New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-03-06

A RUSSIAN OPERA AT THE
METROPOLITAN.
Tschaikowsky's "Piaue Dame.

/ report. which is as vague as tradi-
/ ton. has 1t that many years ago-forty at
! least. there is no time for verifcatfoh-a
troupe OF Russian singers produced one OF
Verstowski's operas in Phiia delphia ana
possibly also I'm New York. 1t is possible
even likely that other Russian operas nave
been performed in out-of-the-Way places
fol. the edifcetion Of our fellow citizens Oh
Russian birth. But until yesterday after
noon It would seem that there had peeh
no representation of opera by q Rus
sian composer in q f?rst-class opera mousse
of New York and in an adequate manner
True, the National Opera Company gave US
Rubingtein's Nero some twenty-odd
years go: but not even Rubinstein "ouid
have dared to claim that that opera was
in any sense national. He described it him
self as neither fish. flesh nor fowl, artist
Cally inasmuch as the Russians said he was
a German the Germans said he was
Russian. the Jews said he was Christian,
the Christians that he was Jew, the Cias-
sicsts maintained that he was Romanti-
cist and the Romanticists that he was
Classicist Had he had the wit OF the late
Dudley Buck, he might have written HIM
self down as did that composer on
enc occasion in humorous letter of protest
TO The Tribune's reviewer, as "lssachar,
strong ass crouching down between two
burdens Besides, nero had d Roman
subject and was composed to German
words Now no composers have been more
faithful to their national literature in
choosing operate subjects than the Rus
SLAMS ever since they became numeToiA
enough and influential enough to be called
4 school The founder of the school,
GInka went to Pouschkin for the subject
of ''Eousslan and Lud,nilla," and the same
writer furnished forth the materia! for
Dargomischki's 'Russalka' and Don
juan and Mussorgski's Boris GudonoT.
which was presented to the Parisians last
summer. JermontoU, Gozol and 1.aSetsc-
nikow are other names which come to
mind as those whose stories and dramas
have found their way to the operate stage.
In view of the fact that no composer of
our day OF any nationality has been more
popular in our concert rooms than
Tschaikowsky, it was passing strange that
we had to wait till yesterday for repre-
sentation of one of his operas. 'Pique
Dame" was promised last year in an Italian
production under the title La Dana oil
Picche"; it WIS heard yesterday in Ger
man. and if the occasion had urgently de-
manded it might have been sung for the
greater part in Russian, since there were
so many Siavs concerned in its perform
ance-Anna Meitschik Leo Slezak, Adamo
Ddur and Adolf Muhlmann-all the princi-
pal characters but one. And there was
Gustav Mailer. specially brought back TO
the opera house to rehearse and conduct
the work
Let it be said at once that the occasion
was one of extraordinary interest; one that
made the willis ''Nanyc'' and Ger
marias of the Italian list sink into insiS-
nitfcance. Tho story of "Pique Dame was
told at great length in the news columns
OF The Tribune last Sunday. The fewer
words that are used in its telling, the more
the tale gains in dramatic intensity and
strength Pouschkin's story is much more
sententiOus than the opera book The COM
posers brother in adapting it was obliged
to expand it, not only for the sake of the
stage spectacle. which st. Petersburg ana
Moscow demand, but also to create SYM
pathy fer its principal characters. In the
story young lieutenant, obsessed by the
gaming mania, frightens IN Old woman
to death in effort to extract from her
the secret of her success at cards-a sue
cess which had given her the name OF the
Queen of Spades He gets II from her
ghost, plays the three cards enJolned' WINS
two. ventures ali OF IT'S Liitu, ttt at
the moment which should be his final tri-
umph the ace Of hearts in his hand changes
into the queen of spades, the spectre of the
woman whose death he had encompassed
confronts him, and with his last penny
there goes from him also his last glmmer
Of reason. He is sent 10 a madhouse, but
the Young woman in the story remains as
dacorous IN her behavior as Goethe's Char
Df her choice.
In adapting the story the composer
brother. Modest added characters and Sit
nations, created a betrothal between the
heroine and q royal parsonage whom she
aid not love made the motive of the hero 5
mania a desire to obtain money which
would lift him to position where ne
might think Of marriage, aud sent the
heroine to seh-destruction because of her
discovery that love of money had sup .
nIsn.ed love Of her in his insane mind. So
too. he sends the lover 10 self-intiicted
death. 9nd gives the spectators a moment
lint only "a t7on1ent--of commiserating SYM
pathv for the ill-starred pair. Cnfort-
unateIv this part of the story is inperfecty
brought out, toe much time is occupied in
inconseGuentials and tho ultimate impress
sion left upon the mind IS scarcely one OF
interest in the fate Of the hero, to say
potriug Of the sympathy which the COM
po;er laborcd hard to create. TS"haikow-
sky was given to laying bare his heart in
his letters 10 his friends, and he has told
how he wept when he composed the last
pages. and then, curiousiy analyZing his
feelings. discovered that he had come to
associate the character of the unlUcIy Off
Ger Hermann with a friend who was dcs
tired to sing the part when it was brought
ont at the Imperial Opera at ST: Peters
burg In 1890
This first Russian opera brought to criti-
cal notice in New York (Mr. Walter Dam
rosch's concert performance of Tschaikow-
sky's more popular ''Eucen Onegin' must
ously 10 mind the eclectic character of
the music of the composers of the Russian
school There is no denying the individual
note in ''Piquc Dame" 1t is a matter Of
amazenient that so modern composer
Tschaikowsky could find such varied and
ELOQUENT dramatic accents he has
done without once poachtng on Wagner
Ian preserves He made the frankest CON
ceivable excursions into Mozartian fields
action of the second act. Yet provides de-
Iightful recreation and refreshment. There
were many enigmatic things about TSchat-
kowsky: many of his self-acCusationS are
not 10 be taken seriously, and no doubt
much in his life was hidden even from his
most intimate friends. In one of his let
ters written from Florence, where he COM
,,neaJ 'Joiuua IaIue 10 said that q had