The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-05
PRESENTATION OF "LUCIFER."
Views of Critic ON the Performance
Last Night.

Views of 81 Critic on the Performance
Last Night.
1t showed immense courage on the part of
the directors to allow Mr.. Van der Stucken
to make the principal work of the tenth
May festival novelty. American festival
audiences are scarcely less conservative
than the English, and in the adopted home
of Handel even Mendelssohn knocked for
long time at the door of popular favor
New oratorios invariably have chilly
effect on the receipts In Boston the Han
del and Haydn Society annually replenisn
their Golfers with the Messiah" in New
York the Oratorio Society has struggled
manfully to pay it's gas bills with some
thing newer than the Elijah while only
the other day in Cincinnati ticket specu-
lator showed me a monument of the last
Cincinnati festival in the shape of high
stack of tickets for Tinel's est Francis, ;"
tickets that he had vainly offered at the
tempting family price of three for quarter
If Tomlinson Hall was not filled as it should
be last night for Benoit's "Lucifer, the
attendance was nevertheless highly fiatter-
ing under the double handicap of an UNI
known work in piping times OF war; ana
let it be said at once that Lucl1er is
work that is worthy of the effort made IL
Benoit is one of the most interesting fig
ures in the musical history of the century.
He is a prophet who is not without honor
in his own country, but his own country Is
so terribly small that the outside , Wor ha
determined to form a school or f1emlsn
music and within necessarily prescribed
limits he has accomplished IN flanaeIs Wi IA.
Wagner has done in Germany. During MS
whole life he never put music 70 WORDS otner
than Latin or Flemish, though he lived for
many wears in Paris. When he was youth
he earned his salt as conductor for OMEN
bach at the "BouffeS," in Paris. Even IN
this frivolous atmosphere he never lost
sight of his ultimate goal. One night as u
fenbach came into the theater for a rehear-
sal he heard, instead of his own effervescent
music, doleful sounds coming from the
basement 1t was Benoit rehearSing Latin
requiem The young Fleming had no money
to pay for rehearsal, but the musicians
good-naturedly volunteered in the basement
The anecdote shows the mans charac-
ter. This devotion to his native tongue has
isolated him more or less from the rest Oh
the world ''Lucifer' was his first important
work and was first sung in Brussels, some
thirty years ago. 1t is the work or a man
who knows exactly what he wants to say
and how to say 1t. 1t IS fuIl Oh cnaracter,
and when the date of its composition is
considered its Instrumentation is extreme
ly modern.
the climaxes, that Benoit has been sitting
at the footstool of BerlioZ, yet his works
bear stamp of strong and poetic original
ity. 1t is a true picture In the modern sense,
in which voices and orchestra are used alike
to color the thought. Not for an instant
does the composer sacrifice his poetic ideal
for chance to give this or that voice an
easy road to applause or to throw sop
to the public in the way of an embellshed
aria or meretricious climax. 1t is, in
fact, an ungratefuI work for star wor-
shippers or stars who seek worship II we
except the part of 'Lucifer,' and this is.
indeed, a glorious part for a singer of such
innate dramatic feeling as Mr.. Bispham.
Eduoard De ResZke told me once that he
felt deep sense of gratitude 10 the Prnce
ole
the terrible alternative of singing the OPP
cratic high priest or the tedious king. LII
cifer," in this case, does much for the BARI
tone.
1t is impossible in these limits to refer
to the many characteristic points in his
score. The first part is largely choral, Whlle
in the second the chorus is used more as
background. The ratorio opens with an in
definite melody descriptive of chaos. 1t ex-
presses the infinite and the boundiess, and
gradually takes definite shape as the motif
of I.ucfer This and two other melodies,
the one descriptive of Lucifer's will power
the strictly Wagnerian sense. The earth is
PAINTED in dark colors, violas, cellos, double
BASES, clarinets, flutes, bassoons and horns.
Water is a clearer and gentler theme while
Fire is clearly pictured in the screening OF
the wood winds and strings.
Benoit understands the human voice as
few have done before him and makes OF 1t
an instrument capable of many c0Aors. The
weird laughter of the spirits and the shrek
of the sopranos "Hark, what sigh has
In one place he divides the voices into as
many as eight parts. | wonder If many in
last nights audience understood the numer
Gus difficulties in the choral parts. If they
did they must have felt not a little proud
of the Indianapolis singers. Frankly. it was
the hest choral performance of great
work that / have heard in years, and
speak with the experience of one who has
dragged out many evenings in oratorio,
from sleepy Worcester, under Zerrdhn, to
the inexcuSably bad performances that Mr..
Thomas has given of late in Cincinnati. The
chorus had the real choral quality, sang
with firm attack and immense spirit Since
pliability. The tenors are particularly good.
the BASES are firm. but as in all American
choiuses, are somewhat lacking In what the
English call beef" Both the sopranos and
contraltos are of lovely quality.
OF the soloists Mr.. Bispham sang "Luci-
fer superbly. The meaning that he put
into the single tone Woe at the end,
naturally from where Nature placed 1t, and
knows not the meaning of tremolo even
when forced to its utmost Mime. Juch
should not have been tempted to return to
the concert stage. With the exception of
a few high notes her voice has little of its
former roundness. Nine. Jacoby, in the few
measures allotted her. showed glorlouSly
rich and welI-controlled contralto.
Mr.. Hamlin sang the water air effectively
for popular ears but scarcely leg1timately.
Mr. Oscar Ehrgott. who took De Swift's
place at short notice. was emlnently sue
cessful though little overanAfous at the
start
spaneled Banner" began and closed con-
cert that should be memorable In the mu-
steal history of the city.
ROBERT l. CARTER.