New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-02

/
onen the gates through which enters the goose.
civil nroudly wearing her crown. and followed
| bv bor white flock and the minstrel. The
| ,o,ers fail into each others arms. but only the
| ,oet and a little child recognize them as OF
q, royal blood The boorish citizens, VINO mad
| fancied that their king would appear IN regal
| splendor drive the youth ana the maiden OUT
Of the city burn the witch ana cripple the MIN
strel by breaking one OF his legs on 'he wheel
| But the royal children die OF munger ana co'd
| under the linden tree where hrst thsy hau met
| in the forest and the children or henaoruhn'
who had come In search OF them. and 'he MIN
strel whom they loved give them royal acclaim
| and burial.
This. In brief IL the story OF DE hon'ss'
| kinder" a fairy play In three acts' py r'n's
posner music by Engelbert Humperdinck which
| NAV he seen this week at the irving race
Theatre II having had It's first performance
there last Friday night. Concerning the beauty
| ~ the NAV itself and OF Agnes Sormas imper'
sona,,on OF its principal character this Journal
| snoke last Saturday but Il would be long dis
| course which would even touch upon the many
| ,n,ere,tng questions which the dainty and pa
! thet,c drama calls up. and to-days continuation
NJ the subject Will still leave the discussion saay
incomplete. The play. being IN GERMAN n'oss
| make IT'S first appeal 70 the German element OK
our population and 70 its consideration may d.
relegated such questions as It's occasional ero'''
! cism none the less fragrant because nidoeh un-
| der thin and transparent veneer OF aIiegoO
| and its many offences against the German IAN
| guage For US Il is enough 70 say that Ns
eroticism and literary vulgarisms are censuraois
! in the degree that they are unnecessary ana OUT
OF harmony with the poetical atmosphere WHICH
generally pervades the composition. II 'hey a''
70 be justified at all It must be by the inter
position OF an allegory which IS In ITSELF unneo'
essary and undramat,c Yet, no doubt, an A-
! legorical purpose lay at the bottom OF the au-
thor's work This purpose. It Is to be supposed.
also led her 70 give the story tragical ending
a proceeding inconsistent with the best canons
! ~ dramatic art since the plot deals not with
IN. universal and eternal. but with the local
| and temporal with the foibles and folies OK
a people and period. unless one Is willing 70
see a picture OF humanity in the vulgar. ig-
| norant cOnceited burghers OF Hellaorunn ana
| OF lovely ideality in the gooseherd, prince and
! minstrel-a proceeding which we should NOT %
| willing 10 sanction out Of hand. II Is the paV
| which music plays In Die Kongskinder WHICH
! chiefly brings Il close 10 the sympathy OF our
people as a whole, though II must be confessed
| that there are many aspects in which II nisnr
| prOfttably be studied IL DTlnRS up d HoeS -
| pretty memories the lover OF folklore and
folk song: Il invites speculation as 10 a possible
near tendency Of music in its relation TO the
spoken drama: It recalls 81 the most an
! Gent forms Of dramatic expression: II suggests
! the thought that possibly faculty now Threat
| ened with atrophy may be saved by choice
! for serious artistic treatment OF subjects which
| for generations have been thought 1T only for
| idle pantomime vulgar burles7ue. The
raised Imagination" which filed Charles Lamb
| at his first play transformed the Clustering sub
stance on the pillars OF Old Drury into "glorl-
fed sugar candy; nowadays even so simple an
exercise Of the fancy is rare. and we are con-
| tempatlng its departure with indifference.
though We know that without fond magma
ton there will no more be beauty Of any kind
| 10 be found earth.
| The story OF Die Kongsklnder' is not 20 b
found as the author presents II In fairy lore.
| She has drawn it's clements from many sources
and blended them with the utmost freedom
| stickler might quarrel with her ernst Rosmer
| Is a woman despite her masculine patronymc)
| about her title being calculated I, deceive.
( for Die Konigsklnder' has specific signin-
canoe TO a knower OF German folk-song. II
| stands for a tale which has no relation 70 the
| play under consideration and the oldest literary
form Of which is found in the Cirek legend OK
| Hero and Leander. The story Of these Ill
| starred lovers is common 10 all Germanc peo-
| pies. and for II In Germany for at least three
| hundred years the title Die K0nlgsknder" or
"zwei Konigsgnder' has been reserved Theirs
| is scarcely a fok-song more widely known IN
| Germany than the version OF the Hero ana
Leander legend. which begins:
rs warren zwci K5nigskinder
| Die hatten enander so leb;
Sic konnten zusammen NIGHT kommen.
Das Wasser war Wei III tief.
This only to explain the ambiguity OF the
| title. which seems to have Unbalanced the
| English translator. whose rendering OF "The
Children OF the King" is utterly misleading. The
English equivalent is "Kings-children" OF
Royal Children"
Through whichever vista we contemplate inc
fairy play our elances at the end fall on way
ner and Bayreuth Ernst Rosmer is a pen name
! for Frau Elsa Bernstein. the wife OF lawyer
and itterateur in Munich. She is Elsa because
her father has for generation or more Dee"
one OF the stoutest champions OF Wagner III
Germany He is Heinrich Porges. chorusmaste3
at the Royal Opera in Munich. writer and s'he'
1915 faithful worker at the Bayreuth Festivals
The composer OF the music was the INSTRUCTORS
Of Wagners son. young Siegfried VINO -
now exploiting himself composer anu
conductor Engelbert Humperdinck Is inc
first musician who conceived the idea that inc
| great poet-composer's system or co"po''o'
might be applied to subjects borrowed iio'', VIZ
| romantic world OF fairy-lore as wen d. ''o.o
found In the romantic world OF religious ny