The San Francisco call., 1899-07-16
Maurice Grau Wants Opera i'm English.
Strange Reason Why He Can't Get
It-Unusual Talk With the Boss
of Grand Opera, and Inter-
esting Facts About

discovered by that time that he didn't
care much for law and that he did care
a great deal for the theater. He studied
law at Columbia with Edward Lauter-
bach, and, like Lauterbach, might have
cut q figure in politics later If, after grad
uating from Columbia, the theater had not
got the better of Blackstone
You see," said Mr.. Grau, my uncle
was an operate manager in New York at
that time. and I was always hanging
around the theater. I began my theatrical
career low on the ladder. The first work
CT that sort 1 did was selling librettos in
my uncle's theater in New York-the old
French Theater. now the Fourteenth
street That was in 1866, when Ristori was
playing there. was at school then. After
deserting the law, much to my parents
disgust, I held about every position that
one can hold in the theater except on tho
stage. I was never on the stage In my
life have been about everywhere, from
Panama north and from st. Petersburg
west. It was thirteen years ago that
began to work along toward the present
line by becoming acting manager for
Henry E. Abbey. The next year 1 became
a partner.
London is much interested in plan that
has been brought before the Government
for the establishment Of a national opera,
to be subsidized by the Government. AL
IHOuBH tue pldH 10 lciLnCl Ncto w. ~ AAo1S
gone far enough to indicate that some
step of the sort is likely to be taken be-
fore long I asked Mr. Grau what he
thought about it, and his answer and the
train of thought to which it led are rather
significant for the future of grand opera
if Mr. Grau is to remain it's king bee.
If" he said, national opera means
operas by the best composers Of whatever
nationality, sung in English by the best
artists available of whatever nationality,
then l am so heartily in favor of it that
would want to try it in America the next
season If circumstances would permit. In
theory there is no good objection to grand
opera in English, and there are sound ar
guments for it. Even the Wagner operas
would be enjoyed better by the general
public If sung in English, and how vastly
more enjoyable to all but few would be
an opera like Don Giovanni If sung in
English.
Yes, can say unreservedly that if cir
cumstances would permit L would even
put on 'Lohengrin' in English in New
York. But circumstances won't permit;
It's all right in theory, but it's not all
right in practice. When you come to stft
the objections to it you get down finally
to just one and that is that the artists,
as a rule, don't wish to sing in English.
Some Of them of course, can't speak Eng
liSh, but that doesn't matter so much when
you come to consider, that Plancon, for
instance, sings an entire opera in admir-
able German without being able to speak
a single word of that language. No, it
but it seems to be an objection to the
language itself. 1 dare say that if we
were to ask Nine. Nordica, an American,
born in Maine, to sing grand opera N
English she would object. So, doubtless
would Nine. Eames and all the other
singers whose native tongue is English.
1T doesn't appear to be so much that
English is hard to sing as it is that 1t is
considered beneath artists dignity to
sing grand opera in English. They seem
to feel that it would be somehow degra-
dation."
''But why on earth should it be degra-
dation to sing in English?'
Il suppose 1t must be because, unhap
PLY, English is not the native language
of grand opera Englishmen and Ameri-
cans don't write grand opera. AS soon as
the English speaking race begins to pro-
duce successful grand opera then the
stigma on the language in the minds of
singers will begin to disappear.
"At one time / suggested that The Bo-
henian Girl be put on in English. The
artists didn't object to the idea violently,
but when Jean de Reszke mentioned the
matter to the late Sir Augustus Harris
that man told Jean that if he heard him
sing The Bohemian Girl in English he
would never speak to him again.
But aren't you bound by tradition TO
the old operas2 II even so promising a
other American were to offer you q good
grand opera would you produce it?'