New-York tribune., 1918-10-13
French and Germans at War in Opera


save them he is guilty of falsehood. At
the last the young man returns at the
head of some French soldiers and drives
the Prussians away from the mill, but
they carry the miller with them and
shot tells of the voluntary sacrifice Of
his life for the sake of his loved ones.
All the characters, down to the least
significant, are drawn with strongly in
dividual lines and the largest of them,
the miller, the lover, the captain of the
Prussian soldiers (who are spoken Of
euphemsticaly as "the enemy" for
diplomatic reasons, as was explained at
the original production of the opera in
1893 when the time of the action was
set back to 1922, the miller's house
keeper, Marcellinc, and FRANCHISE, the
miller's daughter, were effectively i'm
personated at the performance, in the
cast of which there were two artists
who took part when the opera was orig
inally performed-M Delna and M.
Clement. The former filled her origi-
nal part, but the latter was the hero
lover in New York, whereas he had
been the sentinel in Paris.
A Distinctively Russian Opera
A report, which in my mind is as
vague as mere tradition, has it that
many years ago, sixty at least, a
troupe of Russian singers visiting the
United States gave performances of
Verstowsky's opera, "Askold's Tomb"
| recall finding the libretto in IL
brary and the fact impressed itself
upon my mind that it bore an Ameri-
can imprint. So far as nv knowledge
goes, however, until Tschaikowsky's
"Fique Dame" was produced at the
metropolitan Opera House on March
S. 1910, no distinctively Russian opera
had been seen on the stage in New
York. True, the National Opera Com
psny gave Rubinstein's "Nero" some
thlrty-odd years ago at the Mctropol-
tan, but not even the composer would
have dared to assert that "Nero'' was
in any sense national opera. Rubin
stein was not identified with the Rus
sian school of composition which has
so profoundly stirred the musical pool
IT recent years, and, indeed was only
slightly tinctured With Slavism musi-
cally. He was, unfortunately for him
l think, man without a country. He
himself made confession to that fact
when he humorously, but yet pathct-
cally, complained that he seemed to be
neither fish, flesh nor fowl, inasmuch
as the Russians said he was Ger
man, the Germans that he was a Rus
sian, the Jews that he was a Chris
tIan, the Christians that he was a
Jew, the Classicists that he was
Romanticist, the Romanticsts that he
was Classicist. In this he reminds
me of Dudley Bucks description of
himself in Biblical terms as "Issa-
char, strong ass crouching down be-
plcred his lack of dramatic talent in
piece ostensibly dramatic ard d
Boston critic had spoken of the dra-
matte quality of his church music.
Nero" has a Roman subject, was com
posed to German words, and without
tinge Of either Latnism or Slavi-
cism. Now, no composers have been
more faithful to their literary and
musical idioms than the Russians
since they have risen to the dignity
OF school. Glinka was but slightly
idiomatic in his operatic music, but
he went to Pouschkin for the subject
OF "Rousslan and Ludmilla," and the
same author furnished forth the ma
tcrial for Dargomischki's "Russalka"
and Moussorgski's "Boris Godounow,"