The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-15
A NEW oPERATIC STAR.
Leo Slezak, the Youthful and Tai
ented Tenor.

ented Tenor.
(New York Commercial Advertiser)
Vienna.-A new star has arisen on
the operate armament of Vienna. His
name is Leo Slezak, and ne is a tenor.
lie is the possessor of a fine voice;
he has learned now to sing; ne is tall
and good looking; he evidences a fair
amount of hisJrionic ability, and, above
all, ne IS young, not having yet COM
pieted his twenty-siXth year. Little
cause Tor wonderment is there. there
fore, that when the most recent guest
OF the Vienna opera house presented
himself as a candidate for engagement
he should have had his contract signed.
sealed and delivered, with the highest
salary PAID to any of the singers Tor a
term of years, as the curtain fell for
the last time on the night of his first
appearance
Herr Slezak is a Moravian by birth. a
native OF the manufacturing town of
Brunn, where he received his school and
musical education, and where he made
his first attempts on the operate stage.
From the start he gave such promise of
future development that he was en-
gagged tentatively for three years by
the Berlin opera and when. after being
heard in the German capital, il was
found that with his unqusstionablen nat
ural gifts he lacked routine and exper-
fence, he was sent to Breslau for a
while to acquire both. His time there
has evidently not been unprofita bly,
employed, as, in addition to gaining a
valuable repertOry, he has pursued his
musical studies, and, in spite of his
youth, he apparently has his voice well
under his control. The Vigor, as such,
IS OF an unusually sympathetic quality
and OF extended, if not of phenomenal,
range 1t lacks the brilliancy one is
apt to look for in a heroic tenor, but it
not ID1nTnha hfn in, of
time it may gain this in addition to
greater power Not that one misses the
latter quality at present in the least.
for with his other eXCellencies Herr
Slezak exhibited in the four arduous
roles that he undertook during the ten
days he was here, an endurance that
was wholly enviable. Unlike the typical
German tenor of the present day, he did
not come forward in any of the de-
clamatory WagneTian parts, from
which, in most cases, 1t is so difficult
to gain an accurate idea of a singers
vocal proficiency, but appeared first
as Arnold in William Tell" then John
of Legion in 1.-THE Prophet" after
which came Rhadames in Aida" and
finally, Walter in Die Meistersinger. -
Much as his last impersonation was ap-
plauded and praised, his greatest sue
cess was achieved in the Rossini and
Meyerbeer operas. Assuredly no better
proof could be adduced as to the really
unusual qualities of the young artist,
for a singer who is able TO do Justice
to two such difficult parts may indeed
be regarded as a rara avis among the
tenors of the present. Gay.
Herr Slezak'S first musical studies
We're made under Herr AdOlph Robin
son, a baritone whom New Workers will
remember in the admirably organized
troupe that DR.. Leopold DamroSch
brought over to the Metropolitan opera
house for the first season of German
opera. After several years in America
he returned to Europe and settled in
Brunn as singing master. His efforts
in this direction met with such success
that ultimately he. moved to Vienna,
where, naturally, a wider field was
open to him, and where. in a very short
time, he has acquired the reputation of
being one of the best teachers for
young people about to adopt a career
on the operate stage. He is the only
one here who, in addition to cultivating
the voice, gives practical instructions
in acting, and to judge by the results.
one must admit that his pupils are
most capably trained. They come to
him from America as well as from this
side of the ocean, and he is reported
to have been specially fortunate in find
ing engagements for all those who have
graduated from his classes. Undoubt-
eddy the career of a singer like Slezak
viii help to make his name even more
generally and favOrably known than
il is at present, and may make him a
dangerous rival for those singing mas
ters whose Niennese reputation dates
back much further than Herr Robin