Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-01-21
METROPOLITAN u S
Special New York Correspondence.

Special New York Correspondence.
Musical interest is still conferred in the
opera, and Manager Grau and his able
assistants are doing everything that in
their power lies to quicken the desires of
the ~laggards, and to satisfy the most blase
of the musical epicures.
The recent productions are worthy of
especial mention-the first performances
this season of Aida and ''Tannhauser'-
The first serving to introduce Mime. Eames
in the role of the Egyptian slave-princess,
and the other giving us the finest bit of
acting the Metropolitan has seen in man.
a day.
Time was when we were wont to ~criticise
Nine. Eames for lack of fire and feeling.
Beautiful she always was and possessed
of a beautiful voice, and she always sang
charmingly. But of passion she expressed
little. Her Juliet" was like her MAR
guerite," and her Eva like them both.
Then came a change. Massenet's
"Werther" was produced and Jean de
Reske and Emma Eames portrayed the
hapless lovers. Goethe's heroine was pic
tured to the life. AS scene after scene
passed in review there was presented to US
a character, so complete in every detail,
so true to our conception of what Wer-
Tiers sweetheart was and ought to have
been, that we forgot the beautiful woman,
forgot the beautiful voice, but our hearts
beat fast and our eyes were bedimmed
by the recital of the woes of the quaint
little fraulein on the stage. There were
tears in Nine. Eames voice that night.
And the opera was given but once!
Well, then came her ELSA" a delight to
the eye, to the heart, to the brain. Poetic
in conception, sweetly womanly in delin-
cation, the character was made as winsome
a maid as ever Knight of Holy Grail came
to earth to save, to WOO and to win. And
this was quickly followed by a Sieglinde,
full of charm, but weighted with the
knowledge of impending evil-evil to her
only-born-the fearless one-for whom she
gave her ove-her life.
In Aida, Nine. Eames is, perhaps, in a
larger sense, dramatic than in any of her
other characters, and for this Verdi is
largely responsible. There are never any
very subtle metaphysical questions for his
heroines to solve They are not so much
types as individuals. Their work is Clearly
cut. They ave brilliant musical num-
bers to sing, and Gin his later works.
dramatic situations to hold. The charac-
ter of Aida possesses tremendous posi-
bilities, and not since the long ago days
of Col. Mapleson and the Academy of
Music, when dear little magnetic Nine.
Arribre, with the blood of Southern France
in her veins and the voluptuous cry of a
Cleopatra in her slender throat, sang,
| acted, was Aida, have we had so COM
plete a picture of Amdnasero's daughter.
pictorially, unsteady and dramatically as
has recently been depicted by Nine.
Eames.
It is seldom tina we are privileged to
witness so well acted a scene on the
operate stage as that to which we were
hidden on Friday of last week at Tam
hauser's'' premier. 1t had been a night
of strange contrasts, of surprises and
disappointments. Mr.. Paur conducted and
1 liked neither the Introduction of the
Paris version of the Venusberg scene
after the close of the overture. nor the
tempt given to the majority of the
choruses. The theatric splendor of the
choral work in the second act was rob-
bed of all its glitter by the hurry and
scurry with which the choristers brandish-
ed their musical phrases, and the we'll
known chant of the returning Pilgrims
lacked ac~centuation, rhythm, and conse-
Quently, force and meaning. But there
were other moments when it seemed as
if the conductor was some wierd nypno-
fist, an orchestral Svengali, drawing at
will harmonies from the instruments about
him so gorgeous in color, so heart salts
flying, that one would fain forget the
slips of a moment ago in the intoxication
of the present. And then remember that
the beautiful Evening Star" was sung
as few mortals could sing it, and as no
one Din my short day. ever had sung it,
and you are prepared for the scene in
which Van Dyck immortalized himself by
the recitation of his ~fruitless journey to
Rome. This is the stumbling block to all
tenors. They either rant or fall asleep.
1t is one of the most difficult passages in
any operate part. While his companion
CWolfram) stands in one position Tam
hauser relates at great length his entire
pilgrimage to Rome and return. Half
sitting under the shadow of the wayside
cross, with but few gestures and with
hardly a movement or change of feature.
the weary pilgrim told the story of his
wanderings in so picturesque a manner and
with such dramatic grouping of scenes and
incidents that we, too, journeyed with him
and shared his curse, and when at last his
pent up feelings could contain them
selves no longer and he burst forth in the
oS VI eWO UaHAea - venus anu nef
accursed train, we, too, needed the lame
of the holy Elizabeth breathed in our ear
to bring US back from the brink of mental
perdition.
And, thus far, these two representations
have been the most prominent in a season
of much individual excellence.
FREDERIC DEAN.
As has been previously indicated in the
Register, there has been a movement on
foot for some weeks to bring Ignace Pader-