The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-24
OPERA-DRAMA.
Success in Each the New York
Seasons Rule.
Conspicuous Triumph of Mana
gers and Companies.
MRS. CARRIERS ACTING
Proves a Revelation to New York
Audiences.
LOhengrin Given In English
Proves a Success.
MRS. CARRIERS ACTING

successes, unprecedented in number and
almost in quality, which are character
tstic of the season in New York, so far
as the drama or the opera or musical
entertainments are concerned, are due
to the days of prosperity. There is no
record of any other season in which so
many and so conspicuous triumphs
were won by the dramatic managers
and their companies. And these victor
aes are not confined to any one line or
character of plays. The most dismal
failure of the winter, one of the two
pronounced misfortunes, was that
which befell Mr.. DAILY and his company,
although Ada Rehan was the conspic-
uous actress in this play. The other
failure was the unusual experience OF
William H. Crane, and he quickly con-
fessed his misfortune and changed his
play.
To speak of the experiences of the
managers of opera and of opera goers
first, there ought to be comparison
made between two permanent COM
panies now giving operas in this city.
One is the Metropolitan organization,
said to be the largest and finest ag-
gregation of great singers ever brought
together under one management. 1t is
an expensive experience for the man
ayers. The understanding is that when
any one of the operas is given with the
De Reszke brothers, and with Eames,
Sembrich, Nordica or Lilli Lehman, or
any two of them, in the cast the ex-
pense entailed reaches about $4,000.
Yet some of the directors report that
not one Of the operas produced at this
expense has failed to bring a profit to
the management, and some of them
have yielded profits reaching 81, 900. The
total profits for the season, now about
half through, are reported to have been
about $50, 900. The lovers and deSptSers
OF Wagner's music are equally con-
founded by the experience of the winter.
An opera written 100 years ago, pro-
duced the other evening with a great
cast, yielded $12, 900 to the management,
although it cost a little over $4,000 to
pay the expenses of the production. The
opera was Don Giovanni and the
opponents of Wagner cited the exper-
fence of that night in proof of their as
Sertion that the public was beginning to
tire of Wagner, and was welcoming the
delightful melodies of Mozart and COM
posers of his school.
But a thing that COMPOUNDED those
who made this claim happened a day
or two later. The most technical chro-
meter, so to speak, of all Wagner's op-
eras, Tristan and Isolde" was given
with the two De Reszkes and L.ilh Leh-
man in the leading, it might almost be
said the only parts. The opera house
found its enormous capacity tested by
the crowds that besieged its doors. Hun
dreds stood up through the entire four
hours necessary for the production of
that composition. The returns at the
box office were almost exactly what
they were on the night that Don Clio
vanni'' was produced. And so the battle
was a drawn one. The management
decided to produce the Wagner cycle,
and to give it as nearly as possible as
the cycle is given at Bayreuth. 1t could
not put the orchestra under the stage,
nor could it begin the performances at
4 o'clock in the afternoon, but it was
able to cast it with some of the noblest
singers who ever sing, and to produce
it exactly as the score came from Wag-
ner'S pen. 1t was necessary to begin
some of the performances as early as Z
O'Clock, and one is advertised to begin
at GAS. Here was to be a crucial test
of the sincerity, not of the critics or
of the highly cultivated, but of the
masses, so far as their alleged devotion
to Wagner was concerned.
1t was discovered that both the
masses and society were inspired by the
promises of the management so that
they came promptly at o'clock and
remained faithful to the traditions of
Bayreuth throughout the entire five
hours of the performance, applauding
only at the right time, maintaining ST.
lence throughout the superb presentation
and quitting the opera house only after
the final curtain fell. They did not even
have the opportunity which is given at
Bayreuth of going out for an hour and
a half between the acts and taking
some refreShment or even dinner. This
experience is limited not to one of the
operas in the cycle, but to all that have
been given thus far.
ago produced Lohengrin, the one opera
of Wagner's tolerated, even admired, by
those who profess to dislike his music,
with Jean De Reszke and his brother,
and with Nordica and the great German
contraIto Schuman Heink in the cast.
1t was a notable group of artists. The
orchestra was directed by Schild, highly
esteemed In Germany and winning
great repute here. The opera house was
packed, even the aisles at the rear of
the parquet being almost impossible,
and the critics said, Behold how Lob
engrin', when it is produced with Su-
perior cast accompanied by a fine or
chestra under a competent director,
maintains its prestige and delights great
throngs.'
1t so happened that at a theater only
a block and a half away the announce
ment was made that 'Lohengrin"
would be given by the stock company in
English, the first time the attempt has
ever been made in New York to sing
"Lohengrin'' to English words.
The critics and the Wagner cult were
disposed to speak of this an auda-
city, almost an insult to Wagner's mem
DRY, and predicted that the failure of
the attempt would be pitiable. Again
the critics have been COMPOUNDED, and
some of them have been frank enough
to confess their error. This company
has now sung "Lohengrin" for two
weeks, eight times week, alternating
the cast at each performance. The sue
cess OF Its presentation in English was
so great that 1t was impossible to pro-
cure seats unless for performance sew
eral days away.
But it was reserved perhaps after all
for Mrs. Leslie Carter to gain not so
much for the play as for her playing
the most sensational of the triumphs
of the season. The play itself has start
ed again the discussion as to whether
the story that contains an immortality
is necessarily immoral. The critics and
the public will discuss this question
eternalIy, admitting after ali that 1t is
an ethical one. If this play is immora1
in the story it tells at first, 1t is immoral
exactly in the manner In which the tenn