The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-01-18
MUSICAL MATTERS
FINE RECITAL GIVEN BY
N-HEINK.
Says She Will Not Sing for Hammer
stein This Season-Mr. sealy's
Symphony Concert.

Desiring TO catch a midnight train for
Boston, Mime, Schumann-IIeink the con-
tralto. hurried her long program at her
recital in the Kruger Auditorium last
night to an early conclusion. She began at
$50 and by cutting the waits between the
sections to the briefest space, was able to
end at 9:4 o'clock. The program. generous
as to quantity and interesting as 10 quail
ity, did not suffer, however. and the large
audience. which entirely filled the hall,
apparently went away we'll pleased.
After the recital Nine. Schumann-Heink
was asked whether she would sing at all
this season with Hammerstein's forces at
the Manhattan Opera House in New York.
I'm all probability l will not she said,
and 1t was inferred from her tone that
the probability was a certainty. 81 am too
busy with my concert work, she added.
This sets at rest the statements made In
several New York papers that the singer
would appear at the Manhattan this year.
The latest of these announcements was that
she would sing there Monday night. It is
true that Schumann-Heink made 2. tenta-
tive contract with Hammerstein for
eight performances, at $1,000 a night,
for she herself verified it last night,
but it is evident that there has been
a hitch somewhere. She is booked for
concerts up till January %, when she will
return to her home, near Singac, not far
from Caldwell, for a weeks rest with her
children from whom she does not like to
be lang absent. schumann-Heink is as
great a mother as she is an artist.
Ii has been whispered in musical circles
of late that Mime. -Heink has
fallen off a bit in her voice. Perhaps
these rumors-for rumors they surely are.
and nothing else-must have arisen be-
cause of her divorce this year from grand
opera. But the fact that she has devoted
herself this season to the concert plat
form, rather than to the more strenuous
task of the stage, ought not to be taken
blindly as evidence that her vocal art Is
not what it once was. Certainly she gave
no evidence last night that she had fallen
below par. Indeed, but for the tiny web
of a frog in the throat at intervals in
the mezzo voce, she sans as splendidly as
ever she did in the past. She again eX-
hibited her big, round. full tones. ring
ingly clear an6 strong in the upper regis
ter and stirringly deep and warm in the
lower notes, with all the poise and tech
nique that have marked her best efforts
of former years. Such a voice as hers
is a remarkable gift. 1t would be sad
to record that it had dwindled into imper-
lection.
Her program last night comprised
several arias from well-known operas and
songs more or less familiar to the average
concert-goer. These she CAV mostly in
German, her native tongue, but there was
a pleasing group in English and one in
Italian and one in French. AS a disclosure
Of her dramatic art Fides's aria, 80, my
cruel destiny" from the prison scene OF
the fifth act of Meyerbeer's The
Prophet which made a fitting finale, was
the most effectively done. But the cookies
OF the heart were warmed more intimately
in some of the smaller things in the Eng
lish group, such as Nevin's 9TH Rosary,
the two Chadwick songs, "Oh, Let Nigh
Speak of Me- and DANA" and Carri'
Jacobs Bonds Ills Lullaby" After thi
section she gave her only encore, Rheinhol'
Becker's Spring Tide" in German. TbI
8 Brahms cycle of six Hungarian songs wa
T expressively done, too, and know Y
) When My Lov'd One Is Fairest of Al
Bliss" aroused most responsive applause
In this Schumann-Heink, the woman, stood
out clearly above Schumann-Heink, tn,
artist. She gave just that human, girlisr
touch to it which, coming from one of hel
years and motherliness, made the strongest
Of appeals.
In addition to the Meyerbeer aria sht
gave Vitellia's Tecitative and aria, Now,
Vltellla, the hour strikes, from Mozart $
little-sung Titus" the hackneyed M
heart at thy dear voice." from Saint
Saens's Samson and Delilah," always
pleasing when done as she did it; Mignon'S
"Knowest thou the land from Thomas.
'Mignon:' Waltraute's narrative, "Hcarker
IN the heed" from Wagner's die Got
terdammerung,p and Adrianos aria. AL
mighty powers from Wagner's "Rienzi. .
a mans passage, stirrlngly done.
Coupled with the Brahms songs were Schu.
bert's impressive and stately Die All
macht'' and Schumann's sprightly .'Fruh-
lingsnacht."
her ably.