New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

whom he is hunting, wounded by a bull
let, is in hiding in the attic. He is
about to seize him, when the girl Of
fers to play him game of poker
the stakes herself against the life and
liberty of her lover. They play, and
the girl wins by the cheating device Of
producing a card Which she had con-
cealed in her stocking. Depraved as
the sheriff is, he is, in the popular
phrase, "game sport" He leaves the
girl to the enjoyment of her dishonest
victory, and the play ends with q pict-
ure Of the lovers riding over the noun
tain trail toward new life in the East
Several incidents Of the play were
fashioned on stories Of life in Cali
fornia in the days Of the mining mania
told to Mr.. Belasco by his father, one
of the pioneers. The betrayal of a
wounded man by drop Of blood has
history behind it, and Jake Wallace, a
wandering banjoist and ex-negro min
strel, was a veritable character, name
and all. To heighten the local color of
the play Mr.. Belasco not only used
drop curtains with artistically illumi-
mated pictures of Rocky Mountain
scenery, but banished the orchestra
with its conventional between-acts
music, and for it substituted band
of men singers and players on the con-
certina, banjo and bones, giving them
%o
of '49-songs like Goal Oil Tommy
"Old Dog Tray" "Pop Goes the
Weasel" "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower
and "The Camptown Races" Here,
along with the rude bardic touch lent
by Jake Wallace, should have been food
for the imagination of Signor Puccini,
as we'll as his librettists. To the for
mer it proved to be SO much Choctaw,
which need cause no special wonder,
to the latter little better. This was
less excusable, for Signor Puccini had
had occasion to study the play and
talk about it with Mr.. Belasco. When
he came to New York on his first visit
the melodrama was playing at the
Academy of Music. He was invited to
witness it, but could not fix date, and
when he presented himself at the
Academy there was no seat to be had.
So he stood throughout the perform
ance. After the second act he went
behind the stage to see Mr.. Belasco
whom he embraced, saying: "I want
the play; l have already the minstrel
song in my head" With Puccini was
Mr.. George Maxwell, representative in
America of the Records, Puccini's pub
fishers, canny Scotsman, who tried
in vain to check the composers en-
thusiasm lest it should interfere with
the business negotiations which were
bound to follow--an unnecessary con-
Germ, for Mr.. Belasco had sold the
opera privilege of "Madame Butterfly
to Signor Puccini for $1,500, and was so
delighted with his operate association
that he was willing to give UP his new
work for similar bagatelle.
Signor Puccini was recreant in La
Fanciulla del West" to the trust which
he had invited in "Madama Butterfly"
The latter opera, it may be admitted,
in spite of all the praise that have at
various times bestowed upon it. pro-
claims very little what we'll read (to
say nothing of we'll travelled) people
did not know to be wholly fictitious
about the customs, fashions, habits and
ethics of Japan. What makes the
charm Of the opera is its music, and
to great extent that part of it which
| is based on the use of folk melody. If
Signor Puccini could make SO much Of
the square-toed. Unconditional tunes of
the Japanese and blend them so in
geniously as he did with the music of
his native land, why was it that he
did not put at least one little splash
of American pigment on the musical
canvas of "La Fanciulla"? He planned
the work for America. its story was
thoroughly American, he had had an op-
portunity to observe the OBJECT of popu-
lar American tunes upon the play. He
did not plan "Madama Butterfly" for
! Japan, but for the world. The absence
of anything in the score savoring of
American music was disappointment.
There had been music in the old melo-
drama which cried out in spirit, at
least, for admission to the opera. 1t
was not necessary that we should have
had "Pop Goes the Weasel" or Camp
town Races" or "Old Dog Tray" but if
we were denied the flavor of them why