The sun., 1904-08-07
THE DAY OF TIE CONDUCTOR.
A NEW SORT OF PRIMA DONNA
no THE FRONT IN OPERA.
Germany Especially Conductor Crazy-The
Notion spreading to America Also
Conductors Conception OF Opera
the Important Thing to Some Minds.

Conductors Conception or opera
the Important Thing to Some Minds.
MUNICH, July le.--We import our singers
from where we can get them. We have
M prejudice against or prediction for any
race, nationality, creed or school 80 far as
singers are concerned. They are all well
come a, the Metropolitan Opera House or
Carnegie Hall so long as they have voice,
tnov how to sing, are good to look upon and
.how. II possible, some individual traits in
their Interpretation.
We have good use for singers from Italy
and France, Germany and Austria, Rou-
mania and Norway and we do not even
bar those of our own sort. provided their
American birth is not their only merit.
whether they are OF the heavy dramatic
order or of the coloratura specially, blonds
or brunettes, tall or small, ponderous or
dainty, they all have chance, and this
remarkable catholicity Of taste is one OF the
two great reasons why all the sopranos,
contraltos, tenors. barytones ard bassos
want to come back to dear America" after
their first season at the Metropolitan Opera
House
Even though the desire Of second en-
eagement may not be mutual, the singers
insist they love America. The second Of
the two great reasons, however, Is OF
,merely financial nature and does not con-
Germ us here; 1t may be left to the consid-
Grafton of the happy Herr Direktor, whose
pleasantest duty seems to be the cutting
Of high salaries.
But 1t seems that the time has come
when a great change will take place,
change In human musical merchandise;
the prirna donna and the primo uomo will
henceforth be dethroned and strange
dumb being will be the idol OF the musical
masses.
It is Of comparatively recent date that
the great American public discovered
the Importance OF the operatio and or
chestral conductor, but the leaders OF
the different opera houses and orchestras
in Germany are already aware Of our dis
covery. AS early as May Of this year
they all seemed to know that Mr.. Conried
needs a great Wagner conductor for the
Metropolitan Opera House, that the New
York Philharmonic Society has dates and
the necessary dollars for more than half
dozen concert conductors. and that Mr..
Savage wants to burden a renowned
European conductor with the artistic re-
sponsiblty for his English "Parsifal"
production.
The next thing they did was to figure
out the salary they would demand II asked
to sacrifice their present lucrative posts
and risk their lives by crossing the
d treacherous Atlantic. This process Of figur-
ing seems an extremely simple one.
Conductor N in P-has a much envied
post at the Hoftheater and draws salary
OF 10000 marks annually. He knows that
a mark Is a trife less than a fourth Of a
dollar, but he has been told that q mark
has about as much purchasing power in
Germany as dollar has In America.
Tales like this are frequently sown or
corroborated by travelling German-Ameri-
cans who love TO dazzle their former
countrymen at the Cafe Bauer In Berlin
by ordering a cigar for q marx and tipping
the waiter with half mark. And such
tales are readily believed by many Ger
mans who still accept absurd stories and
refuse the plain truth about the Western
continent.
Our conductor naturally considers twice
his German salary or-as he figures, $4,000
"a modest compensation for sacrificing
the congenial surroundings and the artistic
atmosphere OF Germany for the crude
musical conditions OF America. 1t is to be
feared or hoped, ao according to the view
we take that he will have to reconsider
his financial demands after the first inter-
view with the American impresario.
The latter, however, does not need to
travel in so many directions to inspect
the new musical merchandise. There are
undoubtedly some good and even great
conductors in every European country,
but the most desirable and available brood
OF conductors is to be found in Germany
and Austria
From Germany they have been sent out
to teach all the world, at least France and
England Spain and Russia, and there
they wait for new engagements. America,
however, bids fair to be their next great
stamping ground.
The new conductor, or the greater con-
ductor as he may prefer to be called, is
the product Of the Wagnerian epoch. From
technical drillmaster and rhythmic leader
of the orchestra, he has become an inter-
prefer, whose conception" is. 30 to say,
his stock in trade. His authority now
frequently outranks that of the composer.
In New York we condemn the public be-
cause 1t is more anxious to know who sings
than what is sung at the Metropolitan.
In Berlin they go still further. They ask
first whether Nikisch or Weingartner
conducts the concert, and second what
symphony is on the programme.
More than that. young composer
thinks little Of it when some good orchestra
with good but not famous leader works
hard in many rehearsals to give his COM
position fair trial, but he is delighted
when one Of the famous conductors con-
descends to produce his work after one
short and hurried rehearsal.
And the young composer is hardly to
blame, because the public in all probability
will be inclined to discover something
new and remarkable in his composition.
Tor no other reason than that the celebrated
conductor though. it worth his while to play
it, This reminds us OF the time when the
priina donna made the composer famous
by singing the principal part of his opera.
when, some years ago, a well known
tenor jokingly called another famous tenor
the last prima DONNA" he forgot to an
nounce -the greater conductor" AS the
prlrna donnas successor. 1t seems that
70 ;oh nit