The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-01-24

her artistic career, seems to be putting girdle
around the earth. With the exception of Asia,
his operas are at present winning applause in
the four quarters of the globe New York has
Just had an opportunity of admiring his
s'Manon," in which Miss Sibyl Sanderson's art
triumphs over her small voice. simultaneously
with the performance of "Manon," Massenets
ala Navarraise" was creating Juror at Ham,
burg, at Nuremberg, and in several of the larger
towns in France; at Naples his ''Werther" was
arousing the enthusiasm of the critical public,
while at Breslau, Germany, and Cairo, in
Egypt his "Hirodiade" was proving the at
traction of the hour.
In these days of grand old men Massenet is
comparatively youth, as he was born in 1912.
His life of study and hard work seems to have
combined with the feverish agitations of an ar
tistie career to make him look an old man. how
ever. Massenet has not always known prosper
ity, for his opera "Don Cesar de Bazan," which
was written in all the ferver of youth, proved a
grand failure To eounterbalance this how
ever he has long list of such triumphs as
"Manon," "The King of Lahore" ''The Cid"
"Esclarmonde" lin which Sibyl Sanderson
made her debut, "Werther," "Manon's Por-
trait and last, but not least, ''La Navarraise,"
which was first produced last August.
The following anecdote is told of Chabier,
French composer of the modern school, who
died recently, and whose works will probably be
much better known ten years hence than they
are to-day: Chabiers operas, "King, in Spite
of Himself" and "Gwendoline," were pro-
duced at Carlsruhe before being heard in Paris
Chabier spent several weeks in the capital of
Baden to assist in the production of his two
operas, and he noticed with regret that the
orchestra did not play the score of "Gwendo-
line" with enough fire and fury. Not liking to
make suggestions to the phalanx OF artists
whom he admired so much, the French COM
poser stole the conductors score one night, and
after working on it for some hours put it
quietly back on the desk. The conductor was
stupefed when he opened his book just before
rehearsal. The score was adorned with num-
Der of blue-pencil annotations in an enormous
handwriting, and everywhere were written the
words @Make it brutal" The keynote was
given, and after that the strings wed with
the brass in fire and fury.
Reginald de Koven, the composer of "Robin
Hood" and 'fRob Roy seems to take gloomy
view of the musical situation. sWhere can one
look for novelty?" he asks ais there any? The
output of music to-day in Italy and France is
enormous, and yet in America we hear practi-
cally nothing of it. We might not like it if we
did. Possibly Sir Gore Ousley was right, in
certain sense at least, when he declared some
years ago that music was dead art. Frankly,
looking over the musical field at the present
day, we can hardly help feeling dubious and
questioning with regard to the musical future.
The great composers die off without leaving
followers and successors, and we continue to
attend our concerts and listen to the same
round of well-known classics, and often regret
q novelty when we hear it." Can it be that
Reginald was prompted to pen the above
respondent words by the fact that the critics
ruthlessly accuse him of going to other COM
posers for the novelties" that he puts into his
own operas.
Felix Motif, the great Carlsruhe conductor
who is considered almost matchless as an in
terpreter of Berlioz and Wagner, has Just de-
clared, in an interview for lie Temps. that
"Cavalleria Rustieana" is vulgar. 'sThe French
public" he said, Judged the work correctly
when it first came out. In Germany il was
overrated, but our public is beginning now to
see that the Parisians were right in not admir-
ing Mascagni's opera" Motif is not at all en-
thusiastic about any of the young composers
even of his own nation. sit seems' he said tn
the interviewer. ''as if Wagner had absorbed
all the musical genius of GERMANY. unless
Humperdink, the Frankfort professor who hos
composed the charming score OF sHansel and
Gretel,' lives up to the promise of his first
work.
LIE Monde Illustre has been severely criti
Ching the management of the Grand Opera
house at Paris for the advertising on the pro-
grammes when the thousandth performance of
Faust" was given. "Why,o it asks, neiid they
not change Marguerite's spinning-wheel for a
sewlng-machine bearing the trademark of
some well-known firm? That would not have
been more inartistic than seeing oppositethe
nonored name OF Gounod and the title of his
great work the address of the best corset-maker
and the most effcacious remedy for asthma"
Sunday musical performances are becoming
very popular in England. They are virtually
concerts. as the entertainment generally con-
slsts OF vocal selections, string and wind quar-