The San Francisco call., 1898-02-03

sum total of Claimants New York ad-
 mirers. And what audiences! At the
 concert where Emma Juch emerged
 from the obscurity of married life to sing
 for Guilmant the final high notes at the
 end of her most florid song did not elicit
 one single rustic from the audience till
 William Carl had sounded the last chord
 of the accompaniment, and deafening as
 was the applause given Guilmant he only
 bestowed two encores in the whole re-
 cital, and those more by token of good
 nature than because the audience de-
 manded it's pound of flesh. Guilmant is
 more than the greatest of living organists
 he is a musician who can make whole
 assemblage of people act as If they them
 selves were artists.
 Victor Capoul has astonished the Pa
 risians by his prompt and what they call
 Yankee" methods of applying for po-
 sltion. For a number of years the fa-
 nous singer has been teaching in New
 York When he read i'll the Herald of the
 death of Carvalho, director of the Opera
 Comique, 1t struck Capoul that he would
 like to shine as director over the stage
 where he had formerly won renown as an
 artist He immediately rushed to a tele-
 graph office and put in an application by
 cablegram. In answer to his anxious in-
 quiries he was told that he must have a guarantee, whereupon he at once cabled the sum of 1000,O 900 francs to the Minister of Fine Arts, in whose hands the appoint ment lay. Capoul left for France by the next steamer, accompanied to the wharf by string of his pupils and the good wishes of all his New York friends. The day of his arrival in Paris Capoul saw the Minister of Fine Arts, to whom he confded his ardent desire to direct the fortunes of the Opera Comique. Fortune favored rival, however, for Albert Carre received the appointment. Without waiting an hour Capoul began to repack his valise to return by the next steamer. when servant came up to tell him that a messenger desired to see him. Not at home" cried the singer. But it's a message from the Minister of Fine Arts,' said the servant. "Ah! that Is another matter" cried Capoul stirred by the hope that perhaps Carre had declined the appointment. The messenger was ad- mitted and Capoul smiled grimly at his own disappointment when he was handed draft for the 100000 francs that he had sent by telegraph. In the excitement of hustling for the position he had forgotten all about the money.
 The failure of the recent series of Sum- day night concerts at the Metropolitan | Opera House, New York, was due to a combination of causes, the chief one being a new application of the star system. It 1 was announced first that Ysaye, Pugno Plancon and Gerardy would appear at all these concerts. There was a great rush | the first night and the receipts probably | covered expenses, but it was found that | @ packed house was necessary every time | to make it pay. The management tried | reducing the number of stars, and then | the public would not go. The concerts | in which Mines. Sembrch and Nordica 1 were the only ones which were profitable. R. E. Johnson. who was the agent in bringing out these stars, has been attacked by very serious illness and has had to retire from managing the 
 An Italian journal remarks on the musf- cal aptitude of many of the officers of the Italian army, among whom, it says, Is found united the worship of Mars and | major. M Robandi, author of that Stella confidente," which has had universal success. Then the Under-Secretary of State, now the Minister of War, General Afandi Rivera, who is a great amateur singer, possessing fine tenor voice. and lastly a young lieutenant. M. Saverio Rasalli- -Rocca, who has just published quite d SeIiSS Ol PiotiiO ptcCeS WHICH re- veal rare talents as a genial and inspired composer.
 M. Lorenzo Parodi, composer, and music critic on one of the most important jour- nals of Genoa, gave a most interesting in the hall of the Institution for the Blind, on the occasion of the centen- ary of Donizetti. M. Parodi wrote and produced at this concert with great suc- cess, a cantata, "A Gaetano Donizetti," for mezzo-soprano, with accompaniment for strings, flutes. hautboiS, harp and organ. The verses of this cantata were due to M. Giro a Caversazzi, and 1t was sung by Mile. Emilia Gautier, who shared the success with the composer
 The new Italian Minister of Public In- str'iction, M Gallo, has entered into ne- eotiations for the purchase of an auto graph score of one of Bellinis operas. Beatrice di Tenda.' The price will be,