The age-herald., 1901-11-01
Auditorium Receipts for Grau Company Goes Beyond
 Expectations
CRITICISMS OF THE OPERA
Many Think sembrlch Unqualified for Elsa and Say Miss Bridewell Should Have Something
 Better Suited to Her.

AiC SAAeto C'Ktie OOltlpdIly leII 1lTminR- ham for New Orleans in two hours after the performance closed Wednesday night, but Lohengrin was the principal theme of discussion yesterday in many house. holds and counting rooms, and on the sidewalks. Some said Sembrich was so fine as to be above criticism, while others expressed themselves as being disappoint- ed with her Elsa.
 Touching the artists there was a con gard to Damrosch and the orchestra there seemed to be but one estimate-no better orchestral work could have been de- sired or imagined.
 Receipts Over $7,o0o.
 Boyle & Edwards. the managers of the Auditorium, said that the box office busi- ness was found to be even larger than they at first reported, The receipts were over $70OO. After deducting the amount of guarantee to Grau, s5oe0, and local ex- penses. which amounted to $500 or $7OO the Auditorium management cleared fully s150O.
 MT. Boyle said that there were not less than 4oO0 people in the house, and that 200O of the entire audience were in the gallery
 Grau's manager stated that the com pany was carrying on this tour POT peo- pie. Of this number something like thirty went direct from Atlanta to New Or leans. The orchestra numbered forty seven, the chorus about forty, the prin- cipals, six; stage hands, fourteen; cleo tricians six; baggage men, 10; maids and valets six; official staff, five; supernu- meraries on the train, fifteen. This would leave twenty eight unaccounted for No matter, Grau has a large and expensive company. the largest and most highly paid that ever came this way.
 What Artists. Are Paid.
 The best paid person In the company is Madame Sembrich, who has a contract to appear sixty times during the season for S30,0oe-s509 for each appearance. Schumann-Heink comes next at $45O a performances; Flames gets $4O0; CaIve gets s4oO when she appears, which is very sell dom; Bispham gets $s5o; Dippel receives s25o; fMuhlmann s2Oo; Blass $50. Miss Brideweu is said to receive $1oe a week. After this season she will be paid by the night.
 The price paid to the chorus singers ranges from SIS to s22 a week.
 The orchestra Is an expensive part of the opera. Franko. the concertmeister gets s2oo a week. The second concert meister gets $50 a week, and the other first violins receive $35 The first wood xxfn art1 hroec cyniox as the first violfns while all the second players get s25 In addition to paying salaries the company pays all railroad fares and allows certain amount for hotel expenses. With these and other heavy expenses Grau did not clear more than 5000 on his Birmingham guarantee; maybe not more than half of that amount.
 MT. Grau was not in Birmingham. This season each opera is sung in the language in which it Is written. Last season and season before in New York it was sometimes otherwise. French as we'll as German was frequently heard in Lohengrin. Birmingham had the privi- lege of hearing Lohengrin not only in German throughout but as German schol- ars say in the best of German pronun- citation.
 As to comment on the Wednesday night performance here are some of the re- marks made by men competent to pass on musical art.
 Criticism Met His Views. Captain Frank P OBrten: T enjoyed Lohengrin. I heard the opera when Melba sang Elsa Sembrich is not equal to Melba in that role; still she showed herself to be great artist. Carrie Bridewell in the role of Ortund acquitted herself with exceptional credit and 1t will not be a long while before she will take rank with the. greatest stars of the operatfc stage.
 .sBut if the curtain had never been rlIng up the orchestra. with Walter Damrosch directing, would have afforded an evening of rare enjoyment. Damrosch has turned out to be even a finer conductor than his distinguished father. The orchestra was one of the finest that have ever heard" Oliver Chalifoux; T sat too close to the orchestra to enjoy the opera. I made a mistake in not getting a seat for myself and wife in the balcony. As 1t was, ev- erythfng sounded wrong.
 .As for Wagner, I am not the enthus- fast in shis behalf that some musicians are. Wagner was a great mathematician but his operas do net stir me as some of the older German and French works do.
 CT had been studying the score of Lo- hengrin. expecting to follow the opera closely. but being right against the or- chestra. I lost all the beauty of the per- formance."
 Henry Taylor Staats: 'T was dfsap- pointed in Sembrich. Elsa is not the role for her. It goes without saying that Sem brich is an uncommonly fine artist, but in some passages her voice sounded thin.
 Miss Brtdewell did remarkably well considering the fact that 1t was her first appearance as Ortrud. But speaking crit ically. I do not think it wise for Miss Bridewell to include Ortrud In her reper- toire. She is contralto and her best notes are in the middle and lower regis ters. Orthud reaches A sharp which is rather high for natural contralto. It is mezzo-soprano part. Yet as remarked, Miss Bridcwell did we'll under the cir cumstances- Her German was good and it Is q noteworthy fact that all the ar lists enuneiated we'll. Muhlmann as Tel ramund made a splendid impression; and DippeI as Lohengrin was at his best The chorus was weak. So much for the stage.