The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-24
WE PAY MUSICIANS BEST
TIE WORLD'S GREATEST SINGERS
HERE FOR THEIR HARVEST.


jean de Reszke Coming to Receive tn
Greatest Compensation He Has Ever
Earned-Sembrich and MeAba Both Il
BE Heard-The Seasons Musical stars
and Their Pay.
The annual immigration of the
worlds greatest musicians to TINS couh'
try will be completed by the middle OF
December, and 1t should be an encour-
aging. thought to Americans that Eu-
rope has sent here her most emlneh'
performers with but few exceptions ~
every department Of executive muslca'
art. The advance guard of the Maui
rice Grau Opera company has proughI
over large number distinguished IN
the operate field and there are more 10
follow. By the time the American sea-
son is we'll under way, European cltles
will hear only those performers who
are not in demand here or who for bus-
mess rather than artistic reasons re-
main abroad. One instance of these is
L
more profitable than those ever under
taken by any other single performer
but they could not be repeated annual
ly and an interval of one or two sea-
sons is always necessary in order to
make the returns from every tour any
thing like so large as they have been
in the past For the same reason Mile.
Calve, who sings practically but two
roles nowadays, must wait until the
public grows once more anxious to see
her in Carmen or Faust before
she again returns. Similar motives eX-
plain the absence of the few great ar
lists who are not to be before the Amer
dean public this year.
Among the worlds great singers to
be heard here during the winter are
Jean de Reszke, Ernest Van Dyck, AL
bert Saleza, Edouard de Reszke, Pol
Plancon, Antonio Scott, Giuseppe
Campanari Theodor Bertram. Marcel
la Sembrich, Milka Ternina, Nellie
Melba, Lillian Nordica, Johanna Cad
ski and Ernestine Schumann- Heink.
Lucienne Breval and Margaret MacIn-
tyre, who are to be heard for the first
time in this country in opera, are inter-
esting because of the national elements
they represent. Mile. Breval embodies
the traditions of the National Academy
of Music of France, which is the formal
title of the grand opera house in Paris.
Miss MacIntyre is English and is the
first English woman to be heard in
grand opera here, for Nine. Albani was
born in this country. These two sing
ers are to arrive with Jean de Reszke
toward the middle of December
Jean de Reszke's visit has particular
Significance this year because 1t Will in
all probability be his last. He is still
much younger than the great Mario,
who sang until he was sixty-one. But
M de Reszke's year of retirement
which preceded his appearance last
spring in London, did not improve his
vocal condition, and although he is to-
day only fifty-one years old, he has evil
IDENTIFY realized that tenor's career
must some time have an end. 1t is
certainly true that ffty-one Is mature
age for Romeo, but for a tenor it is not
advanced, when one considers that
Sims Reeves sang first in 1889 at the
age of twenty-one, and did not show
signs Of vocal weakness until he was
more than fifty-five Another interest
ing incident of the Polish tenor's re-
turn this year Is the compensation he is
to receive. For every performance he
will get 50 $50, the largest sum ever
paid to a singer here for one appear
ance. And he will sing twice week
during a season Of at least twenty
weeks On his last engagement he
sang for $3.50 a performance. Previ-
Gus to that year, he had received
fixed salary and a percentage of the re-
ceipts over certain sum.
OF his two associates, Albert Saleza
and Ernest Van Dyck, the former may
be said to be at the beginning of his ca
reer as one of the great tenors of con-
temporary operate history, and none
seems so likely to take NJ de Reszke's
place in the future He is thrty-three
and in the French repertoire such as
'Romeo ct Juliette,' Faust" and Gar
men," has already distinguished him
self over all the younger singers of his
time. The Wagner roles are still unex-
plored territory to him so far as his
American career is concerned, although
he has sung Siegmund in Paris. But
with such a tried singer of Wagner
roles as Ernest Van Dyck near him,
there will be no need for the French
tenor to attempt that field just now.
M. Van Dyck atisfes the dramatic re-
qurements of those roles, and Jean de
Reszke, if he continues in good health,
will be heard more frequently in the
Wagner operas than in the other
works which he has formerly sung
here. These three men are the greatest |
in their field that the European opera
houses possess, and the Polish singer is |
perhaps the greatest tenor the stage |
has kown. 1t is interesting, in view of |
the rdegree to which this country mo- |
nopolizes the services of the great sing |
ers, that M. de ReSzke since he first |
sang here ten years ago had appeared |
only in Russia a few times and for a |
limited number of performances at the
Covent Garden season. He came here
a poor man and has fortune now.
Both Mines. Sembrich and Meba, the
two greatest colature sopranos of their
time, are to be here. Nine Sembrich
who represents the art of song as it ex-
listed only in Adelina Patti until her
practical retirement began, will sing in
song recitals and with her own compa-