Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-11-09
Grand Opera to
 Cost More During
 The Coming Season

Chicago, Nov. 8.-Together with
 other necessities and luxuries, grand
 opera is to cost more this winter
 than ever before in Chicago. An an- nouncement by the Chicago Opera association shows that prices for the company's regular season, which opens November IS, having been in creased 20 per cent or more on all classes of seats, the largest advance being for the better seats in the first and second galleries.
 In explanation of the raise, the management stated that Gin line with every other business the cost of la bor and materials has increased from , 50 per cent to 250 per cent, and that enormous quantities of materials, such as canvas, lumber, colors and electrical equipment, are required for the production of 10 weeks of opera.
 But on the artistic side no less parsonage than Cleofonte Campanini, general director of the Chicago as- sociation, declared that "it is unde- niable Chicago has the best French opera in the world. If we have to divide honors in regard to Italian opera" he continued, "it can be s>.d without exaggeration that Chicago is the center of French opera today. Even Frenchmen admit 1t and declare we have taken the best theatre from France"
 The Chicago season will be opened with La Nave" a lyric drama by Italic Montemezzi, based on a blank verse drama by Gabrielo d'Annunzio, the Italian soldier-poet. This has been presented in Italy, but has nev- CT before been offered on the Amer ican stag. Rosa Raisa, soprano, will sing the leading role of Basilic- la.
 World premiers are to be given two other operas during the season. "The Love for Three Oranges" de- scribed as Russian novelty" but which is to be sung in French, is the work of Serge Prokofieff, the "revo- lutionary" Russian composer, while the other innovation, Rip Van Win kle," is heralded as the first Ameri- can legendary opera. The score for the latter is by Reginald de Kov- en, American composer, and the text is by Percy Mackaye, poet-dramatis, known for his creations of masques and pageants.
 "Aphrodite," Camille Erlanger's French opera, will be given it's Amer jean premiere with Mary Garden in the title role which she created. Other French novelties include Mad anne Chrysantheme" by Andre Mes sager, in which the Japanese prima dona, Tamaki Miura, will be heard, and "L'Heure Espagnole," a one-act musical comedy that has been given only at the Opera Comique and at Convent Garden.
 Of the Italian operas listed, in ad- dition to La Nave" there are three by Puccini, "Il Tabarro," "Suor An gelica" and "@iant Schiochi," each of one act, and "Jacquerie," tragic work by Gino Murinuzzi, the new principal conductor of the Chicago opera company, which has never been given in America.
 1 In the production of pallets of American authorship as distinct forms of entertainment, the Chi cago company claims to be first in the field. Two are contemplated this winter, "The Birthday of the In- fanta" by the Chicago composer, John Alden Carpenter, and "Bou- dour," also by Chicagoan, Felix Borowski. The former is based on Oscar Wilde's tale.
 several singers of international fame are to make their American de- but on the operatic stage. Among them will be Carlo Galeffi, Italian baritone, and Edward Johnson and Tito Schipa, tenors. Alessandro Bon ci, another Italian tenor, will make his first appearance with the Chi cago company and Titta Ruffo, the baritone, will return Evelyn Her bert, 19-year-old Brooklyn girl discovered" by Caruso; Nina Nor l gan, an Italian American soprano, from Buffalo, and Borghild Langard, acclaimed as the possessor of Nor ways most glorious voice." will be among the operatic newcomers here. Dorothy Jardon, musical comedy star, who sang Fedora with the Chi cago company in New York last year, again will be heard in that and other roles.
 | Among the other established fla vorltes engaged for the season are : Yvonne Gall, Amelta Galli-Curci and Florence Macbeth, soprano; Maria : Claessens, Cyrena Van Gordon, and Irene Pavloska, mezzo-soprano; Ales- sandro Dolci, Charles Fontaine, For rest Lamont, and John O'Sullivan, tenors; Georges Baklanoff, Desire Defree, Hector Dufranne, Alfred Maguenat, and Giacomo Rimini, bari tones; and Vittorio Arimondi, Gustav I Huberdeau, Virgilio Lazzari, Con stantin Nicolay and Vittorio Trev- isan, basses.
 The regular season of the Chicago company here will be followed by one of the five weeks in New York, two weeks in Boston and arrangements in
 Pittsburgh, Cincinnati. Cleveland and Detroit.