The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-12

recitatiVe, Rossini made his declaim
There are far more numbers in the
new work and two or three times as
much music as in the old.
On the evening Of Feb. 5, 1916, the
Barber" had its first presentation.
Garcia. the most famous tenor of his
day, and the father of Malibran and
Pauline Viardot, was the Almaviva of
the evening; Zamboni was the Figaro;
Vitarelli was the Don Basilio; Boticello
was the Bartolo. The part of Rosina
was assigned to Nine. Giorgi- Righet-
ia. The Argentina theatre was packed
From the outset. the audience showed
itself hostile and the piece was a COM
pete failure. The overture was pro-
nounced dull. One of RossinPs airs
cSono Docile") was said to be entirely
out of character. Rossini was charged
with having substituted virago for
gentle, lovesick girl. Rossin had al
lowed Garcia to sing a Spanish melody
for a serenade. The tenor had for
gotten to tune his guitar, and in the
operation a string broke. The audi
ence broke into laughter and Kisses.
Vitare1li had the misfortune to fall
down trap so that on rising he had
to begin his great dramatic aria on
calumny with a handkerchief to his
nose. The audience, taking this for
bit of stage business, expressed it's
disapproval. Added to this, a tramp
cat made it's unexpected appearance
upon the stage at the opening of a
finely concerted finale, and upon being
chased, one way by Figaro and an
other by Bartholo, ended mad sortie
by hiding in the skirt of Rosina's dress,
thereby concentrating general at
tention wholly upon itself, while the
audience screamed with amusement
The curtain fell amid Kisses and jeers
Rossini went home, ate an elaborate
supper and went to bed and to sleep
The next day he made one change
in the work. He substituted a new
air for the unfortunate Spanish air that
Garcia had introduced the night before
He Transcribed for the solo voice the
air which had appeared first as a cho-
rus in his Cyrus in Babylon and af-
forwards in his "Aurelian in Palmyra"
This is 'Ecco rideride il cielo, the
charming melody sung by Count Al
maviva in Rosina's honor .Garcia's
Spanish melody was after some years
reintroduced into the Barber" by Ros-
SIM. Rossini's overture to the Bar
Der" is said to have been lost. A trio
in the music lesson scene is also known
to be lost. On the other hand, the
melody of the trio, "Zitti, zitti" is Dor
rowed bodily from Haydns Seasons, -
and the lovely air sung by Donna Berta
is adapted from a Russian dance. This
latter air has acquired the name of the
ice tune, because during the perform
ance the people in the boxes used to
eat ices.
The part Of Rosina, which today is Civ
en- to the soprano, was written for the
Righetti sang it, in its original key,
that of F. Most sopranos now sing 1t in
G. Figaro's Largo al fattotum," writ
ten for zamboni in c, is generally sung
in B fiat; Basilio's LA calunnia,"
written in D, is for the most part sung
in G. When Rossini first began to com
pose, the prima donna was generally a
contralto. For the Barber" Rossini re-
ceiyed about $500 and a fortnights
lodging!
Perhaps you can make useful the
following items in connection with the
latest book Of Paul Lawrence Dunbar's
Poems of Cabin and Field which is
being so pleasantly noticed by news
papers and magazines" writes J. A.
Brown of Hampton, Virginia.
THE illustrations are all from photo
>
Hampton institute, Hampton, Va. The
president of the club is Frank K Rog-
ers, whose home is in Worcester, and
who is Il graduate Of the W. P. l., class
of 'S5. The little boy who appears in
the six pictures illustrating the poem
Lullaby, Is q, son of William H. Sweet
ger, also of Worcester, a graduate of
w. P. I. class of 49, The little fellow
is grandson Of Mrs. Chauncey Sweet
ger of Greendale."
The fine exhibition of photographs of
the madonna that began at the free
public library yesterday afternoon, is
to continue every afternoon until fur
ther notice on account of the interest
shown in it by the public generally.
Saturday evening the exhibition will be
open from until 9 o'clock, and on
Sunday afternoon from to $50.
Mrs. William H. Coe has sent out
cards for an at home on the 18th, at
3 o'clock. Isobel Strong, the step
daughter of Robert Louis Stevenson,
will talk upon "Stevenson's Samoa"
Miss Scudder will meet the Woman's
Club Browning class at its next meet
ing, on Saturday, when "Pompilia" will
be the subject. Following is Miss
Scudders outline for the study Of the
book: General tone and situation; com
pare with Caponsacchi-The poetic
beauty of the monologue-Pompil
character as revealed by herself (care-
full point to point analysis, with Illus
trations of each point carefully drawn
Pompilia's estimate of Guido-Pompi-
las estimate of Caponsacchi-Com-
pare her narrative of their first inter-
view with his-Compare her narrative