New-York tribune., 1918-08-25
Promises ofManagers for the Twenty
Fourth Season at the Metropolitan
Some Anecdotes of Conried
CHAPTER "
Memoirs Of a Decade Of Opera
Copyright, 1918. by II. E. Krehbiel
By II. f. Krehbicl

slcal works of such composers as Mo-
zart, Beethoven and Wagner" Signor
Toscanini was proclaimed "the fore
most conductor in Italy, the leading
spirit of the Teatro ALA Scala, in
Milan, since 1889" to whom was "due
the elevation Of the musical taste which
has manifested itself in Italy in recent
years" The orchestra was to be in
creased to 139 by the addition of fifty
tive players TO permit alienation at the
rehearsals and performances, thus say.
ing the men from overwork There
were to be two sets of choristers- one
for the Italian and French operas
one for the German. This laudable
augmentation and distribution of the
choral forces had already been contem-
plated by Mr.. Conried in his first sea
son.
recall with amusement as character
istlc OF that gentleman's afectation of
familiarity with operatic affairs and
languages that at an interview to which
he invited me immediately after NV re-
turn from my summer in the country
he remarked that the simultaneous use
of two languages in a representation
must cease. He could no longer listen
With patience to half of the chorus hail
ing the advent Of Lohcngrin on the
scene with shouts of "Ein Schwan Elm
SchWan!" while the other half shouted
I'm sogno! Tn sogno!" His suddenly
acquired knowledge of languages, pie
rarily inspired, did not go far enough
to enable him to distinguish between
"un sogno," dream, and Gun cygno."
a swan. But that was a venial blunder
compared with his performance when
at rehearsal of "Die Walkiire" he
rallied at the light man for disobeyine
the directions Of the prompt book and
had himself to be set right by the in
formation that d different act than that
which he was reading was in hand.
The novelties promised for the sea-
son were Catalani's LA Wally," Puc-
cini's "Le Will" and Tschaikowskv's
La Dana di Picche" ("The Queen of
Spades') to be sung in Italian; La
parra's "hsbanera," in French; DIAL
bert's "Tienand"; Smetana's "Prodana
novesta' c"Die verkaufte Braut," 'or
The Bartcred Bride") in German:
Frederick Converse's "The Pipe of De-
sire" and Goldmark's "The Cricket on
the Hearth" or, in case it should be
completed In time, Humperdinck's
"konlgskinder" (not "The Children of
the king' as the title was translated.
but Kings Children") were to be per
formed in English. The following sing
ers new to the stage of the Metronoli-
tan were to be add,d to the company:
Ester Adaberto, Fra ices Aida, Emmy
Destinn, Bernice J me Felice Ka-
schwoNska and Lenore Sparks, So
JOS; Clara Bohm, Marianne Fabaut.
Maria Gay, Malta Won Niessen-Stone
and Mary Ranzenberg, mezzo-s sopranos
and coni1altos; Angelo Bada, Rinaldo
Grassl, Carl Jorn, Walter Eosh, Ario-
dante Quartz and Erik Schmedes. ten
ors; Pasqusle Amato, Fritz Fcinhals.
Eduardo Missiano, Jean Note and Wal
ter Sooner, barytones; Paul Ananian.
EMO Bozzano, Adamo Ddur, Arthu.
HincAley, Coretto Paterna, Giulio
Rossi, Erik Schubert and Herbert With
erspoon, basses. The conductors were
Arturo Toscanini and francesca Spe-
trlno on the Italian side and Alfred
Herr and Gustav Mailer on the Ger
man.
Concerning the newcomers little
need be said. Few endured. Three
were not strangers to New York. Nine.
Kaschowska had sung in the German
season at the Metropolitan nineteen
years before; Mr.. Didur (who, with
Signor Amato has remained a valued
member Of the company ever sinccN had
been enticed away from Mr.. Hammer.
stein, as had Signor Bonci the wear
before Mr. Hinckley, an American
mad sung with Mr.. Savage's English