New-York tribune., 1908-09-06

provised movement which carried his face out
of sight Of the audience, so that he might free
his throat unnoticed. knowing nothing OF the
cause the public applauded the effect, and the
singular nudncc became a part OF the business
of the piece.
When Nine Calve flashed upon New York in
"Cavaeria Rusticana" her impersonaton startled
me into the declaration that finer lyrico-dra-
matte performance had been witnessed in America
within generation Unhesitatingly placed it by
the side of Materno's Briinnhilde, Brandt's Ffdes
Niemann's Tristan and Siegmund and Fischer's
Hans Sachs. without. of course, presumins TO com
pare the relative value OF the dramatists' conceits
Even now / cannot recall anything finer in the re-
gfon of combined action and song She held her
listeners so completely captive and swayed them so
powerfully that she compelled even the foolishy
and afectedly frantic claquers who had seats near
the stage to hold their peace They could only
make their boisterous camor in response TO the
old-fashoned appeal made by high tone screeched
by the stridulous tenor. There was as little con-
ventionality in her singing as in her acting though
she had yet adopted that Indifference to rhythm
which has marked her singing in more recent
years She saturated the music with emotion
Much of it she seemed to sing to herself declaim-
ing it like dramatic speech whose emotional con-
tents had been raised to higher power by the
melody. In moments of extreme excitement one
scarcely realized that she was singing at all. Car
ried along by the torrent OF her feelings. he- lis
teners accepted her song as the only proper and
efficient expression for her emotional state. The
two expressions, song and action, were one; they
were mutually complemental II was not nature
subordinated to art, but art vitalized by nature
II is not possible for to compare her Carmen
with Galli-Mariee's which stood in the way of her
appreciation in the part in Paris. I have heard
that that was frank In OF its expressions
that it invited the interference Of the Prefect of
the Seine To me- at least. in Nine. Calves imper-
sonation. Il seemed that l enjoying my first
revelation of some of the elements of the charac-
ter Of the gypsy it had existed in the imagna-
ton of Prosper Merimee when he wrote his novel.
To me she presented woman thoroughly wanton
and diabolcally equipped with the wicked witch
cries which explained, il they did not paate, the
conduct OF Don Jose. Here had woman with
out conscience, but also without the capacity for
even a wicked affection; woman who might have
been the thief whom the novelist describes, who
surely carried dagger in her corsage, and who
in some respects left absolutely nothing TO the i'm
aginahon to which even drama like Carmen
makes appeal She upon, the stage
Merimee's heroine stepped into his pages: 'poisng
herself her hips. like flly from the Cordovan
stud' and with fine stimulation OF unconscious
ness she seemed every moment about to break into
one OF those dances which the satirist castgated in
the days Of the Roman Empire:
Nee de Gadbus mprohs puells
yibrabunt sine nne prurientes
Alas! Nine Calves admiration for herself
stronger than her devotion 10 artistic ideal. and
II was not long before her Carmen became COM
pletey merged in her own capricious personality.
Massenet's '.Werther'' had its first American per-
formance at the Metropolitan on April 20. 1894. with
the principal parts in the hands OF Nine. Eames.
Sigrid Arnoldson. Jean de Reszke. Nj, Martapoura
and Signor Carbone Signor Mancinelli conducted.
The opera had performance and was repeated
once in the season OF 1sS697. Then 1t disappeared
from the repertory of the Metropolitan, and has
since then not been thought of, apparently. al
though strenuous efforts have been made ever and
anon to give interest the French list. ] record
the fact TO be deploTed "Werther' is
beautiful opera: instinct with throbbing life In
every of its scenes the widely admired
"Manon'' is in its best 1t has its weak
spots have all Of Massenet's operas. despite his