The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-11-15
OPERA AND RING FIGHTS.

tendencies that seem opposed to each other at
- every point. We in annual season OF
grand opera. The works of the great lyric composers
are being rendered in style equal to that of any
metropolis in the world, and their Interpretation is
by artists that not outranked on any lyric stage
The repertoire includes such variety of subjects and
illustrates completely what may be called the
rous schools of music that public has the oppor
tuny to study them and catch the thrill and inspira-
ton that had being in the tuneul souls of the great
who created these lasting pleasures for the en-
tertainment and refinement of the world.
In Carmen" "Tannhauser," die Walkure,"
Faust" "Manon," "La Boheme," Romeo ct
Juliette," Figaro" LA Travata," "Lohengrin' and
their companion works every chord of the human
heart is touched and returns its sympathetic thrill
The voice of music is uttered in every tone, from
light to somber and every human passion is ex-
pressed in that universal language. 1t is art of the
first order and whatever educating function it has is
in action for the benefit of people. The audiences
may be present from motives as great in variety
the music to which they listen, but among them are
not many of the lower and baser. As they go forth,
with spirits raised by the harmony of sound it safe
to say that it is not to be worse than when they
tered the temple of the Heavenly Maid" They have
been subjected to an influence that reaches in
broken lire back to the first man who blew into
reed and made sound that the beginning
of music. They have been under the spell of an art
that is nearly old prayer among the manifesto
tons of mans religious instincts They have greeted
that which is pure in spirit that vice, ready
to and debase the arts to her purpose has found
this too virgin to her
No man nor woman nor child has been made worse
or coarser, and from many heart burdens have been
lifted, by the ineffabe hand of harmony
1t is known in the history of music that men have
been turned from intended wrong by its nlinistra-
TONS A cadence has touched slumbering chord of
goodness and its vibrations have turned the soul
again to a concordance with virtue and gentleness
These queens of song and masters of melody are
preachers, every one, and they utter great
All this illustrates tendency Critics and cyncs
may have theft say about it. They may declare that
the audiences show forth the vanity of fashion, and
that pride and selfshness deck them to see and be
seen. But if this be admitted only the lighter dross
that is in human nature has been mpeached
The other tendency leads to different scene
greater audience than any at the opera will meet
to applaud prize-fght. On Saturday night
daughter of California will give to her people the
benediction of art at the opera-house and son of
California will fight tonight in the ring at the Pa
vilion What nights of and contradictions
Seats at the Pavilion will command higher prices
than boxes at the opera, and will not be an "of
night"-every seat will be filled. The audience has
been arriving for week, from New Orleans and
New York and far Boston. Perhaps not twenty
people have come to the opera from Oakland with
only the bay to The people who will be in
town that night from Stockton, Sacramento Los An
geles and Fresno will be at the Pavilion not at the
Opera-house. They do not come to be moved by a
concord of sweet sounds, but to see one Prize
fighter knock out another They do not applaud
tone and pitch, but uppercuts and blows we'll landed
on the "kisser" "smeller' or lamps of the unfor-
tunate victim and the height of their enthusiasm will
be reached when thump the solar plexus lays
him low with dull thud and he quvers as if life were
trying tear loose from the feshy fiber while the
referee counts the number of seconds given him to
rise and fight on or lie unconscious while the belt
and the worlds championship and glory of the ring
go to another. The bets made involve a sum that
Patti might envy, and the money will change hands
and much be thrown at birds of a feather with the
winners.
SO art and brute force hold high carnival in the
same city, encouraged by the same community One
lifts up, the other throws down. One rehnes the
other coarsens If cavl because pride and vanity
may be in plues at the Operahouse, what are we to
say if disorder and violence in evidence at the
Pavilion?
CALIFORNIA; lark What will violence and disorder get
from the right and left handlers of CALIFORNIA; glad-
ator?