Omaha daily bee., 1911-01-29
MABEL MONTGOMERY
IN MADAME < AT THE BANDEIS


than this. Peter Ritter produced his
Merry Wives OF Windsor" at Mannheim
in 1874 and Won Dittersdorf his at Vienna
two years later Both have been long
forgotten, as also has been Papavoine's
lie Vieux Coquet" produced in Paris
in ITO. Nor have the more modern Fall
staffs olutched moro successfully at life.
Bale put his "Fnlstaff on the boards OF
Her Majesty's Theater, London, in 1888,
and fate soon took &c off. Adolphe Adam
also tempted the gods with a "Falstaff"
brought out at Paris in 1856, but the death
Of the production was not even lingering
Under the name OF la eleventh di Enfico
"" OF OF La Jeunesse de Henri Quint-''
operas concerned, OF course, with the
youth OF the monarch who sat for
Shakespeares picture OF Falstaff-there
have been written operas by Mosca,
Herold, Carlini Pacini Morlacchi. Del
Popolo, Garcia, Meroadante All have
descended into the tomb In which are. laid
at rest the works that have been for
gotten and despised
1t would seem that an opera on the ad-
ventures OF Macbeth should provide much
that would be Of power and intensity. Yet
although operas have been written on this
subject none have survived. The great
Verdi, whose luck with "Othelio," and
"FalstafF was, so far as popular APP
prevail is concerned, not of obvious mag
nitude, was not more fortunate with his
Macbeth" brought out at Florence In
1S4I. The three-act opera Macbeth" by
Chelard. produced at the Grand Opera,
Paris. in 1s27-its text by Rouget de
rIsle-met as disastrous fate, as also
did the Macbeth" Of Taubert. There was
a Macbeth" by the English writer OF
former generation, w. II. Ware, but the
opera is as dead as its creator
In reviewing the performance of
"Otello," previously referred to, we took
occasion TO say that Gounod's Romeo
ct Juiliette' was at least one Shakes.
pearean opera that holds the stage. But
where are the works on the same sub
iects by Mareschalchi, Mercadel Pons,
zingarelli, VaccaJ, steibelt, Crescentini,
Schwanberg, Won Rumling, Garcia,
Bellini, Guglielmi, Marchetti and not
few other writer's? What has become
OF the "Otello" OF Rossini, produced at
the Fondo, Naples, in 1876? What will
become Of the "Otello" of Giuseppe Verdif
The lay public viii perhaps be surprised
that a drama so notable as Hamlet"
should not exist in operate form today.
It has existed for there was a Hamlet
composed as early as 1906 by Gasparini,
who set II before the ears of all people at
Rome, and there have been since then
"Hamlets" bv Soarlatti Carcano, Caruso
"a distinguished namel-Andreozzi, Mer-
cadante, Buzzola, Moroni and Facco The
text OF the Hamlet" by the last named
writer was the work Of Arrigi Boito, the
author OF the texts OF Verdi's "Otello" and
"Falstaff" These Italian "Hamlets" are
dead and long forgotten dead, too, are
the "Hamlets' Of Hignard, Mareczek,
stadtfeld, and almost lifeless is the Ham
let" created by Ambrose Thomas 20 text
founded on Shakespeare's play by Care
and Parbler.
1t would be interesting to point out the
efforts that have been made to wiring sue
cess out Of the composition Of operas to
other works by Shakespeare. Many have
been the operas written to "Corolanus,"
which even In the seventeenth century was
popular with composers for the stage. Not
even the names Of their writer's are remem-
bered by people living now. Not a single
setting OF THE Tempest has come down
TO modern days, nor are there any existing
successful settings OF king Lear" al
though that drama was treated operaticany
by Kreutzer, Cagnoni, Reynaud, semeladis
solowiew and others. "A Winters Tale"
under this title or under the title OF Her
mione" has inspired even composers OF
modern renown-Flotow, the composer OF
Martha" for example, and Max Bruch.
who brought out his "Hermione" in Berlin
in 1872 Carl Goldmark has also given TO
the world an opera, "a Winters Tale" but
neither In the case Of his work nor in that
OF his colleagues just mentioned has tri-
umph waited upon their efforts.
Not having hoped TO arrive at the reason
for all these abortiye attempts 10 make OPP
cratic masterpieces out of Shakespeares
wonderful creations. We are not disappointed
in discovering that this article has, after
all merely resolved itself into a summary
OF interesting failures Perhaps an opera
text may become bad by being over good.