Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-26

at the Metropolitan last season were not
so largely attended they have been in
previous years: Yet one may DO psrdoned
FOR believing that the reasons for this are
not precisely those advanced by Mr.. de
koven and that they do not indicate so
mournful destiny as that imagined by
our prophet of little faith-a time when.
as he predicts. 1.-The music of the future
may have become the music of the
past
Wagner Ruins voicep
Mr.. de Koven would have us seek the
reasons for the condition which he de-
scribes in three directions: I'm the In
herent character of the works themselves:
behind the curtain among the singers; and
In front of 1t among the audience" Mr..
de koyen presents these reasons In re-
verse order. AS regards the attitude Of
the public he believes that their suppos-
edly weakened allegiance to Wagner il
due In part to the disappearance of the
agnerites. and in part to the competing
attracilVeness of 'the music OF more
modern composers who have out Was-
nered Wagner" and have weaned AWAY
many admirers in giving them
newer. holder and more vivid musical
sensations As regards conditions be
hind the curtain" he holds that there ara
today no great Wagner singers, and
that the inferior ones We do possess
struggle as best they may with .
we'll nigh impossible vocal conditions,
or, as Is now often the case, refuse these
conditions altogether and decline to sing
Magners music at all: here Mr.. de
koven is obsessed. OF course. by the IA
millar delusion that Wagner's music Is
ruinous for the voice" His third con-
tention pertains to the inherent charac-
ter OF Wagner's art and his theories of
1t as exemplified in his operas ana music
dramas" but to this matter we shall
come later on.
Mr.. de Kovens explanations are not.
as has already been remarked. completely
persuasive. We may consider first those
which are least plausible. AS TO the
present lack of great Wagner singers:
Let it be regretfully conceded that there
Is today no one familiar to the American
de Reszke used to sing the part: that
there Is as yet no successor to Lilh Leh-
mann. But to hold that there are today
no Wagner singers Of the first rank (the
spi.het great is not to be lightly APP
IMAM q few extraordinarily fine art
lists. Does Mr.. de Koven believe. for
example. that the superb and engrossing
kundry, the magnetic Isolde. the alluring
and splendid Venus. the insurpass Bile
Sieglinde of Nine Fremstad are neeli-
gible achievements? Have Wotan, Am
fortas. kurwenal. Wolfram, been more
lmpressively done than by Mr.. Van Rooy?
Would he maintain that Wagner has
in our day by Fremstad. Gadski, Ternina,
Schumann-Heink. Homer, Van Rooy,
knote, than he was twenty years ago
by Niemann. Alvary. Reichmannn. Fisch-
rable Lehman is not to be named in any
such general PARALLEL? Probably not
For 1t Is a matter of fairly general agree
ment among those who are able to Judge
OF the matter that the average of ex-
cellence in individual performances of
Wagner is higher today than it was in
the years when the later music-dramas
were first revealed to us by singing-actors
whose zeal and earnestness were as indis-
putable as their art was rude and inept.
Who Out-Wagner Wagner
Again, one must differ with Mr.. de
Koven when he attributes the alleged
abatement of Wagnerfan enthusiasm to
the weaving away of many of his former
admirers by more modern composers
who have t-Wagnered Wagner in CIV
ing them newer, holder and more vivid
musical sensations" Who, one wonders,
are these composers? 1t Is not easy
to think any modern composers of
opera, know to America. who are
writing newer. holder and more
vivid music than Wagner's ex-
cept Claude Debussy and Richard
Strauss; and the "Pelleas ct Melisande''
of Debussy was unknown in this country
until late in the past winter. while the
''Salome" of Strauss ia az yet scarcely
known here save to students and pro-
fessional observers. Is Mr. de Koven
thinking of Puccini. Leoncavallo, Mas
cagni? These are makers of music which
might perhaps be characterized as new
err" than Wagner's. but ''bolder"? more
vivid? Yet Mr.. de Koven has here AL
most stumbled upon the crux of the mat
ter. It is true that Wagner's kingdom.
wherein he ruled in solitary magniicence.
has been invaded, and by none other
than Puccini and his fellows; but 1t is
not, one need scarcely say. any musi-
cal superiority which equipped them for