The San Francisco call., 1904-06-12

turning his back upon her, comes down
to the footlights and tells ths audiences
how he adores her. When he has IN
ished. he, In his turn. retirss into ths
corner and she comes down and tells
the audience that she Is simply mad
about him. Overcome with 10y at nnd-
ing she really cares for him. he comes
down right" and says that this Is the
happiest moment OF his life; and she
stands left" twelve feet away from
him, and has the presentiment that all
this sort OF thing is much too good TO
last. They go off together backward.
side by side. II there Is any love-
making, such as I understand by the
term, II is done off" This Is not my
idea OF acting. But I do not see how
you are going to substitute for 1t any
thing more natural. When you are
singing at the top OF your voice, you
don't want a heavy woman hanging
round your neck. When you are kill
ing a man and warbling about IL at the
same time, you don't want him fOOling
around you defending himself You
want him to have a little reasonable
patience and TO wait IN his proper place
till you have finished telling him. or
rather telling the crowd, how much
you hate and despise him. When the
proper time comes-and II he is where
you expect to find him while thinking
OF your upper C-you viii hit him light
ly on the shoulder with your sword,
and then he can die TO his own partic-
ular tune. II you have been severely
wounded in battle, or in any sort OF a
row, and have got to sing a long bal
lad before you finally expire, you don't
want to have to think how man
would really behave who knew he had
only got few minutes to live and was
feeling bad about 1t. The chances are
that he would not want to sing at all.
The woman who really loved him would
not encourage him to sing. She would
want him TO keep quiet while she moved
herself about a bit. in case there was
anything that could be done for him.
If blOOdthirsty mob Is climbing the
stairs after you. you do not want to
stand upright with your arms stretched
out :. good eighteen inches from that
door. while you go over at some length
the varied incidents leading up to the
annoyance. II your desire were to act
naturally you would push against that
door for all you were worth. and yell
for somebody to bring you a chest Of
drawers and a bedstead-things like
that, TO pile up against IT.. II you were
king, and were giving a party. you
would not want your guests to ok you
up at the other end OF the room and
leave you there, with nobody TO talk to
but your own wife. while they turned
their backs upon you, and had a long
and complicated dance all to them
selves. You would want to be in II.
you would want TO let them know that
you were king In acting, all these lit
tie points have to be considered. In
opera, everything is rightly sacrificed
TO musical necessity. I have seen the
young, enthusiastic opera singer who
thought that he or she could act and
sing at the same time. The expe-
rienced artist takes the center OF the
stage and husbands his resources.
Whether ne is supposed to be indig-
nant because somebody has killed his
mother. or cheerful because he is going
out to fight his cOuntry's foes, who are
only waiting till he has finished singing
before attacking the town, he leaves 1t
to the composer to make clear.
Also it was Herr Wagner's idea that
the back cloth would leave the opera
gOer Indifferent to the picture gallery.
1t cannot be done. Herr Wagner, be-
heve me. You cannot substitute the
Music Drama for all the arts combined.
The object to be aimed at by the wise
composer should be to make US, while
listening to his music. rorgetfuI Of all
remaining artistic considerations.