The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-10
MRS. 7. H. ALDRICH, JR.,
TALKS ABOUT RECENT SEASON
OF OPERA In The SOUTH
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ~


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continued Mrs. Aldrich, "and compar-
ison with the production the Boston
Opera company gave it the past season
was inevitable and the Metropolitan
opera has been based upon the star
system, and just so there were singers
of note In the cast to attract the pub
lie, any other matters of scenic effect
costuming, etc, were treated as com
paritively unimportant. The Boston
opera has announced a policy of giving
equal attention to all portions of the
operate ensemble and presenting a
balanced whole
THE Metropolitan has been present
ing great singers primarily and the
opera incidentally. The Boston COM
pany aims first to present the opera
and treat the singers rs the Incl
dental means to that end.
FYou pays your money and you takes
your choice
with the exception of Constantine
and Bafflanoff, the Boston company had
no singers in its cast of Aida to COM
pare to the Gadski- Homer Caruso-
Amato combination offered by the Met
ropiltan company in Atlanta. The 9TH
er Boston singers were good but not
great, and you forgave the scarcity
Of stars on account of the magnifi-
cent stage settings. the perfectly
trained CHI orus, finely balanced orches-
ira and satisfying effect of the whole.
1T would be hard to find greater
artists in their respective fields than
those who appeared in Atlanta.
"Gadski and Homer appealed alike to
the ear. the eve, the heart and tine
brain. From the moment of her first
entrance Gadski was the captive prin-
cess whose moods of detection, love,
hope and hate were mirrored on her
face, shown in her poses and ex-
pressed in the varying colors she in
fused into her beautiful voice. Homer
was a creature of beauty, a princess
happy in her own land and later regal
In her grief. When she and Gadski
appeared hand In hand to take their
curtain calls they presented such beau
tffully contrasting types of loveliness
that a wave of admiration rippled over
the audience.
"Blass and Amato were the same
sterling artists of yore and of
course Caruso, the special magnet of
the evening, sang as only he could
sing and was as Indifferent to the his
trionic demands of the role as only
he could afford to be- His complete
freedom from any of the poignant
moods of the valiant soldier he repre-
sented was amusingly demonstrated
during one of his many curtain calls
A large bunch of roses was handed
him and in taking them he stuck his
niger with a thorn. He stamped his
foot, almost dropped the flowers and
left the stage with a woeful express
sion, sucking his wounded finger lik
spoiled and over-grown baby.
AS we had just seen him return in gor-
seous triumph from bloody campaign
ne seemed, to paraphrase Bill Nye to
have shed large slabs of valor'-some-
where!
"One enjoyed the great artists offered
And forgave the old and battered stage
settings, the apathetic chorus that tit
tered behind fans while Caruso and
Gadski sang their farewell in the tomb,
and an orchestra so out of tune that in
one passage where the brasses were es-
pecially off pitch, Caruso left the part
of Rhadames temporarily, became pri-
marily Disguised singer and glared at
the offending players in a most whitening.
manner.
Zone of the disadvantages of the COM
paratively simple scores of the older
Italian operas like Aida lies in the fact
that they can be sighted in the matter
of rehearsals and yet gottens thro' with
after a fashion, consequently what re-
hearsing the chorus and orchestra had
done seemed to have been put on 'Tosca,'
which had to be done well in order to
be done at all. and Aida, long In the
repertoire and a stock favorite in which
a chance could be taken, was the suf-
ferer thereby.
This next season, when Chicago. Phil
and Boston have their own new
stage settings, good orchestras and fresh,
young chorus singers, the Metropolitan
has all Hammerstein's Manhattan opera
equipment to add to It's own, and the
great singers appear regularly in the
four cities under the new interchange
able agreement the standards of opera
will be materially benefited thereby. and
there seems to be a well founded hope
that the stars and the beautiful ensemble
will adorn the same productions. so that
therell be nothing to forgive and all to