The sun., 1903-12-06

AAuAoVh VAioe AL W % WVa OOASAo A1o 80 ~F
Didn't have timer The intermission
between the first and second acts was
nearly half an hour long Il Is q safe bet
on the Metropolitan Opera House stage
any night. and with the help Of the stage
, carpenter, six grips, two fymen and the
property man, to set that scene properly In
ten minutes, But then Mr.. Humphreys
speaks English. In fact, he Is said to speak
it very plainly at times.
A vision of singers! After ALL they are
the magnets that attract the public to the
opera house. Mr.. Conried's company now
stands pretty we'll disclosed, and 1t Is in
teresting to note how badly of 1t is for
singers Of minor parts. Why does the
gnawing tooth Of time attack such useful
people as Mathilde Bauermeister? She
has hardly shred Of voice left, but she
knows the stage and Is acquainted with the
operas. Think of being driven to mourn
Bauermeister! 1t was positively painful
to hear IN great opera house such singing
as that OF the shepherd behind the scenes
In the last act of aTosca."
And the valkyrs! or course people
must begin somewhere. But ought they
house nsys tse 4sss ss Of NSs 49zss Hsve %
and Rouen and TIE Hague gone out OF
existence? Think Of Marcia van Dresser,
Lillian Heidelbach, Josephine Jacoby, Isa-
belle Bouton and Paula Ralph occupying
ssf pa9ss ThIh iea Heer to F e ss sahe y
Camille Seygard and the like! It was
hard on Brdnnhilde There was q double
meaning in Wotan's words:
I' ist die ne'si ,reuoss Si schwes.er seschleden:
Durch die Lnftc sic reltct ncht langer.
One new singer among the women folk
claimed high position last week. That
was Edyth Walker, who has perfect right
to spell her name with y If she likes it
that way She used to be q general favorite
in Vienna and there seems to have been
good reason for her popularity. OF course
she was rather liberal in her display of some
of the reasons on Monday night, but that,
is a matter that need not be discussed now.
Suffice 1t to say that her new costumes in
Amneris both were and made revelations.
But Miss Walker can sing, or at least she
could on Monday night. So many artists
have made brilliant beginnings here and
have afterward permitted themselves to
be deuded into the belief that public taste
in New York was represented by the yelling
bravos behind the orchestra rail that the
commentator must be cautious about ac-
cepting a debut as an earnest ofthe future.
Once the singer gets the notion that storm
of applause will always follow tour de
JORGE and that no other appreciation is to
be expected, good-by to refined art.
Let us hope that Miss Walker will seek
higher standards. She was capital Am
neris. and there was something quite Like
vrasemblence in the troubles Of Rhdddmes,
sought by two such women as this and the
Aida. Miss Walker has a most excellent
figure and her stage presence is uncom-
monty good, though she is not beautiful
woman. She is rather woman of dis
tinguished appearance. She has an e1-
cellent voice. of clear, and even brilliant
quality. 1t is cool and dispassionate
organ. 1t has no melting meilowness, but
it is free from glittering metallic qualities.
1t is fairly we'll delivered, and at any. rate
the tones are steady, carry we'll and are
almost faultless in intonation, All this,
be it remembered, applies 10 last Monday
nights debut.
Her Interpretation of the role of the
daughter of Egyptian kings seemed little
too cold and stately in tie early evening,
and certainly there was q plentiful lack q
yehemence in her scene with Aida IN Act IL
act and the ensuing episode with tine priests
were acted and sung With plenty OF dramatic
force. Rarely indeed has the beautiful
duet between Rhdddmes and Aida, "Gia
sacerdoti adunansi.' been sung 90 ad-
mirably in this town az it was on Monday
night by Miss Walker and Mr.. Caruso.
And there WAS something like real passion
in Miss Walkers "Ah. tu del vivere!" On
the whole it was, as the Scots say, a good
minutes in that last act, and somehow the
elder days persist in seeming to be better
ones; but even with the memories Of Cam
panini's elemental bursts in RhadGmes. and
the sweeping power and majestic breath OF
Annie Louise Cary's Amneris IN mind 1t is
giant. vet quite honest, treatment OF the
roles by Car,iso and Walker.
Who taught Mr.. CarusO to make those
peculiar creecendi ending in such exag-
tone terminates in an explosion? Beware
of the fatal push! Every singer rho has
heaven sent voice should preserve it, The
push" is death to the purity Of tone:
Not thus would a Caffarell or a Farinelli
naGe sTven 10 'e youps man S
the strength OF thy youth, or the prime Of
life will find thee with holes in thy middle
register such as De Witt made in the Yale
rush line.
What has happened to the sound of the
orchestra al tne MetTopOillan! lneTe S
no question whatever that the orchestra is
good one It's intonation is generally
much better than 1t used to be. The Eng
lish horn is little woolly to be sure, but the
rest of the wood wind Is isserviceable. The
brass is of good repute, and the strings are
composed of players Of standing in the
profession.
But the body OF tone is no longer homo
geneous. 1t reaches out into the audi
torium in broken fragments. For ex-
ample. The SUNS chroncler of musical
events hears the bass tuba like the sound
of an S-inch gun. while the tronSones are
about right. These instruments are all
on the right hand side OF the orchestral
group. The horns are on the left. and al
though eight were used in "Die Walkuere,"
the tone was not more than that Of four,
while the tenor tubas, which are just be-
hind the horns, at the extreme left of the
orchestra, came out powerfully. The
strings sound dull, except in the luscious
tutti passages of Puccini's ia Bohame."
These new effects are doubtless due to the
lowering OF the orchestra pit. 1t was
hazardous thing to change the level of the
be the result of such an alteration. 1t