St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-06
SAINT PAUL.
LOCAL MUSICAL CRITICISM.

Dramatic criticism is profession. In
It there are some critics who, as pro-
found students of musical technique
md effect, are competent to pass upon
The performances of men and women
whose lives have been spent in devotion
10 their art, and some who, with the
possession of a few stock technical
phrases. damn performer whose work
merits the consideration or an artistic
mind, or praise the blatant yawping of
The VerieSt hummer to the skies. mat
all men assigned to criticise musical
performances by newspapers are not
competent to do the work is not sur
prising, in that the critic is often an
authority on dOg-ighting ethics IN
more direct sense than any binding him
70 musical matters.
NIX
st. Paul has some few musical critics
worthy the name. They are worthy,
not perhaps because of any deep knowl-
edge of the art, but because they do not
affect to know that which they know
not. The reverse must have been the
order of ability possessed by the alleged
critic who recently remarked anent the
Jose of Herr Schultz, of the Bostonians,
hat .an otherwise symmetrical per-
Torrance was marred'' by that gentle
mans appearance in the part. The
same writer refers to Mr.. Schultz as
''out of his element in any role calling
either for good singing or good acting.
Apart from a few forced notes his voice
is insipid and colorless, and his ideas OF
dramatic effect correspond closely with
MS vocal equipment"
1t is very much to be doubted whether
there could, on a diligent search, be
found one single competent judge to
agree with the sentiments quoted. 1t
has been the tendency of the present
generation to elevate English opera.
The effort is laudable, and one from
which the best results may be expected,
get it must be asked, where did we get
our music if not from foreign countries?
Where our singers, if not from the
same source? Italy has sent over to
America her score of singers, and all
have been praised, because they
represented the sweet Bel CantO.
German singers, on the contrary, meet
with only divided success. If they sing
German and German only they are APP
plauded as German artists, but let them
attempt to direct their ambition toward
the English stage, and woe to them.
Then they "marr the performances, y"
''are out of their element, "'can neither
sing nor act"
Now, where is the justice of this so
called criticism? To recognize the hard
painstaking struggle with a foreign
accent would be only just. but then
about the acting: Is German acting
different from English, or, for that mat
ter, German singing from English? he
who knows will answer that neither is
different. MIR. Schultz as Don Jose in
Carmen" had studied the part on short
notice; it was his second performance.
In robin Hood" he was heard by the
writer, and he exhibited wonderful
facility for surmounting the difficulties
of the unused English accent. AS an
actor he need only refer to the career
which took him from Hamburg to Ber-
lin. where he created the ''Beggar Stu
dent' and created such a furore in the
part that ii will be forever identified
with him and, in fact, it was written for
him. Or, he may look back to the the
alter au der Wien, in Vienna, where
Johann Strauss wrote his Gypsy
BarOn' for him. Schultz has played in
over 100 operas in Germany, was
for eight years the favorite at Amberg's
theater, and English critics in Boston.
Chicago, San Francisco, and others of
prominence, have united in praise of
his magnificent tenor. Schultz makes
initial appearance before a st. Paul
critic in heavy Carmen" and is found
''insipid." Did the critic hear the
duette in act four, the grand finale?
And if so, where and when did he hear
it sung with more fervOr, more verve,
dramatic power and stupendous effect
than by Schultz at the Metropolitan
%N*
Just criticism. let it be hoped, is not
entirely dead. But one fault can be
found with Schultz as singer-as an
actor, none. His defect is in his dia-
Iect, his voice is magnificent one. This
man is the hardest student of English
accent in America. Since his marriage
to the daughter of a New York COM
poser, his wife has sat UP night after
night teaching the desired infection.
Schutz's progress towards the acquisi-
ton of pure accent has since his mar
riage been positively marvellous. He is
bound to succeed, and, in the mean
time, let his critics judge him as vo-
calist and an actor, rather than as
ilnguiSt.
Reihlen Champagne.