Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-07-11
Our Most Musical CITY.

creole woman 10 the mikman who was
pouring pennyworth of milk from Dip
per into her pitcher. He was milkman
such as you may see only in New Orleans;
or rather, such was his peripatetic shop
his wagon.
"Ah, yes, Sigovd; that's good" said
he-"tra la la, la la la, tra-a-la.la," and
singing aloud, he ratified away in his cart.
"That wasn't from Sig,rd-what he
sings now," SAID colored servant.woman
in red bandanna turban, nodding to the
poor wife who had bought the milk.
"Yes, it was too" said the wife, vehem-
emily; it was that thing Hagen sings
where-don't you know-lum-te-tum Ia
la oh la.la.la-la-don't you remember ?"
"Ob, certainement," said the,negress.
Sigwdi Sigudr The name seemed to
J fit from tongue to tongue all over the
city. "Ah, well" said the best barber in
Royale Street as soon as he had tucked
his first customer into the chair, eve get
Sigurd tonight, helm ?" 1t was so at the
watchmaker's in the next block to the
French Opera-house. 81 can't wait for
tonight" said the skillful and prosper.
GUS mechanic "I'm on in the chorus in
/ Sigurd" He said this to customer and
not TO any of his neighbors, because the
best and most of his neighbors were in
the same situation. The bartender in the
old wine shop, the grocer on the corner,
the clerk to the pawnbroker, the proprie-
tor of the restaurant-all were in the
chorus Of the opera. And at least half
dozen of the women either in the shops
or above in the tenements were chorus
girls or dancers or fgurantes. However,
that did not prevent them talking about
Sigurd, and they did all talk Of it and
sing snatches from it. 1t was queer how
far and deep the subject reached. You
would have thought so had you, like me,
seen a halfgrown nurse-girl shaking
girl Of ten, in her charge, because the
child sung Brunnehilde's waking song
little out of tune in one place. In the
old French part of the town the theme
lasted so long at dinner the proprietor of
the busiest of the creole restaurants called
out to his walters: "Hurry up! d!
They will all be late for the overture to
Sigurd :" And very great creole
dandy, well known to all New Orleans
one who had been to Baireuth to hear
Parsital, and since then had affected
small regard for French opera, called out,
"Right m'sieur d, we shall all be
late"
"Ohol YOU" said the caterer; 81
thought you did not care for our opera
Francais ?"
"Oh," said the dandy, with an inde-
scribable shrug, "but then Sigud-it is
different, n'est.ce pas ?"
II was not much different across Canal
Street in the American town; everybody
mentioned the opera TO everybody else
Up to the beautiful garden district where
the house galleries hang over golden or
ange trees and ruddy bushes Of the Cher
okee rose, and where all is open and sun
ny and free as everything is closed and
shadowed and damp in the creole quarter
up there the servants asked the mis-
tresses if they might go to the opera, and
the mistresses, full of the thought them
selves, nearly all arrange to let them
90. am writing Of this as if il we're
strange-as it is to me-but it is not
strange in New Orleans. There is a
little extra ripple of the general interest
in the opera because Sigurd was to be
PLAYED, but otherwise the excitement was
not irregular. 1t recurs daily every year
between autumn and the spring.
There may be in France or Belgium or
Italy something like this concentration Of
a city's interest in grand opera, but there
is no parallel for it in America, / am GER
tain. Grand opera has always been COM
mon to all New Orleans. Think of IL
II costs only ten cents to hear Sigurd,
Reyer's magnificent Wagnerian master
piece. And though it has not yet been
heard in New York | heard it in New
Orleans two years ago, and it is now in
the third year of its success there. They
have sung Samson and DelilqL and f.
clqrmonde there already-ahead Of us in
New York. All the people know the
music of these operas-know it as they
know the music Of all the operas that
are performed in Europe-well enough
to hum and sing and whistle it. II is the
creole element in particular that is so
proficient and that so loves music, and
yet the opera is guaranteed and managed
by Americans and French together, and
one hears as much talk of it in the Bos-