The San Francisco call., 1906-07-15


the practice of ticket peddling is al
lowed to exist. Popular demand gave
inception to it, and as an institution
for the convenience of the people the
highest court of a great State has APP
proved it.
Incidentally a great service has been
done the theatrical business. The
stigma of illegality has been removed
from one of its most profitable and
Indispensable adjuncts. 1t has been es-
tablished that the people are willing
to pay for an accommodation that could
in no other way be provided. Main
tenance of the ticket booths in the
hotels of a big city alone would be an
impossible responsibility upon the or
dinary profits of theaters, even if the
status of competition were not such as
to render the contingency remote be-
yond all hope.
1t is to be trusted that an enduring
precedent has been established.-The
Billboard. n. Y. (editoriaD.
Nine Bernhard finds a change in
American playgoers which may be as
scribed either to increasing culture o.
/ dawning consideration for the per-
formers. In Appleton's Magazine for
June she describes her general impress
sions of the country on her first visit,
and speaking of her performances She
says:
The public was charming and we'll
disposed, but 1 had hard work to ac-
custom myself to continuous rustic of
turning pages, for there were a thou
sand out Of every fifteen hundred of
my audience who followed the piece
from the book of the play"
Comparing these early impressions
with those gained from the trip now
drawing to u close, She finds decided
Improvement:
The interiors of the theaters are
much more elegant than formerly, and,
what is almost incredible, no one used
the playbook any more"
With much strong satire, Ibsen
lacked to a conspicuous degree the
sense of humor. His plays are practi-
cally all tragedies, and these tragedies
are very largely tragic. His chief char
acters are either abnormalIy stupid or
morbidly intense, sometimes to the ex-
treme bounds OF, sanity The characters
of the latter type often have terrifying
memories, and memory is one of Ib-
sens tragic resources; they have often
a semi-craze for confession they are
mastered by impulses toward complete
self-sacrifice, or complete abandon
ment to their own will in other forms.
Suicide is not an uncommon finale to
their careers. In "Rosmerholm" three
characters commit suicide, none of them
through any temporary insanity, but
all of them finding In that act the log
ical solution, according TO their powers
of reasoning, of the problem of the
will" Ibsen, no doubt, lays a large
part of the blame for such results at
the door of society; but yet the ultimate
trouble lies in the individual himself
Sensuality, in any ordinary meaning
of the word, is not a prominent element
in these dramas. Ibsen has painted. to
use his own phrase, some portraits of
ladies and gentlemen with animal faces
behind the masks, but in pure animal
ism he does not compete with Zola,
d'Annunzio or some of the recent Span
ish noyelists His Influence, however,
does lead one away from the simple
life; 1t fosters an intensity in some
minds already too intense. According
to the thorough going Ibsenite, could
one be said really to live at all? Just
that question. What is it for con-
scious human being really to live? old
as it is, has perhaps been asked in new
forms by the Norwegian dramatist, and
has certainly been asked with great
persistence. The average thinking man
is willing to listen to the question.
though he may be unable to understand
Ibsen's answer, or may refuse to ac-
cept 1t, If understood-From "Ibsen's
Work and influence" by Selden L.
Whitcomb in the American Monthly
Review of Reviews for July.
But few of those who listen with
such delight to the exquisite exposi-
ton of the art of colorature singing
are fully aware of the fact that the
adherents of this art are gradually
disappearing from the horizon of mu-
steal endeavor and are followed but
scantily by new disciples of this de-
lightful school The genuine lyric So
prano with it's exquisite adaptability
to the birdlike colorature phrases
coloratlIre means really the coloring-
Of a vocal passage with fiorid orna-
ments and fancy vocal flights not un-
like the song of natures prima donnas.
the birds-this colorature soprano, |
say. is gradually becoming extinct, no
matter what vocal teachers may tell
YOU in contradiction of this statement.
The annals of musical history, which do
not exhibit any successors to artists
like Patti, Sembrich. Melba and their
class, are sufficient proof of the truth
of my contention.
During years of observation I have
been unable to find any new arrivals
in the field of colorature singing until
recently when l listened to Ellen
Beach YaY. 1 noticed with pleasure
that another genuine aspirant for the
houors of pure colorature song has
made her appearance. There cannot
be any question as to Miss Yaws eff
fieiency as an exponent Of the genuine
art of lyric vocal defamation and at
the time when the world kneels at the
feet of the dramatic voice and pays
homage to the declamatory art of
singing The question is, are there
among the musical people of America
sufficient adherents of the art Of color
ature singing to pay homage to an
artist like Ellen Beach Yaw? Are
there among the opera-loving commu-
nifty of California a sufficiently large
host of admirers to hall Ellen Beach