The San Francisco call., 1897-09-23

mistaken step. At her beautiful home in
Paris, quietly filling out career that is re-
plete with honors and dignities, Nine. Mar
chest commands respect; but Nine. Marchesi
making au exhibition OF herself for the sake
os filthy lucre would be q pitifuI exhibition.
II she comes she VIII be able to proclaim her
self the highest-priced teacher known to his
tory, with the exception OF Rossini When
the composer of "The Barber of Seville was
in London. in 1S23-24, noble lord begged
the master to give him singing lessons. In
order to get rid OF his pleadings Rossini said
ne charged E100 $500 an hour. To his
stupeiaction the Offer was at once acce pied
but history does not tell how many less ons his
lordship took.
One way of achieving Burns wish ''To see
ourselves as others see u.s. is to read the
American news" in foreign papers and the
accompanying comments. The following is
from Le Meneslrel: However eccentric
Americans are, 1t would not perhaps be fair 10
them to accept the following piece of news
without grain of salt. The scene is a town
il Pennsylvania, where. under the name of
the Western Penitentiary, exists a prison
where the inmates are treated 10 entirely
original punishment Each inmate, con-
demned by the rigor OF justice 10 pass more
or less long term within the walls of this
establishment, receives on entering some
musical instrument be it from bone, flute,
a elarionet, vioioncello, e'c. The prisoners
are allowed to follow their personal inclina-
tons in :he selection of instruments Ii no
special leaning is shown the newcomer is
simply given hand-organ, out OF which ne
is compelled to grind at certain fixed hours of
the day a given number of selections. The
Western Penitsntiary seldom counts less than
800 prisoners, and often more, and they are
all martyred at The same nour by being COM
PEELED to perform upon their chosen instru-
ments. One can easily imagine the results OF
such a concert Il is said that five of The
guards in this original conservatory have al
ready become insane and that the governor
himself is beginning 10 show signs of mental
aberra tion."
The thearophone has become quite an insti-
tuition in Paris, but it is found not to give
overmuch satisfaction to amateurs who DO
not know enough of the opera or drama TO fol- |
low the action IN their minds from only hear
ing the music and words. 1t is now an
nounced that Edison has perfected an lnstru-
ment bearing the complicated name of the
'phonecinematosraph,' which combines the
qualities of the phonosraph and the cinemato-
graph, and which consequently makes 1t pos
sibe to follow the action of the opera while
hearing words and music. If the machine
does all that is predicted for 1t the next genera
ton will be able to and hear our artists
PRESCRIBED, SO to speak, for eternity. One cannot
help wondering what will become OF the un-
fortunate managers OF theaters. II people will
be able henceforth to see aud hear opera tic
performances without moving from their own
fresldes, why need they trouble themselves to
go TO the opera?
A perfect avalanche OF new operas threatens
Italy during the coming s,ason. The Rossini
Theater OF Venice has accepted an opera by
cd gTaInr
Theater OF Trieste will play new work. en-
titled "Dramma,' by Zernitz: c. Ferris
"Maledetta" is to be sung at the Politeama at
Genoa; the Social Tleater at Varese will see
Priamo Gallisay's "Rosella'; the Belini Thea
ter at Naples is TO m cunt CARO- Sebastiani's
"Rolando," Luigi Sanoran's al Cantico del
Cantici" and Giannetti's ''M1lena." These are
only few of the many works billed for frs.
production during the coming winter. 1t is
TO be hoped that out OF the multitude at least
one will duplicate the success of La Caval-
leria" or 81 Pagliacei"
In a church at Polmont in Scotland a curl
Gus question has been raised about the intro
duction of music into divine service. One OF
the elders OF the church raised the old-fasn-
ioned objections to organs in divine service
being unscriptural. He said the profane Sun
day music was res ponsible for all the short
comings of the youth of the place. This ora
Gle, however, was less listened to tn IN another
deacon, true Seetchman, who remarked sim
ply that an organ IN the church necessitated
an outlay OF money to secure organist, but
tnat there was no harm in church music If an
organist could be found willing to play for
nothing. This reasoning was considered
conclusive, but according TO latest ad-
vices volunteer organist bad not been Sc
cured and the church OF Polmont was without
music.
Henry Lehman, proprietor of the Golden
Sun Hotel at Bayseuih, has gone into bank
ruptcy. L.hmann holds the concession for
the restaurant connected with the Wagner
Theater, and his failure either indicates that
the pilgrims TO the famous festival have drunk
less beer than usual this year, or else that
lehman mas been fndulging in outside ex-
travaganee. The probability is that Richard
Wagner is not responsible for his ruin.
News comes from Bayreuth that Emma
Eames Story has been engaged by Frau
Cosima Wagner for the role of Eva in the
"Meistersingers and Sieglinda in the "Val-
kyrie." during the festival of '99. Nine.
Eames has been working industriously at Ger
man for some years, and it is said that she
sings it with total absence of accent. She
has besides two years before her for study.
Arturo Berutti, new composer, has come