The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-24

that a woman may come to great fame
on the operate stage without the gift
of histrionic ability. She has come to
fortune as well during the ten years she
has sung here. Nine. Melba made her
first appearance thirteen years ago and
| came to New York in 1893 During that
first season she sang for six hundred
dollars performance and this year her
compensation will be twice that sum-
Milka Ternina is one of the younger
artists for America, although her fame
in Germany has been established for
the last decade, and she came rather in
conspicuously to this country five years
ago with one of Walter Damrosch's OPP
era companies. Mile Ternina Is re-
garded to-day as the greatest of the
Wagnerian singers who is to carry on
the traditions of the school of Lilli Leh-
mann, Theresa Malten and the great
women who have left no successors in
their own country except this soprano.
She differs from them in that her style
is less heroic and vigorous, but she Is
superior to all in possessing method
| of song more finished and artistic than
any of them ever boosted. Mile. Ter
nina is now approaching the end Of the
thirties and Is thus al the very height
of her powers. Women as we'll trained
as she sing better at the age of forty
and thereabouts than when they are
younger, and it requires indeed the full
maturity of their talents to enable
them to do justice to the great drama
| tic roles they interpret Nine. Eames
has said that she will not attempt
Isolde until she Is forty, and that shows
her conception of the difficulties of the
role Nine. Ternina Is a native Of Croa-
| tia and her first language was Italian,
She has lived in Germany since her mu-
! steal career began and her education for
the lyric stage was acquired from Ger
| man teachers.
| Nine Schumann- Heink, the famous
| Wagnerian contralto, returns under
particularly interesting circumstances,
as it is probable that she will not be
heard here after this season. Her large
! family is kept in her home near Ores
den, and she must be separated from
them during the greater part of every
year She is a member of the company
at the Royal Opera House in Berlin
and has to be released on long leave OF
absence to come here for her American
tours. She has already told her friends
that she intends to remain in Germany
after this season and sing regularly in
Berlin.
Clara Butt, who is to come back for
her second season in concert, will bring
oil
Kennerly Rumford He is a barytone
and will be heard in concert, not with
his wife, but alone. Miss Butt, as she
is still to be called, represents English
singing as it exists to-day, for in orato-
rio and the concert field is the spirit of
English musical art to be found. Her
beautiful voice is unique, however, and
one forgets how markedly English she
is in every detail of her art and also
overlooks the striking fact that she IS
six feet two and three-fourth inches !
tall. Fortunately, she has other quail
ties that make her notable. 1t would
be trying to be distinguished as merely |
the tallest contralto in the world.
The other notable figures in the CO.
hort of great singers are Edouard de |
TGSZkb, IOl IldlCOll, <Alltplllo kpSObhi I
and Giuseppe Campanari. These four
men lend themselves readily to classiti- :,
cation For natural beauty of voice, |
Edouard de Reszke and Giuseppe Cam
panari would be named first, yet for |
the highest finish and musicianship in
their art Pol Plancon and Antonio Scot
tt are more eminent.
Of the most distinguished American
singers, who are practically foreigners
so far as their way of life goes and
come to their native land only to fill |
their engagements and then return to
Europe, the most eminent will be miss
ing this year. Nine. Emma Eames is
not in good health and will remain at
her home in Paris during the winter
Nine. Nordica is to be heard with the
opera company, and it is rather against
the tendency of operate affairs that she
is this year to receive higher compen-
sation than she ever did before. Nine.
Nordica has sung in opera since 1873,
and it usually happens that theearnings
of the women singers decline after a
certain period. Nine. Nordica took the
heavy Wagner roles, however, and be-
gan five years ago an entirely new ca
reer, which has brought her more emil
nence than any of her previous efforts
had. Her great success came late and
it is for that reason that she is now re-
ceiving a larger salary than she ever
did before Probably sixty thousand
dollars will be the extent of the profit
from her years work and that is
sum that ought to satisfy any singer,
|
Sun.