Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-02-21
GENERAL MUSICAL NOTES.

ENElAb OIOaL ANO Id.
Sims Reeves has been singing in pub
lie for money for fifty years, during
most of which time his fee has been at
least $500, and often $3.50, night. At
the Birmingham festival he used TO
have $3.50 for each oratorio and a
share in the profits, which usually
brought his receipts up to $4,000 a
night. Owing to his voice at times be-
ing uncertain, he has had to decline in
his whole career fees aggregating
about $375,000, and yet, despite the i'm
mense and steady earnings he was de-
clared a bankrupt in London the other
day.
Decidedly Germany is the country of
jubilees. In a little Saxon town they
have just celebrated the jubilee Of an
honest tailor, Frederick Augustus
Schetelig, who for the last sixty years
has formed part Of the village choir,
and has never missed single Sunday
though his services received no remu-
neration. The King Of Saxony confer
red decoration upon this worthy
singer on the day of his jubilee.
A correspondent Of the Violin Times
sounds a note of warning TO musicians
who are also bicycle fanatics. He
claims that the ordinary way of riding
the machine does not favor lung ex-
pansion, which, in the case Of singer,
is SO important, and he further con-
tends that it is apt to spoil the hands
for the piano-forte or violin. Il am ac-
quainted with a young man, viollnlst,
l..
stiles. the result Of his method OF grasp
ing the handle bars OF the bicycle. Now
hard, stiff skin means infiex1ble joints
and inadequate touch" / fear this gen
tleman breaches vainly. A craze, OF
course, is a craze, with which reason
has nothing TO do.
Sir A. c. Mackenzie's new comic OPP
era, now in rehearsal at the Savoy,
London, will, in all probability, be pro
duced on Saturday, February 20. Mr..
Burnand has, it is said, divided the
humor with such judicial impartiality
that the two comedians, Mr.. George
Grossmith and Mr.. Passnore, have
parts of precisely equal Importance.
AS is usual in such cases, details OF the
libretto are leaking out, and 1t seems
that the scene Of the second act is laid
in a sixteenth century picture gallery,
where an apocryphal monarch, whose
views on art do not agree with those
of his subjects, exhibits his own pic
lures which have been rejected else
where.
A colossal fiasco has marked the
opening of the Scala season at Milan
with Die Gotterdammerung. Mi
lanese newspaper, speaking Of Wagner
and his music in Italy, says: How
many % us are believers? The coming
performances will no doubt tell us. Or
the gay, gilt ssing, multi-colored crowd
which filed the theatre and listened
very attentively on the first night, GER
tainly nine-tenths were abominably
bored. and showed once again by their
silence to what extent Wagner is ac-
cepted in Milan. Die Gotterdamme-
rung' may be a masterpiece, and may
present a veritable intellectual delight
for those who are versed in the music
OF the German master, and who are
seekers after philosophy For the mo-
ment though the music seemed very
wearisome to our public, and the man
ayers had better not abuse its patience
if they do not want to see repetition
Of the memorable excess which marked
the performance of The Walkyrie' a
few years ago"
Nine. Nordica publicly admits that
she regards her disbarment from the
Metropolitan company as the result or
a combination against American sing
ers In an interview in Chicago, the
prima donna said last week: "Of course
it was a great disappointment TO me
when. after reaching New York, with
the expectation Of a delightful season
of grand opera before me, l suddenly
found that the conditions were such
that | could not continue with the COM
pany. But | had faith in the loyalty
of Americans to American singers.
This left me but one course, and that
I have pursued in undertaking an in
dependent operate concert tour But
I do not like to refer to those with
whom l expected to sing in the grand
opera as foreigners. l would much
rather call them old comrades. The
whole matter may be reduced to this:
I admire fair play for everybody, and
could not be content to receive any
thing less than that, and l am willing
to give as much to all. This is my
position exactly"