The Saint Paul globe., 1904-05-22

American contraltos. the Misses Fremstad
and Walker and Nine. Homer, the native
contingent Will be remarkably strong 1t
IS popularity of these American singers
tnat they excel in lyric song as we'll as
the dramatic style, and with them at
command. Mr.. Conried will have a chance
to atone for his shortcomings last season
In the French and German repertory. The
men still have to be exported. There are
the Metropolitan opera school, but they
are beginners For next season Mr.. Con-
ried, if he is wise will, engeage the De
Reszke brothers With Jean for the Ger
man and some of the French operas, and
Caruso for the Italian crowded houses
may be counted on at all the perform
ances 1t may be true that Jean de
what OF it? 1t is in opera singing as
in book publishing. Such writers as Ten
nyson: Gladstone. lRudyard Kipling, may
publishers found it profitable to overpay
them.
While the Parisians are again going to
have through cars to Bayreuth this sum
mer, Lyons now proudly claims the title
of ''the French Wagneropolis,' since 1t is
the first city in France that has given a
complete cycle of the Nibelung operas.
The ''Walkure" was first given in 1894;
tSiegfried' followed in 1901; "Rheingold''
in 1908, and 'GOtterdammerung' early
lowed. The brilliant success of the cycle
is attributed largely to the energy and
enthusiasm of the conductor, Flon (for-
merly of Brussels and for a time of the
New York Metropoiitan). 1t is some
what surprising to find NJ Flon lauded
as a Wagner expert In New York he had,
Of course, no opportunity to conduct the
Wagner works, though he would have
been delighted to get an opportunity. 1t
will be remembered that MancinelH left
us because he could no crafty his
that Signor Toscanini, of Milan. refused
Mr. Conried's offer except on condition
that he was to preside over the Wegner
operas.
Strauss-not the ephemeral upstart
Richard but Johann, the Waltz King, the
great and only Strauss-has at last taken
Paris by storm. In 1877. three years after
the production of Die Fledermaus"
("The Bat''), the most popular of all the
Strauss operettas, an attempt was made
to acclinate it in the French capital un-
der the name of La Tsigane;" but, ow-
ing partly to the arbitrary changes made
by DeIacour and Wilder in the music as
well as the hbretto, and still more to the
hostility and jealousy of Onenbach and
his cohorts it was not success. The
new production, on the contrary, has made
such a sensation that the newspapers are
talking about the event as indicating the
probability Of a general revival OF the
nineteenth century operettas. Everybody
is humming and singing the enchanting
Strauss tunes. LIE Figaro commends La
Chauye- -Souris,' as it is now called, to its
f6dQ6GS, because 1t pIONtuSS, dUON0 cl1
things, "le delicieux regal dune adorable
muSique qui constitute une yeritable par
tition;" while another critic describes this
score as music full of joyousness and
esprit, tender and sarcastic, music which
gives life a rosy tint and intoxicates like
new wine on a sunny afternoon, reJuVe-
mating and enrapturing.
A man who used to be known as "the
king of the baritones Johann Nepomuk
RePk--rGQanflU died in Vienna He a
great actor as well as a great singer, and
Richard Wallaschek mentions among his
good qualities the fact that he enunciated
so distinctly that every syllable could be
understood in the remotest part of the
gallery. His voice was so strong that no
orchestral fortissimO could drown it. He
was at his best in Don JUAN" "Fidelio, "
Aida and particularly the operas of
Meyerbeer; excellent also in the Flying
Dutchman,' but the other Wagner op-
eras presented difficulties which he could
not overcome. Extensive cuts had to be
made whenever he sang Hans Sachs. The
cal, and he gradually gave up the Wagner
roles to Reichmann. What seemed diff
cult, if not impossible, to Beck, was easy
to his successor; and today, as Wallaschek
remarks, even mediocre singers are eX
pected, as a matter of course, to conquer
the difficulties in Wagner's roles. Thus
does the art of song progress.
The Russian pianist De Pachmann will
be cordially welcomed next season by low
ers of Chopin in this country. He appears
to be more eccentric than ever, but that
does not prevent him from playing well.