The San Francisco call., 1897-11-14

1t has been soggy week at the the
aters and the concert halls with one 1--we
night 10 the credit OF the California;; that
was Wednesday, when La Boheme" was
given for the second time. The spell o,
this opera grows with closer acquaintance
and whether or not we needed the weak,
tinseled works of an earlier Italy to
point the beauty and sincerity OF
"Boheme" we had them in fearful
measure throughout the week. The old
standbvs die hard. but they die
and every performance OF n sane opera IS
4 kes OF nails for their collins. Even the
Lucia" sextet and the Rigoletto quartet
seem to have lost the power OF sustaining
their respective operas. And such melo'
die master bits as these have done more
than anything else to preserve that gaudy
school OF opera wherein melody, instead
of aiding dramatic illusion, opposes it.
Even in remote San Francisco the time
seems come when the more the people
get Of bad operas the better they think of
good ones l will admit there is some
immediate pain attendant on this means
Of getting at the survival of the
fl est, bu. the result pays. 1t has
H el years since "Favorita" worried
\ ocaI musical world, but there
was no telling when it might be sprung
upon us again, perhaps by singers clever
enough to give it a fictitious vaIue-so it
IS lust as we'll the Italian sinners did il
TO its death on Thursday night.
The performance was not as acutely pain
full g the "Gioconda" opening (there is a
difference in the music you know and
then the execution OF "Favorita" is justi.
fable operacide. II one a week could be
killed off this way I could stand it. Lille
is TOO long and beautiful to waste any
more OF 1t on the roCOco rubbish OF an
opera whose most remarkable features
are he fact that Donizetu wrote the en-
tire last act between the hours OF break
fast and luncheon, and in the second act
anticipated the modern ballad gem,
Sweet Rosie OGrady." L always sus-
pected Rosie of a horrible past, but it
never occurred to me until Thursday
night that she was mixed up in the
gummy themes and the umpa bllther Of
Douzstti's orchestration.
~
La Boheme' is diet for dreams. II is
Pregnant, graceful. almost graciIe at times,
and 1t has the blessed attri butes of humor
interviewer with its passages of most
human heart-ukeness. The scale OF pro-
portion IS delicate and true, the tone values
in the Instrumentation are played out
with ezQu ste identity, and the thematic
material, while always adequate 10 char
ac er and picture, Is kept beautifully
within bounds. Themes are often re-
used with urgent effect, but never
merely IN the wanton mood OF
seifquotation. Puccini seems quite
frankly TO have diluted the saccharine no
lions of lyric Italy with the sterncr Ger
man dramaisms that must obtain
= the dramatic music of to-day.
kAnd this, OF course, means Wagner. All
Vaodern opera means Wagner, one way or
fhe ether. a pre- Wagnerian opera must
Needs be written by Rip Van Winkle.
There are no pre- Wacnerian op-
eras being written in this luminous
day. Thy are all either Wagnerian
or anti-W agnerian. Watcher you take
the musical play of Massenet-who was
once dubbed MademoiseI Wagner by
the French critics who did not admire the
mighty R.chard-the mono-act master
pieces of LeoncavalIo. Stanfords Irish
melodrama, "Shamus O'Brien," or any
OF the new oEeras, big or little, that have
attained 10 mportance, they are to a more
or less extent written in that idiom which
finds its root in Wagner. The bard OF
Beyreuth has extended the musical vo-
cabulary and, either by direct assimila-
tron OF by translation and deit neologistic
tricks OF The composers own, the modern
music writer makes use of this voca buary.
Plagiarism doesn't necessarily enter into
H. 1t might as vel be said Of any modern
com mposition in English that it plaglarizes
the good gentlemen who helped TO make
the dictionary.
Puccini uses this idjom OF expression
with caresslng gentleness and with nu-
NOR that heretofore has been lacking in
the operas OF Italy. To be sure, the story
Of Murger demands Wit in the setting, but
10 me it is a new and notable achieve.
ment to have lmaged its elusive charm
with such distinction and spirit. The
other day I enjoyed look into the score
~ Leoncavalio's opera based on the same
7 5ieCt, and it seemed to me that Leonca-