Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-18
''HOFFMANN'S TALES
At THE NEWARK

Where, as in offenbach's scores. the
music is always attractive, there is
little need to refer to the programs
or the libretto for the basis of the
theme. As music, the composition is
good or bad purely as music. The
literary idea is secondary. 1t can
not uphold the lyrical setting. That
framework must be judged on its
own merits alone. So it is with
the Tales of Hoffman," the Swan
song" of Offenbach, who died not
long after musicians first hailed it
as the elimination of his lyrical
genius. 1t shows movement, but no
progress in art, for art does not pro-
gress, as a great critic has said. 1.-THE
Tales of Hoffman," most worthily
sung at the Newark Theatre by the
Aborn company last evening, has no
livelier fancy, no more brilliant color
ing than may be found in the scores
of Gretry, the founder, not of opera
bouffe, but of its foster parent,
lyrical comedy. But perhaps no COM
poser other than the German Jew.
Offenbach, would have chosen so
fantastic a subject for an opera. 1t
is founded on three of the most
bizarre of the "Contes Fantastiques. "
They appealed to the fine Oriental
genius of the composer, whose
vivacity and esprit delighted in the
fancies of the author, who also wrote
operas, some of them far from
mediocrity. In "Hoffmanns Tales"
there is united all that the most
material reality can support in con-
trast with the most terrible halluci-
nations. Indeed, it has often been
declared that they were conceived in
delirium, and 1t is known that the
author when the hour of inspiration
struck was, seized with sharp parox-
ysms as painful as those caused by a
nightmare.
1t is upon this groundwork that
the music of Offenbach is founded. 1t
has been universally accounted an
inspiration of genius. 1t is abound
ing in grace and delicate feeling,
and to crown this, as appropriate
musical expression of the tales, 1t
has a haunting strain of phantastic
loveliness and rhythm that can never
be forgotten. Like the weird con-
ceptions OF Hoffman, himself, this
melody comes back to the memory
as in dream. It's refrain, its arias
and its renowned barcarolle are
among the brightest possessions of
the musical world. In rendering this
enchanting music the artists of the
Aborn company sustained the high
mark of excellence which they have
set for themselves and they were
rewarded with sympathetic and en-
thusiastic applause. We have before
spoken so warmly of the vocal and
dramatic qualities of Miss Ivy
Scott that farther praise would seem
to be hyperbole, but we cannot re-
frain from paying tribute again to
her delicious voice and her protean
genius in impersonation. AS An
tonia, as Giuletta, she was no more
the pathetic, winning figure, Cho
Che San, or the naive, simple little
German Gretel. She had been trans
formed into the sensuous, voluptu-
Gus Venetian, with dramatic
power of vocalization quite unsus-
pected in the less highly wrought
characters. Miriam Norris, as the
student Nathaniel, the friend of the
poet, Hoffman,; Elaine de Selem, as
Hoffman, himself, Leonid Samoloff,
were all worthy of high praise. The
whole scene of the opera. appropri-
ate as a representation in the "Oeil dc
Boeuf." recalled such a picture as
Tallemant des Reaux often described.
1t would be ungenerous to close with
out mentioning the glorious, melting
voice OF Francis j. Tyler, as Sal