The San Francisco call., 1905-03-19

ment, taste and ambition however.
predestined her to grand opera. and,
on going abroad to complete her musi-
cal studies, she proceeded to Berlin.
where, under the tuition Of Lilli Leh-
mann, she developed the fine vocal and
dramatic qualities with which she has
been so generously endowed. In Ger
many she studied the chief mezzo So
prano. and some Of the dramatic So
prano. parts in the wagnerian roper
tory. adding tc them others of a quite
different kind, like Carmen and San
tuzza
Equally at home. too, is Miss Frem-
stad said to be In the roles of Sieglinde
and Fricka ("Die Walkuere'). Bran
gaene Christian und Isolde'D and Venus
C'Tannhauser') One Of her most ar
dent wishes has long been to realize.
as no other singer since Galli-Marie,
the brilliant creator of the part in
Paris, has realized it, the character Of
Bizet's capricious Carmen. She sang
the role in Germany, and with i'm
mense success. giving to it a color and
| meaning entirely different from yet
fully as fascinating as those lent TO It
by Calve. Another of her dreams will
have been realized when she interprets
! kundry. Beautiful. as few singers now
on the lyric stage are beautiful; tenn
peramental and gifted with a naturally
pure, rich and golden voice, which she
has learned to control skiIlfully; an
artist to the finger tips. dramatic to a
degree, and yet at no time melodra-
matte, Olive Fremstad should be an
| ideal Kundry
| What Miss Fremstad has to say OF
the character of Kundry. in which she
will alternate here with Nordica, is in
J teresting
II know how 1 should like to sing
the music which Wagner has written
| for Kundry," says Miss Fremstad, but
how can 1 tell you. even If / can grasp,
| all that Is expressed in the character?
/ Years of thought-years Of study
would be needed to fathom Kundry.
The part is one Of the most complex
and mysterious in the whole range Of
music-drama. and 1t seems to me al
most presumptuous for one so new TO
it as 1 to attempt an analysis of it.
-Kundry. as she appears in 'Parsifal.
is before all else a lost soul, seeking
forgiveness, peace and what we call
she has beguiled Amfortas. And for
her sin she now suffers. The keynote
to her character is struck, / think. in
| the very two first chords which ac-
company her entrance. They introduce
her to us as a creature infinitely sor-
rowful narrowed by remorse. and as
1t were. scourged by conscience. AL
though she Is a woman. she is not one
| woman, in the same sense as, say.
Queen Elizabeth or Lady Macbeth.
There is no doubt, think, that Kundry
Though for dramatic purposes pre-
seEted as a w0man) is much more than
that.
Il do not agree with those who as
sure us that she is stage embodiment
of the 'eternal-womanly.' But I do be-
lieve that she is a symbol standing for
an idea, the symbol of force strug-
| Cling against other forces. And in the
second act, when she appears as king
sor's slave. she is an enchantress. She
existed long before the events in
'Parsifal,' for Klingsor addresses her
Pas thou who vast Herodias,' and in
one passage, as you know. she refers to
her meeting with the Savior whom she
laughed to scorn. She Is a reincarna-
ton, then (after perhaps many incar-
nations) of the lost soul OF Herodias
And what may she not have been be-
fore Herodias was dreamt Of? In the
last act she Is penitent and finds
peace, pardon and redemption in death.