The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-21
OPERA SEASON WAS MARKED SUCCESS Director Cassazza Gives
 Next Season Plans VALUE OF LAUGHING Shapespeare's Plays Contain 106,007 Lines, With Hamlet the Longest.
 Camp Was Real Salesman.
 Salaries in 1767
VALUE OF LAUGHING
By JAMES GRANT rHUnsrov

~NNN ioi <tBiil- zu.--A ACDtCldi-l l--- HE grand opera season in New York. which
 has just come to close, has been one
 of the most successful from both an ar tistic and business viewpoint in the history of the Metropolitan opera house, and has done much to clinch
 the position of the Metropolitan as one of the worlds most important
 music centers. And plans for next
 season are on a scale which should
 make it a marked advance artistically
 on that just closed
 1 The season lasted g weeks. During
 that time there were 146 performances
 of 34 different operas. Eleven were
 double bills and three were special per
 formances by the Russian ballet. | In addition to the offerings in New
 York, the company sang 1s times in Brooklyn and nine times in Philadel-
 rhia.
 Of the New York offerings. Wagner | is considerably in the lead, with ss performances, followed by Puccini with l 25, and Verdi with 9. Wolf-Ferrari took his place in the regular repertory l Of the Metropolitan with "Le Donae Curiose.' given for the first time this | season.
 There were nve presentations of this work and one of the same com poser's La Vita Nuova," an oratorio. l siven by the Metropolitan chorus, I Alma Gluck and Amato. with the com
 poser conducting. Other novelties pre- | scnted were ''Versiegelt," a light work | by Leo Blech. and "Lobetanz," by the
 late Ludwig Thuille.
 l Of significant importance. also, was
 the performance of the opera "Monaf
 for which the composer. Horatio w. Parker, and librettst, Brian Hooker, received the prize in the competition | opened by the Metropolitan opera
 company. This work had four pre- sentations.
 1 Of the remaining composers repro. nented, Humperdinck was in the lead
 with seven performances of each of | his work. "Haensel and Greteln and | 'Koenigskinder." There were five per l formances of Gluck's "Orfeo ct Eury- dice" and four of "Armide." Leonca- | fallo Is in the lead for single presen- | tations of an opera with "Pagliacci," sung nine times. Madame Butterfly
 was given seven times, as was also l Aida" "Manon,' a revival had three
 presentations, as did Dukas' "Ariane
 ct Barbe- Bleue,"
 | In speaking of plans for next sea- son Director Gatti Cassazza says: So far as our policies about next | eason are concerned, one of the i'm I rortant things will be that we will continue to give. each season, one | opera sung in English not a translated
 librettog mind you. for we disan- prove of that. but an opera by an American composer, using English
 words. There will be no competition
 for such words, but they will be chosen
 from among the best operas avail :
 able. This should prove a stimulus to
 the American composer.
 1 As for French opera, the reper- | toire will be enlarged next season, too. Criticism is hurled al us for the lack of French opera at the Metropolitan but lot of crying for French opera appears to be spobbishness Take, for instance. Mons. Massenet's "Manon," which we did two seasons ago with almost the same cast as this season, save that Mons. Clement sang Des Crieux then, whereas now Mir Ca iuso sings that role Then the per
 formances did not draw, and vet Mons. Clement was absolutely the best French tenor available. Now MT
 Caruso who is not French tenor.
 sings Des Grieux, and the opera house
 is jammed to its capacity What does
 that prove--that the big public wants
 French opera or that it wants to hear Caruso?
 And see Ariane ct Barbe- Bleue,'
 one of the most interesting of modern
 French opera, done by an admirable
 cast in an admirable manner. Yet it does not interest the public. So we question this love for French opera about which we hear so much The Chicago company gave Louise here and 1t did not pack the house nor did Pelleas ct Melisande' fare any better here. and each work was presented but single time that season. 50 we shall feel our way slowly in the matter of French opera But American opera will be fostered henceforth. and German and Italian
 works will be given in the best possi- bile manner, novelties added and now
 artists engaged when desirable or | necessary"
 Mir. Abraham Erlanger is an earnest disciple of the famous Mark Taplsy. l Tn an jnterview the other day MT Erlanger said: "I'll <dig a laugh out of the most desperate situation. Tha | laugh Is the big thing In this life | Crying never got anybody anything;
 laughing and the ability 10 see the
 many a man at the top. The man who
 knows how to laugh wins friends and
 these friends are willing to help him | just because of his cheerfulness; the man who walls when things go wrong drives everybody away from him. It's lo good many years since I worried about a production. I may find 1t hard : CT to laugh when things break badly. but I laugh nevertheless"
 When are you going to retire?"
 Never. While there is a gasp Ier. in me I'll stay on the firing line. The Iman who retires from business while he has his health Is a deserter. The l retired business man goes around boring men who are trying to work. Not any of that rocking chair stuff In me. I'll be right on the job fill I
 drop. and when I go to heaven I'll re-
 serve a seat for Casey"
 A Shakespearean enthusiast with
 much leisure time on his hands and "a regular mania for statistics has dis.
 covered that the plays of Shakespeare re
 contain 106.007 lines and Si4 7eo
 words. Hamlet" is the longest play. with 3930 lines. and the Comedy os
 Errors" the shortest, with TIT Iines Altogether the plays contain 1277 char acters, of which 157 are females. The longest part is that of Hamlet
 who has 11,610 words to deliver. Tho part with the longest word fin if Is
 that of Costard in Loves Labour's Lost" who tells Moth that he is "nof
 go long by the head as honorifca bili- tudinitatibus."