The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-20

|
made easy-had risen up to bring glory to the
! fatherland. Within year from its production
| at Munich "Hansel and Gretel" had been per-
! formed successfully on over seventy different
stages. Then 1t went to England, and the crit
les scoffed at it beforehand saying that fairy
operas might please in Germany and Austria,
but that English audiences were not unsophis
| Ecated enough to take interest in the ad-
| ventures OF prima donna who gets lost in
wood and eats slabs out of house built of
| gingerbread. In spite of these predictions
"Hansel and Gretel took like wildfre in Lon
| don, and it has now passed its hundredth per-
| formance with no sign of diminution in popu-
larity. "Hansel and Greter" is to be produced
| in New York in the autumn.
| The topic of the relation of music to medi-
| cine and healing opera tions has been revived
! by Professor Taechanof of ST. Petersburg, who
has been investigating its physical effects as
| illustrated on the bodies OF certain subjects.
| He states that after artifcially inducing
| fatigue in the ingers-that is, muscular
| fatigue-music exercised stimulating infu-
| ence, and tended to cause the fatigue to disap-
| pear. This was music OF a lively kind. When
| the strains were of sad nature, the opposite
| result-that of depression of the muscular
| powers-was noted. But the Russian professor
| has gone little further in his inquiries into
T..
| claim to having proved that on dogs the out
| put of carbonlc acid was increased by music by
| over 16 per cent, and the absorption of oxygen
| by over 20 per cent. This means increased ac-
| tivity of the organism, of course, and is a /
strange result, for the dog, as often as not OBJ
| jected in very decided manner to music
! The increased vital activity, in his case, may
| have been the result of irritation.
| 10 Holz, the new manager OF the Water Car
nival, Is full OF plans for converting the build
| ing at the corner of Eddy and Mason streets
| into an opera-hOuse. at is strange" he said,
| yesterday, surveying the rows of empty
| benches. "that no one has ever thought of this
place in connection with grand opera, They
have discussed the Grand Opera house, which
they cannot get and the Mechanics Pavilion.
which it would take a fortune to fit up. This
building has a bigger seating capacity than
Moroseo's, and it would not take an enormous
| amount OF money to put in a roof for the
acoustics, and erect stage. We are going to
have the stage built anyway, for it is our in
tention to produce comic opera here ina few
weeks. While the changes are being made
shall write to 10 Redding and the others inter
ested in bringing out the Abbey, Schoeffel and
Grau company, and Walter Damrosch's Ger
man opera company, to see if we cannot ar
| range to have this building used for grand
opera"
company next season continues to be contra
dictory, but it seems to be settled that Calve
will come back and will sing much more ex-
tended repertory than before, including
"Aida,' Valentine in the "Huguenots," "La
Navarraise" by Massenet, and probably Boito's
"Mephistophee." Both the De Reszkes and
Plancon are re-engaged, but neither Maurel
nor Tamagno. If "Falstaf" is played it will
be because David Bisham, an American who
has been singing it in London, is brought over.
Sembrich, who is said to have recovered her
voice, will come Nothing is heard about the
return of either Eames or Nordica. The latter
is probably holding off, as she did last season,
for her own terms.
Mile. Cecile Gluck, a great-granddaughter of
the famous composer, has just been sentenced
in Paris to two years imprisonment for steal !
ing jacket. The sentence has been RENTED |
however, in accordance with the Beringer law |
in other words, because it is first offense |
secondly, because the evidence showed con- |
clusively that it was sheer poverty which drove |
Mile. Cecile Gluck to the commission of the |
theft and the casting of a slur upon her his |
torical name. Mile. Gluck is a governess and |
she has vainly sought for employment 1t is |
115 years since Gluck retired from Paris to |
Vienna comparatively wealthy man, but two |
months ago the enthusiasm OF the French for |
his works was revived by the performance of !
the Temple scene from his "Alceste" at the |
Conservatory.
The Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden |
Theater, in London, this season. is reviying the |
glory of the days when Grisi, Mario, Patti or |
Nilsson were reigning favorites ONLY one of |
that brilliant group remains-Adelina Patti |
who returns to the scene of her former
triumphs this month. The names of Melba t
Calve. MacIntyre, Tamagno the De Reszkes |
Plancon, etc. show that Sir Augustus Harris
has swept Europe to secure talent. Night after
night Covent Garden Theater is gay with |
lovely costumes and glittering diamonds. and |
night after night old favorites like "n Trovs |
tore" "Faust' and Carmen are sung tn !
crowded audiences. Royalty has honored tba |
opera, as in the early days of Queen Victoria,s |
reign, Win It's attendance and all sections Of |
society are represented in the great theater.
There has been quite a little passage of arms
In Italy between Leoncavallo and Mascagni.
IL appears 10 nave leaked out that the author
OF an anonymous article recently published in
Italian papers charging the composer of the
"Cavalleria Rusticana' with quite number of
appropriations" from other composers in his
dlHerent operas was no other than Leoncayallo
hlmseli. Mescngni thereupon with caustic
hunor retorted that he was a. present labori-
ously engaged in compiling little pamphlet
VI most moderate proportions setting forth in
detail the lew numbers contained in Leoncay-
allo' operas which had mot been appropriated.
Another posthumous opera by Smetana, the
bohemian composer who wrote 1.-THE Battered
brioe' mas just been produced in Mannheim.
the herman adaptation of the libretto being by
herr kalbeck. The work, which is in three
| acts, Is entitled "Dalibor." 1t was well sung