New-York tribune., 1909-12-05
BEETHOVEN PLAY
Marriage of Convenience Be
t1ceen Drama and Wusic.
London. November IS.

London, November IS.
Anecdotes with a musical setting do
not make a play, even with the best
stage management. NJ. Fauchois's Bee
thoven," whether enacted In Paris or at
His Aajesty's Theatre with an elastic
adaptation by Mr. Louis " Parker, is not
drama. There is a series of pictures OF
the musician and his associates at three
periods; but there is neither action nor
plot, and a curiously invertebrate play
closes with a fantasy, in which the SYM
phonies are impersonated as maidens.
Such interest as ii has-and the first
night audience was most enthusiastic
comes from the abandonment of the or6i-
nary conventions of stage writing
from the wonderful makeup of Sir Her
bert Tree and from the musical illus
tratiOns of the composers thought The
actOr-manager has never shown more
cleverness and inventive skill of byplay.
Characteristic traits and foibles are sug-
gested by a thousand little touches. OF
which the cumulative effect Is consid-
cradle. Yet there is no Beethoven with
exaltation of spiritual nature to carry
him even i'm the solitude of compIete
deafness to the master heights among
the inspired
In the first act. which passes in pub
lie gardens near Vienna in 1909. Bee
thoven is exhibited as an eccentric. alb
sent-mInded musician. irritable and con-
temptuOus i'm his treatment of his self
seeking. vulgar brothers and their wives.
fond of children. Indifferent To the SYM
pathetic patronage of the Archduke Ru-
dolf and other court dignitaries. frank and
affectionate with his friend SCHNEIDER.
and impressiOnable with women. The
act closes with a love scene between
him and Giulietta Guicciardi. who final
ly Jilts him for titled suitOr and leaves
him the beggarly consolation of writing
wedding march. and. subsequently.
lending money TO her. In the second acr
staged for his lodgings. three wears
aiterward, the musicians careIessness in
dress Is Illustrated. since he has returned
To his room without his coat vbicn
he has left under a hedge: his methods
of composition are denoted by his preoc-
cupatton with ideas and fancies. which
are clamOrinS for expression; and there
are signs of his increasing infrmitv. with
cuunlnatlng stroke of tragedy. when
while conducting rehearsal of ona ,,r
MS own pieces. he suddenly excIairos.
1 can hear nothing" In the third act
passihs I'm the old house of the Snanisb
Black Friars. during 1927. he is neglected
by his heartless nephew and housekeep-
er' and left To die i'm his solitude n,l--
erty and childlessness. after he has
been solaced by the apparition of nine
ecstatic spirits representing his SYN
phonies and calling themselves his chill
dren N''''-
III IS character study with some povaI
ana difficult effects. There il tn -.
tempt 10 denote the musician u-hi,, a.,
prain Is ringing with snatch.s of r,.lo,,,,
ana undeveloped motives: and 60,
I'm ms lrehzied zeal in making and al
'erns notes In bankbOok and his ex-
e.'eu gestures and sweeping moyemeprs
VI Tue arms. as though he were com.
uucting an Invisible orchestra ,h..,., a.
'he actual music in sketches of tb.. ,,,,
mortal works. The composer is I'm hIs
ssS' now pausing To put ON paper
uenni'e trace Of the melodies s,,-,,i,..
through his mind. and then rushir,, 80,
,s ou. 'he stage In pursuit OF adeauate
oi expression; and as the orchestra
p''Ss MS own matchIess scores his
ea' are harmonized and perfectly,
.onVeSed-an Illusion not ordinarily oh
'a"'eu on the stage. There Is also ,h..
e"'e' OF deafness. OF which much !.
-ll''ue IN THIS play. For the sreste.,
eo'nposer the fate OF complete dearnas,
was reserved; and when he was ,vr,,,n,.
'he most sublime music !, was I,,,,. ,'ls