The Portland daily press., 1899-04-22

ordinarily rapid, "allegro" was to be the
| term and presto" was to describe a
rapid voyage. The long trip of the Au-
guste Victoria was not at that time con-
templated, and on the arrival at quaran
tine it was agreed that none of the three
words could do justice to the situation.
So the cablegram that went back to Dres-
den contained the two words, "andante
molto," to describe the slow voyage of
the steamer.
The New York Times speaking OF Sem
hrich's first appearance said:
Perhaps when the music reviewer OF
this journal IN the morning after Mar
celia Sembri ich's first appearance this
season at the Metropolitan Opera House
wrote in words of the warmest enthusiasm
about her dazzling performance OF Rosina
in Rosinis I'll Bnrbiere de Seviglia, :"
there were some who thought that she
was suffering from youthful excitemens.
If such there were, let them prepare to
read more praise. of the same sort Last
night Nine. Sembrich sang Nioletta
Valery in Verdi s opera LA Traviata,
and achieved such u triumph as no colora-
ture singer has won in this city since
Adelina Patti was in her palmy days at
the Academy of Music. And 1T must be
added thai not Patti, nor Cerster, nor
Marimon, nor Parepa-Rosa nor any other
colorature singer who ever delighted this
town ever equaled Mime. Semhrich' de-
livery of "Ah fors lue." The audience
waited until after the "Semper libera" to
let loose the torrent of Its enthusiasm.
Then there was scene or joyous tumult
indeed. Even the occupants of the boxes
applauded as IL they had never heard "A
sin ger before, ANA the house resounded
with cheers and cries of bravo The
soprano WAS called out half IA dozen times,
and finally compelled 20 repeat the sem
per liberia" after which she was again
called out several times.
After that she had no opportunity in
Nerdi's opera to dazzle her auditors. bat
she touched their hearts in the pathetic
passages, and that is something that only
Gerster ever succeeded in doing with his
supertlcially melodious music In the
face of such singing comment seems al
most impertinent, but the readers of the
Times must know what is going on. The
singing Of Mime. Sembrich last night was
not notable for many things but chiefly
for its authoritative certainty She knew
precisely what she wanted to 90, how TO
do 1t and when to do 1t She gave an ex-
hihition of sustained, musical oantablle
singing in which every phrase was abso-
lutely perfect in itself and in its relation
to the melody as whole. Further than
lnaJt SUe uileu tio Iuuslc Will tho uchft
of great artist. She sang her soul into
it and gave to the well worn measure a
new life.
In the one opportunity which she had
for the display of brilliant colorature
work she was simply b' wildering. Her
ease, dash, certainty and apparently Ieck-
less, but absolute artistic attack OF dill
culties of the most formidable sort were
such as to I'LL every lover of good singing
with rnadulterated delight, When she re- :
peated the "Semper liberia" she TOOK a
clear mellow E tat in alt. In short, last
night Nine. oembrieh WINS a gr.at artist,
the highest exponent of the art OF bel can
to now on the stage at the maturity OF
her culture and rejoicing in her own
powers
The IL usical CRITICISMS of Philip Hale,
Ben Wolfe and Apthrop. have been read
throughout New England since the Bos-
ton Opera season, which has proved such
an unparalleled success. The unanimous
verdict of these critics is that since the
days of Patti no one has proved such q