'Ombre, three-act opera, with
only two male and two female parts, and
no chorus. The only composition OF the
kind exactly similar to 1t is Halevy's
lL'Eclair. L'Ombre was produced in Paris
in 1870, and was a magnificent success.
Its production was brought to an I'M
timely close by the outbreak of the
Franco russian war.
"Just few days before L'Ombre was
produced Berlioz died. Berlioz, pre-
sumably, was quite peculiar character;
He had a very yellow skin, suffered
fortunes from dyspepsia, and seemed
ALWAYS at.war with himself and the rest
of mankind. He might well be described
as the mathematician of music. Strange
to say, he did not know how to play the
piano until he was more than thirty
years old.
"His works never achieved any great
fame during his lifetime, but were
brought into popularity after his death
through the efforts of Colonne, we'll
known musical director, who occupies IN
Paris much the same position that Theo-
dore Thomas does here.
"Berlioz was very hard critic OF
brother composers. In 1859, when Gou-
mods Faust was first produced at the
Theater Lyrique, Berlioz sat in the stall
next to my father.
"I hope, my dear Brandus,' he said
to him at the close OF the performance,
that you are not going to publish cette
cochonnerie la! There is absolutely moth
ing to it but that chorus OF soldiers, and
even that suggests mountebank music.
"My father did not agree with him,
but he did not publish Faust, although 1t
was offered to him, because he did not
care to invoke the jealous wrath OF
Meyerbeer, whose Dinordh he was just
then making arrangements to publish.
"The copyright of Faust for all coun-
tries was finally bought by Choudens,
| who paid for it $4,000 francs-about
S3 900. Since 1859 Choudens has never
earned less than that amount yearly or
this opera, and selections from it were
never more popular than they are to-day
at is a strange fact that nearly all o
the well-known composers were thin, bu
the thinnest of them all was Ofenbach
who was simply walking skeleton. A
pretty high opinion of himself always had
Offenbach.
"'You were born in Bonn, were you
not p asked an acquaintance OF him one
day.
"'No, no. was the reply, 4 was borr
in Cologne. You are thinking o
Beethoven. Please don't get me mixe(
. up with him.
"Offenbach was a terrible gambler
and used to lose everything he possessed
at the tables at Monte Carlo. When HI
died he left nothing but his copyrights
"Ofenbach used to write music will
: great fluency, often knocking off an or
chestration in the midst of roomful o
people. He was very quick and impa
: tient in his movements, and the brie
notes received from him by his friend
we're labor OF difficulty to decipher.
Great, however, as was the success
won by La Grande Duchesse, this success
cannot compare with that of La File d
Nine. Anqot, by Lecocq, which was frs
produced in Brussels in 1872, and subse
quently at the Folies Dramatiques, il
Paris, in February, 1873, and ran 56'
consecutive nights.
"Lecocq ia a self-made man He il
lame, one of his feet being bent up unde
him, and he uses crutches. He wal
originally a piano teacher, and for year,
had hard time getting along. His frs
com poBition which attracted any atten
ton was written in 1868, and was emit
tied FIeur de The. 1t was first produced
} at the Theatre de PAthenee. This piece
has become known in this country under
the title of The Pearl of Pekin. Lecocc
made a clean million francs out OF LC
File de Nine. Angot
"'The Conspirators' Chorus" in LC
File de Nine. Angot opens very much
like The Students Waltz of Strauss
but this similarity very often occurs in
music without any plagiarism whatever
on the part of the composer. | can cite
a very curious instance OF this. Two
years before Donizetti's Lucia di Lam
naermoor had been produced, Meyerbeel
left a trunk containing a quantity Of
partially-completed scores in the care o.
nv father. Some time after Lucia had
been played this trunk WAS opened by
Meyerbeer, who sat down at the piano
and began playing over some OF his old
scores, which he had not paid any atten-
ton to in years.
'To the surprise of all present, one OF
these scores was practically duplication