The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-02-23
.LIBRETTO is POOR
PADEREWSKPS GGoD MUSIC IN
''MANRU" PARTLY SPOILED
BY NOSSIG
BAERNsTEIN IS COMING AGAIN
New York BassO Will Be Heard in
''The Creation This Spring
Current Musical
Notes.

The recent production in New York of
Paderewslds opera, ''Manru,'' was of in
tereSt not only to New Workers, but to
music lovers in every part of the coun-
try. Mr.. DamTOsch was musical director,
and the principal roles were sung by Nine,
Sembrich, Miss Schoff, Mrs Homer Ban
drOwsl1i, Bispham Muhlmann and Blass.
A well known New York critic gives the
following comprehensive criticism of the
new production:
For Paderewski it is a triumph of mind
over matter. For Alfred Nosslg, his Ii
bretuSt, 1t IS a dire failure, for with a
theme Ideally suited to musico-dramatic
Il eaUment, he has deliberately thrust as de
us possibilities and turned out an Oper-
allc plot of the old-fashioned kind For
tunately the theme of the opera is so big
OF itself that even the librettist could not
altogether bury it, and when it comes to
the surface, especially in the third act,
the composer has seized upon it and
treated it in a fashion which makes one
believe that had he had a fair chance in
The first two acts we should have had a
splendid masterpiece.
The basic theme is, or ought to have
been, If the librettist had not seen fit to
alter it, the contest in the soul of a
strong man between his love for his wife
and child and the hereditary race instinct
OF his gypsy blood He has married a
Slfl OF another race and has had a child
by ner. For her he has given UP his
people as she has hers But after a year
or so the woods and the highways cal
10 nm. The wandering spirit of his race
IS seething in his blood, and when at last
me old gypsy fiddler, Jagu, comes for
him, plays for him the wild strains of
ISlgane music, the conflict in his soul he
gins and the final tragedy is foreshadow-
ed Here We have ali the elements of a
great muSlc-drama, a theme Of mighty
strength, but Of elementary simplicity,
with action which is developed solely
through a titanic conflict in a mans -souI
between of
humanity, love for wife and child and
tne hereditary traits of race
Made 1t Commonplace.
But .NosAiG' has not been content to
take the problem as it is and solve it in
the most obvious way He begins nv
weakening the hero. UIana in the .irst
act tells US that Manru's love has grown
cold He is Wearied of her. In the sec
ond act Manru himself betrays that the
love of the peasant girl pals on him
and when Jagu comes to urge him to
return to the tribe it is not the race in
stinct in him that moves him; it is the
memory mel OF Asa, the dark-eyed gypsy,
SRI, that rouses his regret for the life
ne has abandoned. ightway he is
nldoe' Ihstead OF a tragic figure, an ordi-
nary, trite theatrical hero
With such material to work with +ba
wonder is that the composer has succeed
ca SO We'll There is little inspiration for
him in the first two acts.
But in the third act the elementary
theme rises in its might and suhd11nS
even an unwilling librettist despite the
weakening it has undergone by making
Taclal instinct fight with duty toward
VIE and child instead of with love for
them Nature is storming as is Manru's
soul He is fighting the bitter battle with
rate. At the crucial moment the gypsies
come TO MIN, and Asa, his old love with
phem. Neither Asa nor the gypsies can
persuade him to go with them and he
their king, until Jagu comes with his
musicians and plays the wild music Of
ic
mlusAcaIly, dramatically and scenicaIly
mat he Will go with them is predestinpd-
ana all that is needed is to end the story
which is done by making UIana drouy1,
herself and the dwarf Urok hurI ManrI
out OF the arms Of his latest love into
the lake, there to join his deserted. wife
~ ueath' Rather an anticlimax.
Music of Last Act.
In this last act it is Paderewski ana
Paderewski alone who has written tba
music. In the other two he has foIIoWn6.
more or less conventional patterns. par
69cularly Bizet and Wagner Most of the
list i acI Is nght music of a popular stripe
very effective and significant baiIaf
winch ends it, but the choruses have -
s Blzs[ ia color. and the knocking song,
6Immel voll,'' might have come from
Offenbach. Dramatically, the music Is
1IIslgIl1cant- IN the second act it is only
the ecstatic longing of Manru which be-
trays the personality of the COMPOSER
truly powerful dramatic writing which
rings with originality-and the violin
music played off the stage by Jagu. This
mas the real gypsy curve, and is used
most effectively in the last act, The
Jorge song marks back to Siegfried and
GISna,s Grade Song" though pretty
ana charming in its naive melodiousnesS
Is similar TO hundred other songs of
the same kind. The love duet. which
viii probably become very popular has
passion and real melody, but it's treaT-
ment and development carries one hack
70 the source of all modern love duets
Tristan.
In the third act, however, we find a
There is a wild, hurrying, rhapsodic nre.
lDde in harmony with the storm in Man
rus soul and with the wind-swept slIv
When the curtain rises the storm IS
still raging. Manru, in desperation. has
rushed to the mountains to reioin his
tribe. Exhausted, he throws himseIf
down on the ground and the orchestra
tells US more plainly than words the
conflict within him. The storm of Inc
elements dies, the moon comes out ca M
and placid, and Manru sleeps. Then
come the gypsies in a stirring march and
quickly follows the great-the one-scent
Of the opera, when Manru, adamant to
The coquettish guile of Asa, yields to
the suasion of the Tsigane music
The chief factor in the opera is the
orchestra. PadereWsk does not write
well for the voice, He treats it almost
fundamentally, except in the few set
pieces, such as some of the choruses.
Ulana's lullaby, parts of Manrus forge