New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-04
FREMSTAD HERE
IN OPERA AGAIN
Royalty Welcomed at a
Special Performance at
the Manhattan.
PUCCiNFS "TOSCA"
GIVEN FOR HER SAKE
Old Impressions Not Effaced
Nor Admiration
Increased.
BY II. T.. kREHBIEL.

BY II. +. kREHBIEL.
Nine. Olive Fremstad has great rea-
son TO be pleased with the tributes
which were paid 20 her at the Man
haitian Opera House last night, for
she received ovation after ovation from
A splendid audience. Her friends OF
judicious disposition have less cause
10 be glad that she came before them
again as Floris Tosca in Puccini's
opera, for upon them was forced the
conviction that neither in its concep-
ton nor in the execution OF IL has
seasons absence from the cperstic
stage brought improvement TO an i'm
personation which vas never one in
which they could rejoice. In opera
as we have had it for generations in
New York, it has never been true that
each new nail drives out another; and
this is not because OF a fansticGl de-
votion 10 old favorites, but because a
public with vast and yoluminous ex
perience of all that is best in dramatic
singing covering period OF three gen
erations has cultivated q habit Of dis
elimination, capacity for judgment
and taste which it cannot help exer-
cising no matter how at times II may
wrench the chords OF its affection.
Last night Nine. Fremstad was made
20 feel on her entrance and several
times after in the progress of the
opera that the public of New
York held her in high esteem
and sincere admiration; but when she
sang the prayer in the second act She
brief and obviously perfunctory ap-
plause which il evoked betrayed dis
appointment, and this feeling was due
to the fact that her hearers recognized
An artistic decay which no amount OF
smiable disposition permitted them TO
disguise. When she first essayed the
role there was much questioning Of
her conception of the part because OF
its departure from ideals created by
her predecessors in the spoken drama
and the lyric. II had never occurred TO
them that the Roman actress, who had
excited a noble love in an aristocratlc
painter and tumultuous passion in a
powerful political agent Of polite birth,
could be either "A e-grained, small
minded coquette or a bloodthirsty
witch TO whom the act of putting d
carving knife into the heart Of her per
secutor afforded only half measure OF
satisfaction which had to be filled by
hurting her dying victim to the floor
while she shrieked curses into his ear.
But they found some compensation in
the pathos of her singing when the
composer for brief space enabled her
to be pathetic. Last night this poor
boon was denied them. for they learned
that Nine. Fremstad's ideal had
undergone no change for the
better, nor yet her art, and still
less her voice. And so she
must dwell in affectionate memory in
the impersonations to which she added
new elements without disturbing those
disclosed by the great ones among
her predecessors-her Isolde and her
BrGnnhilde in "G0tterdammerung.'
Nine. Fremstad was one Of three
singers who essayed the role in one
season six years ago, the others beng
Miss Farrar and Carmen Melis, who,
like Nine. Fremstad last night, sang
at the Manhattan Opera House and
was associated with Signor Zenateilo.
She has been seen and heard in the
part several times since, Miss Farrar
and Nine. Eames many times, and Miss
Destin has made venture in it, as have
Mines. Cavalieri, Melis, Sylvia and
Alice Baron; but the vision and the
song of the original Tosca, that ere
ated by Nine. Ternina. has never been
for q moment dimmed. II fixed an
apparently imperishable tradition and
one that did as much as dramatic and
musical art could do TO ennoble the
lyric tragedy compounded by Sardou
and Puccini.
Signor Zenatello was never convlnc-
ing as Cavarodossi, and his perform
ance last night marked no improvement
over the old Hammerstein days. As Tor
NJ. Baklanof's Scarpia. IL was as unlike
all the impersonations with which New
Workers are familiar. and also so unlike
the elegant fend Of the book and score
that he was chiefly a source OF wonder
ment from his entrance TIL his not
untimely taking off. How this senile,
desiccated round-shouldered, seeming
lv spectacled old man could for mo-
ment be supposed to be the Baron Scar
MIA passes comprehension. And yet adj
equate voice and skill for an interpre-
tation of the part were there. The
house bill gave the cast as follows:
E1or,, To.c, .....................O Olive Fremstsi
'0'1 Specially engaged Tor hi, rer'olm4n..,el