The herald., 1896-08-23
\ MUSICAL COLUMN !
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

4 |
The great success which attended Mr.
, c. S. CornelPs management of the musi-
, cal features of the Long Beach Chautau.
> qua has inspired the board to more pre-
tentious effort for next years program
, A sum of $1150 has been voted to carry
out program as sketched out by Mr.
Cornell There is to be a regular musical
festival, consisting of four grand con-
!, certs. The first is to be miscellaneous
, one given by all the artists; the second
will be CARROTS Festival Cantata and
a miscellaneous part; the third will be
on the last afternoon, called q symphony
concert. by an orchestra of thirty men,
. at which time Beethoven's fifth SYM
phony and Schubert's unfinished sym
phony will be given. The last grand con-
cert will be the oratorio of Mendels-
sohn's Elijah. Mr.. Cornell has already
his eyes upon those artists whom he
hopes to engage, as Geneva Clark Will
son of Chicago, soprano; Miss Wilder of
Boston, contralto; George Parker of
Boston, tenor. and Adams Owens, for
mer basso of the Royal English Opera
company, London, now of Denver, and
an orchestra of twenty pieces.
Those who prominently contributed
to the success of the music at the late
Chautauqua were, first and foremost,
Mr.. c. s. Cornell. director; the Dudley
Buck Concert club, the Ladies' quartet,
MISS Mollie Adelia Brown, soprano; Mrs
Edith Brown Young, contralto j. H.
Einck. tenor, Arnold Krauss, violinist
! and Theodore Martens. pianist The
chorus. one of the finest ever organized
in southern California, numbered 142
singers.
The sad and sudden death of poor Flo
ra Ffnlayson is deeply deplored by her
many friends on the coast A most prom,
lsing life has been cut short. Her i'll
| ness gave our own sweet young contral-
to, Miss Bernice Holmes, her first big op-
poftunlty. At very short notice the part
OF A2ucena in II Trovatore was taken by
Miss Holmes on Monday night at the
IlVoli in san Francisco, and she won
universal plaudits. The Examiner said
OF MISS Holmes performance: "She may
be congratulated on having scored a
DECIDED success. 1t is the first oppor-
tunity she has had of appearing in
really dramatic role, but she proved
1ully equal to the occasion, not only as
singer, but also as an actress" Miss
Holmes. successful progress will be
Watched by her many friends here with
Tue greatest interest and qualification
The Bayreuth performances terminat-
ed July %, having been entirely sue
cessful. They commenced on the 10Th
with Das Rheingold. A fanfare of trum-
pets assemblies the public in the hall
with short and incisive blare, which
forms the motive of Donner, the god of
.he elements. A second blast is sounded
intended to stimulate the laggards. hut
there are none; every one is in place
silently seated, and little shiver, which
always precedes great expectations. runs
through the audience. 1t is night. the
certaln opens, and one sees the bottom
ol tne Rneln, with three nymphs SWIM
ming and singing their rhythmic chant
Inc light is perfect and the movements
OF the swimmers managed in such a
manner as to produce the most com
plete Illusion The voices are beautiful
ana harmonious the gnome, Alberich
Iepnes TO them with rude energy, and
this is the first scene which Introduces
the audience into the middle of the mys-
tery T. which the work is enve.opse for
TOUR days. July 20, Die Wallure The |
scenes in this piece are perhaps the most
.ouching and exciting of the whole play.
lney represent the loves of Seigmund |
ard Sieglinde, and the punishment of
Brunhilde. July 81. siegfried. This is
the bit of comedy which lightens the
Whole work. 1t is a streak of light across
the middle of the most tragic drama
II IS IN the immense four days SYM
rung. The free ard exuberans nature of
the hero gives to the first act an extra
ordinary life and animation The second
act is scene of marvellous poetry. to
which the music lends the most subtle
elements of color ,and the most varied.
Occasionally the mighty figure Of Wo-
tan, the traveller the god, conscious of
his undoing and knowing that the end
of the gods approaches, passes with a
sad and melancholy grandeur across the
scene. But above all. in the last act,
where the human element retakes its
supremacy, the music acquires an in
credible richness and power; nothing
could be more warm, more vibrant, more
passionate than this long duet of love
this call to the light the joy Of living,
where the most ardent melodies, with
an infinite variety. take turn and turn
between the voices and the orchestra,
and achieve, In a fanfare Of triumph
a passion almost savage in its intensity
July Fl. Gotterdaemmerung. On this,
the last day, is resumed the tragic SEN
timent which dominates the work, less
mythical, however, since the gods no
longer appear as acting persons, and the
principal actors of the drama belong to
an epoch less distant from our own, al
ready historical. The music and the
dramatic form are modified, and the
second act approaches in many ways
the usual style of opera. There are cho-
ruses, ensembles, professions, all of
which have been entirely absent on the
other days. The privaton was not felt
in fact the second act was far from
leaving the best impressions. But the
entire third act is sublime chef d'oeu-
Vre, and attains at the end to the high
est summit which it has ever been given
TO human mind to reach. First, the
ravishing tahleau of the daughters of
the Rhein, so different from the first day
-suniFht. clear delicate anG harmoni.
Gus; then Siegfried's recital, afterward
his death; then that sublime scene, the
! death of Brunhilde, by which is achieved
the fall OF Walhalla. At the end the mu-
| sic resumes, with astonishing clearness.
| the whole idea of the work. the three
motifs-of the gods, of the heroes. and
| hnally of human love, which henceforth
should be the sovereign ruler.-Le Me-
| restrel
Leoncavallo's criminal and degener-
I ate opera, I Pagliacci, has reached its
hundredth performance at Berlin, where
the willy William II once ''boomed" this
composer for political reasons. He is
now at work in his villa at Lake Mag
glore writing an opera to be called La