New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-20
I7STORT(1AT AND CRITICAL EXCURSIONS IN OPERALAND

for the bride. Assad again addresses
her. Again he is denied. Delirium
seizes upon his brain; he loudly pro-
claims the Queen as the goddess OF his
devotion The people are panic
stricken at the sacrilcge and rush from
the temple; the priests cry anathema;
Sulamith bemoans her fate; Solomon
essays words of comfort; the hlgh
Priest intercedes with heaven; the sol
diery, led by Baal-Hanan, overseer OF
the palace, enter to lead the profaner
20 death. Now Solomon claims the
right to fix his punishment. The
Queen, fearful that her prey may
escape her, begs his life as boon, but
Solomon rejects her appeal; Assad
must work out his salvation by over
coming temptation and mastering his
wicked passion. Sulamith approaches
amid the wailings of her companions.
She is about to enter a retreat on the
edge of the Syrian desert, but she,
TOO. prays for the life of Assad Solo
mon, in a prophetic ecstasy, foretells
Assad's deliverance from sin and in
a vision sees a meeting between him
and his pure love under palm tree
in the desert. Assad is banisbed 20
the sandy waste; there a simeon
sweeps down upon him; he falls at the
foot of a lonely palm to die, after
calling on Sulamith with his fleeing
breath. She comes with her wailing
maidens. sees the fulflment of Solo
mons prophecy, and Assad dies in her
arms. "Thy beloved is thine, in loves
eternal realm" sing the maidens, while
a mirage shows the wicked Queen, with
her caravan of camels and elephants,
returning to her home.
The parallel between this story and
the immeasurably more poetical and
beautiful one Of "Tannhauser" is ap-
parent to half an eye. Sulamith is
Elizabeth the Queen is Venus, Assad
is Tannhauser, Solomon is Wolfram
Won Eschenbach. The ethical force of
the drama-it has some, though very
little-was weakened at the perform
ances at the Metropolitan Opera House
in New York (') by the excision from
the last act Of a scene in which the
Queen attempts to persuade Assad to
20 with her to Arabia. Now Asssd
rises superior to his grosser nature
and drives the temptress away, thus
performing the saving act demanded
by Solomon
Herr Mosenthal, who made the Ii
bretto of "Die Konigin Won Saba"
treated this material, not with great
poetic skill, but with cunning appre-
citation of the opportunities which 1t
offers for dramatic effect. The opera
opens with a gorgeous picture of the
interior of Solomons palace, decked in
honor of the coming guest. There is
an air of joyous expectancy over
everything. Suamith's entrance IN
PRODUCES the element of female charm
10 brighten the brilliancy OF picture,
and her bridal song-in which the re-
frain is an excerpt from the Canticles,
"Thy beloved is thine, who feeds among
the roses'- enables the composer TO
indulge his strong prediction and fe-
cund gift for Oriental melody. The
action hurries to a thrilling climax.
One glittering pageant treads on the
heels of another, each more gorgeous
and resplendent than the last, until
| the stage, set TO represent fantastical
hall with bewldering vista OF carved
| columns, golden lions and rich dra-
peries, is filled with such a kaleido-
| scopic mass of colors and groupings
as only an Oriental mind could con-
ceive. Finally all the preceding
strokes are eclipsed by the coming Of
/ the Queen. But no time is lost; the
spectacle does not make the action
/ halt for a moment. Sheba makes her
/ gifts and uncovers her face, and at
/ once we are confronted by the trsgical
! element and the action rushes on tow
I ard its legitimate and mournful end.
In this ingenious blending of play
and spectacle one rare opportunity after
another is presented TO the composer.
Sulamith's epithalamium, Assad's mar
rative, the choral greeting to the
/ Queen, the fateful recognition-all
these things are made for music Of the
inspiring, swelling, passionate kind. In
the second act, the Queens monologue,
her duet with Assad, and, most strik-
/ ing of all, the unaccompanied bit OF
singing with which Astaroth lures
Assad into the presence of the Queen,
who is hiding in the shadow of broad
leaved palms behind a running foun-
| tain-a melodic phrase saturated with
/ the mystical color of the East-these
are gifts of the rarest kind to the
composer, which he has enriched to
/ give them in turn to the public. That
| relief from their stress of passion is
/ necessary is not forgotten, but is pro-
Nided in the ballet music and the SOL
| emn ceremonial in the temple, which
/ takes place amid surroundings that call
into active operation ones childhood
| fancies touching the sacred fame on
Mount Moriah and the pompous litur-
/ gcal functions of which it was the
/ theatre.
Goldmark's music is highly spiced.
/ He was an eclectic, and his first aim
| seems TO have been 70 give the DIANA