Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-10
THE MUSIC WORLD.
Opera in the Vernacular Surely Com
ing in the Near Future.
BOSTONIAES' OPERATIC SCHOOL.
Personal Chat About Scharwenka, Who
Will Make a Concert Tour,
NEWS ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST

The cause of opera in the vernacular i!
making decided progress. This is en-
phatically as it should be; opera sung in 6
foreign tongue is thing more lame and
Illogical than Salvini's polyglot ''Othello. u
People naturally want to understand what
they look at and listen to. Because comic
opera is sung in English and care is taken
that the audience shall understand the dia.
logue, is a great part of the reason for its
popularity. There is no reason why serious
opera, if put in a comprehensive tongue,
should not enjoy, as compared to comic
opera, the same relative popularity that Sc
rious drama enjoys as compared to farce and
comedy.
And for once it is genuine case of ro1
populi, Tor del. The voice of the gods
agrees most heartily. One of Wagner's
cardinal principles-and, as the writer of
his cwn text, one of his greatest achieve
ments-was to make the libretto in itself a
dramatic poem of equal value with the
music embodying it or the action and mise
en- scene illustrating it. The central idea of
the modern opera, Wagnerian and other
VI
the focusing of all the means of artistic ex-
preston upon the dramatic ideas and situa-
tions as they develop in the plot.
In this process words are a prime necessl-
ty in presenting the concrete, definite idea
which is the starting point and the rallying
point for the host of feelings and sensations
more or less indefinite, which the music and
the stage accessories so powerfully super
add. Opera without words-or with unintel-
lgible words-is of but little more use in
conveying definite, concrete ideas than is in
strumental music. 1t is simply PRO
gramme music" with pantomimic and pano-
ramic programme-even less satisfactory,
because more tantalizi1g than the printed
''programme"of symphonic poem of Ber-
lioz or List.
x*x
1t is curious result of the past condition
OF the market for operate singers that the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York,
which stands as the shrine OF Wagner
worship in America, has been steadily vio-
lating this cardinal principle of the masters
(and, incidentally, doing his works great
injuStice) by using foreign language in all
Its representations. Some of these days.
and that before very long, this anomaly
Will be done away with. The signs of the
times are indubitable
Though the Thurber-Locke National
Opera Company made disastrous fuan-
cial failure, it sowed the seeds among the
people OF a strong demand for grand opera
in English worthily given. Manager Locke,
with his Emma Juch troupe, is reaping the
harvest-on the road, where il is hardest to
garner. Mrs. Thurber herself keeps on with
increasing success at the educational end of
the old scheme, and bids fair to get the Ma
tnrr IF 81 e.
cisl aim of training native opera singers.
established upon truly national basis.
Here, too, is Manager Hammerstein, of
Harlem Opera House, New York, with a
carefully mstured plan for placing opera in
English upon stable and permanent foot
ing in the metropolis. He has engaged as
conductor Mr.. Gustav Hinrichs whose
services in the same cause need no recount
ing; be promises a good ensemble and no
quarter to the star-system, which is the
arch enemy OF good opera, and be purposes
giving special performances in which the
chorus will be recruited from the music
schools, strong pledge for the future.
-
And now, combining the practical and
the educational in one scheme, come Messrs.
Karl, Macdonald and Barnabee and Miss
Marie Stone, with the "Bostonians Operatic
School" and their plan for a regular series
ofoperatie performances in English through
out a season of 20 weeks each year-all to
be housed in Boston Music Hall.
The school will begin operations on Sep
tember 29 next, but owing to previously
made contracts, the first regular operatic
season will begin the first Monday of Octo-
Der, 1891, and contracts have been duly
signed to insure the carrying out of both
these plans. The operatic school will be the
first institution of the kind known in this
country, as its departments will be confined
exclusively to vocal instruction, and the
preparation of students for the operatic and
concert stage. All branches of study essen
tisl to thorough fitting for such public
efforts as fall to the profession of operatic
and concert singers, will be taught at the
Bostonians operatie school, and the propri-
etors, Messrs. Karl, Macdonald and Barna-
bee, pledge themselves to give pupils all the
advantages possible In these lines of study.
Competent pupils will be afforded opportuni-
ties to appear in the operatic productions
which will be made a feature OF each school
year. and all pupils will be advanced as
rapidly as is consistent with their welfare
The arrangements contemplated are all
with view to making the new institution
q thoroughly practical school of instruction,
the graduates of which shall be thoroughly |
fitted for supplying the constantly increas- |
ing demand throughout the country for |
operate artists, capable of singing the stand |
ard works ofthe day, in the vernacular as we'll /
as for English singers for the concert and |
oratorio stages. The managers have ap-
pointed Tom Karl as the resident director
of the school, and he will devote the larger
part of the coming season to the duties of |
the Office.
By the contracts made between the
'Bostonians" and the Music Hall Corpora
tion the hall will, BY or before the 18th of
September next, be fitted with a temporary
mask for the entire stage end of the hall,
which shall, in effect, make the stage that of /
an opera house with an opening "a ieet wide
bv 28 feet in height, the decorations
to be in harmony with those of the
hall, and calculated to heighten the
features of the auditorium. The
81 ''Bostonians" will use the newly arranged
auditorium for two weeks, beginning Sep
tember % next for their opening engage
ment of the season of 1890-91, and then on
the first Monday Of October, 1891, they will
open their first regular season of 20 weeks
at the hall. Arrangements have been
made by which these performances will In
no way interfere with the Symphony con-
certs or rehearsals.
OF course, Xaver Scharwenka's present
visit to America under the auspices of
well-known piano firm, while declared to
be purely for recreation, is in fact
preliminary to a concert tour. 1t is
now announced that he will return
next January to make a prolonged
professional tournee, when all of us can
hear him. Meanwhile he is quite the |
musical lion of the hour in New York. The
is from the last chatty article about
him in the Musical Courier, and will 90
we'll with the biographical sketch and por-