The San Francisco call., 1898-04-22


 even greater crush than at the open ing. The California Theater was simply stretched. Fat gallants and stout danes were glad of place in the little hooks. corners and crevices where thin men scorned to squeeze them selves on Tuesday night
 The raiment, too, came in gladder tints; diamonds were an every row oc- currence; the lower floor was an almost islandless sea of soft shoulders and brave shirt bosOms-indeed, the town made quite respectable show, and Nelba seemed to enjoy it hugely.
 It is a good thing to have the prima donna pleased with the world and her self when The Barber" is the bill, for if there is one character in opera that clamors for good nature and elevated spirits it is Rossini's Rosina.
 Melba was in a merry mood, full of capers and grimaces; and for a singer who does not make a speciality of being called an inspired actress by cool head ed critics, she played the part with a very fair approach to its full value. She was positively gingery, and never for moment did she lose the color of the role through trying to invest it with false refinement. The Barber of Se- ville' is comic opera of the real old sort. where the witticisms are not wholly verbal and where a certain amount of genial horse play is vital.
 And to an American or English audi enCe that is more or less unfamiliar with the text of the colloquial passages (which are simply deadly from a musi- cal point) the more of the fun that comes out in pantomime the better it is for the performance. Of course there is a limit to the physical dcmonstra- tion of humOr. but 1t never came to question l-st night. Not only Melba, but all of her little compa~v seemed to feel the fun and spring of the piece and to work for an atmosphere and an ensemble.
 With a less singer as the Rosina I could say that the play was the thing. But for all the united effort to give a firS--rate performance, for all the de- lightful acting and inspirited singing of CCmpanari's Figaro and the quite af- fable cOmicality of Salignac's Almaviva (although his voice did wobble off into keys that were never writ by mortal hand), it was still the voice of Melba that dominated everything and set the pulse of the crowd
 It was some little time befMre the audience and the performers could get back to the opera, which, all in all, was most successfully given. The part of Basilio, especially in the Calumny aria, suffered at the tremolo of Niviani; but Bertha was at least acceptable from Mime. Cauteren, and CarbOne played BartOlo with excellent comic effect. The glory. to be sure, was Melba's but Campanart'S Figoro was an almost perfect piece of humorous character.
 Surely it was a foregone con clusion that the play would go to smash in the music lesson scene, where the interpolations come in; and it did with a vengeance. Rossini and his an- cient Spain were clean forgot so soon as Melba had sung "Sevillana," which NIassenet wrote into this scene for her. It was at the conclusion of this that the audience made the first big demon stratiOn of the night; and she sang a songs of Tosti's, "Mattinata," with the perfect boudoir flavor, to her own ac- compartment on the piano and with never hint of anything but warmth and magnetism and caress in her voice.
 This meant another, and it was that good old pre-rag gtime classic, "The Shawnee River" sung with the pur- est tone and the simplest feeling, and applauded with unanimous appeal for more" which she answered with The Star-spangled Banner" I admit after consideration that it may not have been congruOus for the Spanish Rosina to sing this song, but 1 will stake my ears that there was not person in the house who thought of congruity, of sen- sationalism, of anything except the song and its significance and Melba sitting there at the piano pouring out its patriotism in a flood of red, white and blue enthusiasm. There is no voice too good for "The Star-spangled Banner" and it is something to record that on that night We heard it from the very best.
 a . crn I the spirit and policy of a symphony so- ciety which excluded from it's pro- grammes the work of any and all local composers on no other ground but that 1t was the work of a local composer, I hardly dared hope that a single pro- test, no matter how polite and practi- cal, would have an immediate effect on the society's programmes. But sure enough the following week brought the next concerts announcement of sym phony written in San Francisco by MT. l Fred Zech Jr. of San Francisco; and yesterday afternoon in the Tivoli the symphony was played by MT. Scheel. Naturally, l congratulated the society. So far as the principle of the thing goes IL does not matter that the work had been played here once before by MT Bauer, nor that the composer is one or the directors of the Symphony society; the main idea is that a local SNCiS "ao 6iNen d nearing Wltn JnlS precedent the unplayed Mozarts and Tscha1kowskys of San Francisco may take heart. Even if it be considered necessary that they should become di- rectors of the society before their mu- sic is played by the society's band, the barrier to being heard is nothing like as insurmountable as it used to be-
 Mir. Zech's symphony, No 4, in c major, entitled California" and de- picting in its several movements Calm Sea at the Cliff House." Abilities at the California Mining Camp" Tn the Gardens of California" and "Cosmopol- itan Life in San Francisco" will be re- membered more as the breaker of the sOciety's exclusion rule than as a seri ous contribution to symphonic litera- ture. Mir. Zech is one of the best of our local musicians, an indomitable worker for all that is best in the profession he so honorably represents, and a cul tured appreciator of good music; and now that he has heard his symphony played a second time I will wager that he thinks no more of it than I do. As Dumas said about plays it is so easy not to write a symphony: and as Stew enson said about books, the amount of manual labor attendant on writing one demands some respect-so if those who hold the highest form of musical oorn