The San Francisco call., 1897-04-01

organist to Rome looks at first sight like ship
ping Goals to Newcastle, but the Eternal City
does not boast an organist of Eddy's ability,
and the Americans recital was quite an
event
Quite q stir has been made in the mus ical
world by an in terview wit h the celebrated Wag-
merriam conductor, Felix Motif, which was
published in LIE Gaulois. Motu was quoted
as saying that Weber misjudged Beethoven,
Rubinstein and Wagner, and that Wagner was
unjust to Brahms. The interview goes on to
say: ''There is actually no musical move
ment in Germany at present, no young COM
posers who promise anything-there is
nothing, nothing, nothing, except complete
emptiness. With one or two exec ptions, such
as Humperdinck, the composers of Germany
to-day are only mediocrities 1t looks as If
the genius of Wagner, by it's grandeur, dis
courages all other genius" When asked his
opinion about French music Mottl is quoted
as giving very different opinion: lin France
there is real upward movement. / see the
beginning of a school which will make its
way. AS for Italian music. it IS ended as far
Germany is concerned. With the exception
of La Cavaileria and 4 Pagliacei' the German
public won't listen to Italian operas" Natur.
ally enough this interview created a great
protest in Germany, whereupon Felix Mottl
came out in the Badische Presse and said /:
1ue Bldtcutut tudt SdlO Ii uSlCdi llit Is Gtcu
in Germany is entirely a dream of LIE
Gaulois. should have rendered myself forever
ridiculous by such statement. did remark
that in the field of lyric drama the French
have more facility than the Germans, who
still seem 20 be overshadowed by the genius
of Wagner" Mottl adds that every grand
effort In the artistic history of a country is
followed by a period of relative stagnation,
the best forces Icing exhausted. He also says
the best lyric work that Germany has pro-
duced in recent years.
Operas based on Irish subjects seem to be
gaining in favor day by day, just as if COM
posers were smitten with a sudden desire to
make up for the long neglect of tho rich field
for lyric drama which lies in Irish legend and
Irish folksongs. The latest Irish opera
written by an English Hebrew, by the way, is
Isidore de Lara's "Moiena," of whose first pro-
duction at Monte Carlo the critics speak in
terms of extravagant praise. Gallet, who
wrote the libretto, has placed his action in
Ireland at the END of the last century, just
when Lazare Hcche essayed in vain to land
with little French army to aid the uprising
of the Irish. The book is full of the vivid and
picturesque coloring which marks the works
of Merimee, who always reyeled in popular
patriotism, and the whole story is clear,
simple and extremely dramatic.
The first tableau is a rair sample of how
vivid the play OF De Laras new opera is
Moiena, young Irish girl. is betrothed to the
sailor Patrick, who returns home from sea to
take part in the insurrection. Immediately
on his landing he and Moiena are married,
but Patrick is TO leave her at the church door
to join the insurgents. While the ceremony
is going on the English soldiers arrive outside
the church looking for the rebel. The doors
are locked, but the Sheriff breaks them down.
At that instant the priest comes out, carrying
extreme JUNCTION to dying man, and the
soldiers let him pass. followed by an assistant
bearing lighted candle. As they depart with
slow and measured steps the soldiers sud-
denly suspect that the candle bearer is Pat
rick, who canno; be found in the church.
"Fire," cries the Sheriff, but the English officer
Is q Catholic, and refuses 10 command his
soldiers to draw "aur lie bon Dieu," so Patrick
escapes.
According to the French critics. De Lara has
struck happy medium, ii "Moiena," between
the old forms of opera and modern
lyric drama. There Is none of the
old mslodid dssolutd; he has too much respect
for the action of the drama TO indulge in that;
but at the same time he never sacrifices the
voice to the orchestra. In the old operas the
orchestra was the slave of the voice, and in
to the other. extreme and make the voice the
slave OF the orchestra. De Lara is said to have
liberated both from bondage in "Moiena," for
the voices and the orchestra naturally sustain
and help one another. He has made his
strings sing in a very broad style. and has OBJ
tanned especially beautiful effects from the
hautbois and the English horn. II the first
night accounts are to be trusted, ''Moiena" is
an epoch-making opera.
It seems as If the modern French composers
excell least Of all in melodic invention. They
can write highly dramatic operas and paint
remarkable tone pictures for orchestral con-
certs. but they do not seem able TO hit upon
tunes which catch the pubic ear. the sort of
tunes in which Bizet, Gounod, Ambrose
Thomas aud the other famous writer's of their
day excelied. Theodore Dubois, for instance,
is one OF the most esteemed Of modern French
writer's, and he is Ambrose Thomas successor
Is director of the Paris Conservatory. This is
what Le Journal des Debats says about his
legendary poem, "Notre Dame de 10 Mer,"