Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-09
and all the other singers whose native
tongle is English.
DEGRADATION TO SING IN ENG
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OE1GItADAI1ON Il " OlN0 1N ISS1~
LISH.
1T doesn't appear to be so much that
English is hard to sing as it is that it
is considered beneath an artists dig
nifty to sing grand opera In English.
They seem to feel that it would be
somehow degradation.
But why on earth should it be
degradation to sing in Engiish?"
Il suppose it must be because, un-
happily, English is not the native Ian
guage of grand opera. Englishmen
and Americans don't write grand opera.
AS soon as the English speaking race
begins to produce successful grand
opera then the stigma ON the language
in the minds Of singers will begin to
disappear.
"At one time I suggested that The
Bohemian Girl be put on in English.
The artist 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 Bohe
milan Girl in English he would never
speak to him again.
But aren't you bound by tradition
to the old operas? If even SO promis-
ing composer as e. A. Mcdowell or
any other American were to offer you
a good grand opera would you produce
it?"
Produce it? Of course we'd pro,
duce it if it were so good that we felt
confidence in it. Aren't We even now
bringing out an opera that is practic-
ally rev, De Laras 'Messaline?' And,
by the way, if it goes, we shall bring
it out in America with Calve in the
principal part, which Mr.. De Lara has
agreed to rewrite for her as 1t origin
ally was arranged for mezzo-soprano.
We may bring out Jules Massenet's
'Herodiade,' too, which can't be sung
here on account of the Biblical subject.
An American composer, whose name
you know well, asked me if l would
put on a ohe-act grand opera II ne
wrote one for Calye. | told him OF
course l would if it were good one.
But he never came around with It..
WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS.
'But there haven't been five success
full grand operas brought out in the
last thirty years-really no great sue
cesses since Carmen However, 1t
isn't operas that the public goes TO
hear, it is the artists. Put on Faust
with an inconspicuous cast and you get
a SMALL house. Put on a poor opera
name no names-with brilliant cast,
and the house is crowded. And it is
the most useful opera manager VINO
knows what the public wants and gives
it to them, for the public itself Is the
best manager Of all, and the man VINO
sets himself up to give it something
that it doesn't want On the ground that
it ought to want it is foolish.
Yet if | had to-day the ambition
that | had twenty years ago L might
try to put on grand opera in English IN
spite of the prejudices against it, for
have such strong faith in it, and it
seems pity that such powerful sup
porters Of grand opera as England and
America should not have it in their
own language. 1t has been tried, of
course, without startling success, but
times change, and | freely believe that
We are coming around to 1t.
1t was Mr. Grau's opinion that II the
English government were going to
spend money for the establishment of
opera by English composers only, sung
By English artists only, they were fore
doomed to failure, because English
composers were not writing the sort Of
grand opera that the public seemed
especially anxious to hear. and most
of the prima donnas nowadays come
from America.
Mr.. Grau is phenomenally busy, as
any one would discover who was admit
ted into the inner managerial sanctum
Of the solemn old opera house in Covent
Garden. 1t is usually SO dark there
that it has to be lighted all day by
electricity. From il to II and from
8 to every day the season is on, Mr..
Grau spends his time there trying to
write a word now and then. or make
a little inroad on his papers on his big
fat desk, while merchants, clerks, di-
rectors and artists pour in upon him,
one after the other, each with some
question too important to be decided
without his assistance. He is not ordi
narily much given to talk except that
of a plain, straightaway business ma
ture, and it is likely enough that he has
never revealed as much of himself to
the public before as he has in the in
terview here given.
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