Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-18
'PARS|FAL' DRAWS
As GREAT MAGNET
IMMENSE AUDIENCE HEARS
FESTIVAL DRAMA
ITS DIGNITY is IMPRESSIVE
Temple Auditorium Crowded on the
First Night Of Grand Opera.
stars In Excellent
Voice
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by sleepless nights and pitiable drudg-
cry. hammerlng her little fingers to
numbness playing dance music for
well-to-do-people, and with the meager
hoard clutched in those same tired
fingers. she stood for five hours In
the bitter cold with the line Of people
waiting for the gallery entrance to
open. Then with the crowd, pushing
and painting she was thrown, tramp
led, beaten up the stors, her little saw
ings gone and the precious ticket given
I'D. till she found herself huddled away
in a corner Of the gallery. And then
she heard Patti. and for two brief
hours the sordid earth became a para
disc. such a paradise as the
poor little Polish girl hoped to
reach, perchance, beyond the portals
of death.
This brilliant, yet modest queen of
the lyric stage is the daughter of a
poor Polish musician, Casimir kok-
hansky, and was born at Wisnowczyk,
Galicia. Her father was by profession
a. violinist, and had taught himself to
play the piano. He began to teach
the little Marcella piano playing when
she was only four years old, and at
the age of six he set her to work at the
most difficult of all instruments, the
violin.
These were dark days though for the
girl. Unknown to her teachers in the
conservatory, she went on with her
labors at the dances of the rich. Night
after night she went out and pounded
at waltzes and quadrilles until the
small hours Of the morning. and then
went home to snatch a few brief hours
of sleep before it was time to go to
the conservatory. Many and many
time her tired fingers refused to strike
correctly the notes of Bach or Beet
hoven. "And then" said Professor
Stengel to me once, with tears in his
eyes, 'I used to slap her hands for her.
And she never told me how tired she
was"
And yet to Professor stengel she
owed much, for he was so deeply in
terested in her that he sent her to
Vienna to study with Julius Epstein
a famous teacher. While she was pur-
suing her work with this new master,
he heard her sing and recognized the
extraordinary beauty of her voice. He
at once advised her to lay aside the
piano and the violin, for a time at
least. and see what might be done with
the voice. The circumstances of the
Kokhansky family We're now somewhat
better, and the girl had saved some
money of her own. So young Marcella
took Epstein's advice and placed her
Rokitansky. Then he sent her to
Milan, where she studied for nearly a
year under the younger Lamperti, one
of a family of famous masters of sing
ing.
She made her debut in Italian opera
in Athens, singing in 81 Puritani."
Then she went to Berlin and studied
German opera with a horn-player, one
Richard Levy. She made her debut In
Dresden as Lucia, in Donizettis opera,
singing in German. Her success was
instantaneous, but she saw that there
was larger field for her in italian
opera, and so she returned to Milan,
where she sang Lucia brilliant sue
cess.
In 1883 she went to London, where
she was quite unknown, and called on
Ernest Gye, then the leading impress
sario and manager of Covent Garden
theater. He heard her sing and at
once offered her an engagement for
five years. She made her London debut
June ~. as Lucia, and was thoroughly
successful.
She was engaged by Abbey, SchoeffeI
& Grau as a member of the company
which opened the Metropolitan opera
house Of New York. She made her first
appearance in America at that house
on October "a, singing Lucia in Doni.
zettis opera.
Nine. Sembrlch's voice is one OF the
purest and most beautiful that the
world has ever heard. Its compass il
from the c below the treble cleft to the
above it. two octaves and half
Her mastery of the art Of song is per.
feet and her execution of all the orna
ments of the old italian school flawless
But above and beyond these accom-
plishments stand her poetic tempera
ment and her complete musicianship
Her treatment of the expressive power
Of music is beyond all praise. He
song recitals are the most beautiful
musical entertainments conceivable.
ON QUESTION OF DRESS