The Washington herald., 1917-05-22
MUSIC OF new RUSSIA
Will SURPRISE WORLD
Writer Predicts Revolution viii Un-
loose Pent-Up Fires.

What will be the effect Of the Russian
revolution on Russian music? I took the
question to Adamo Didur, the distin-
guished Russian basso, who plays so
superoly the great title roll in Boris
Godunoff, the opera which has taught us
more of Russia than all the books we
ever read
Mr.. Didur is a most charming fellow,
writes Carlo Edwards in Pearson's Mag
azine, a man of mind in life as we'll as
In music I interviewed him at intervals
during a performance OF Boris, with the
great music Of the chorus-the masses,
the great Russian people-punctuatin ng
his pointed remarks.
The Russian revolution, thinks Mr.. d.
dur, Is "the most beautiful thing in the
world" The chains broken, the Russian
soul will soar to heights undreamed Of.
All the fire pent up hitherto. In the peo-
pie. peasant and student, will be loosed.
and we are to see a renascence Of art.
music in particular. which will stand
tury Italy and OF Germany in the late
eighteenth century.
As an instance: The late Premier
Stolypin shortly before his assassinatIo
planned a ministry to patronize the arts,
with unexampled powers for good in
that direction. Indeed he had made an
excellent start by nominating as minis
ters for this department Maxim Gorky
for literature and Teodor ChaliapIn, the
great Russian basso. for music. These
promising appointments. however proved
to be the very downfall Of the project.
The bureaucracy would not under any
circumstance tolerate two such promi-
nent radicals as Chaliapin and Gorky,
and vetoed the proposal outright Now.
OF course, radicals are in high favor,
and some such ministry OF fine arts is
IV1A ~ h.. rfV,,n vrff Tho1 Ia
pin and Gorky at the head of It.
It is significant to note that the Rus
sian ballet, which has raised such a fu-
rore throughout the western world, Is
the least OF the Russian arts ct Is,
may interpolate. a mere offshoot OF the
old italian school OF ballet dancing) II
the least, then what may we expect of the
other arts in Russia, now that Russia
Is free?
Under the old system the best opera
in Russia, and very good opera, too. was
given at the Imperial Theater, the Mar
insky Theater, Petrograd. The draw
back, however. was that the exorbitant
prices charged effectively barred the
music-Ioving public, and assured an
aristocratic audience, the worst kind pos
sible. II. as Mr.. DidUr says. the musi-
cal interests Of Russia will be in the
hands Of Mr.. Chaliapin, we may be sure
that no such condition will be tolerated.
My own acquaintance with Chahapin tells
me that great things may be expected
OF him in such a capacity.
One Of the obstacles in the way Of
Russian composers In the past was the
fact that the poetry given them to set
to music was very apt to wound the
morbidly sensitive feelings Of the Rus
sian tyranny. and many poems and lib
retti were ruined by the clumsy fingers
Of the censor. This condition and others
similar vanished to Tsarskoe-Selo with
the Car. and Russian music is moving
toward a ful7lment, and more, of the
promise shown us in Boris Godunoff." ."
In Boris We see the great popular
strength OF Russian music. The inherent
democracy OF the Russian people is mir
rored in the novel prominence given the
chorus and in the extensive use of folk
themes. 1t is music from the soil.
Mr. Didur Is in every sence a worthy
representative OF Russian art, and a
mastery interpreter OF the great, pas
sionate soul of the Slav.