New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
To the Editor of The Tribune

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: ! read and | reread Mr. Kreh-
biels essay on Opera in the Nernacu-
lar" in to-day's Tribune. Will you al
low me to reply to it in part, with the
courtesy one critic owes another?
In recalling recent efforts in New
York to present opera in English Mr..
krehbiel had recourse to curious meth
DDS. Long years ago, as he has told
me, he defended the use of English in
opera. Now, in his ripper age, he at
tacks it. To justify his pessmistic
views he quotes from translation by
some unnamed writer of the libretto of
Lucia" He picks out one weak phrase
from a translation of the "Lohengrin'
libretto and reprints a trivial rendering
of some lines from the text Of Car
men," The faults Of these cheap eff
forts he treats as arguments. And, on
the other hand, he ignores more seri
Gus efforts. He says nothing of the
ances of lies Contes dHoffmann"
with my English words) at the Park
Theatre. He seems unaware of the ex
istence of the English singing versions
Of "Das Rheingold" and Die Walkure"
which l made long ago for the Metro
politan. Maybe from modesty, he does
Tot refer to his own version Of "The
Impresario" (Which, | am told, is ex-
cellent).
He is silent on the subject of my
translation of the foolish "Das Helm
chen am Herd" ("The Cricket on the
Hearth") lbretto which was sung sue
cessfully some seasons ago by the Chi
cago Opera Company He does not say
that "St. Elizabeth" in English charmed
its hearers. and that, despite its al
most incredible imbecility, the original
English words of blanche sung in
"Oberon" helped Weber greatly; nor
does he mention Mr.. Hendersons able
libretto which inspired "Cyrano," or
the perhaps childish. but endurable,
English textbook of "Natoma."
do not apologize for referring to
my own TRANSACTIONS. For l am one of
a very few men in this country who
have attempted such things in earnest
and, as rule, for mere crust of
bread. The sins which distress us all
in English perversions of foreign IL
brettos could be avoided if, instead of
going to poor hacks, our publishing
sweatshops and our opera managers
intrusted men of ability and training
like MIR. krehbiel and Mr.. Henderson
(there are scarcely six of them in all
America), with their translations.
But that is what they very seldol1
90. Rather than pay proper price
for readable, and, above all, singaolc
"k'reckt vojshuns" of librettos, they
hire Grub Street scribes to undertake a
task which calls for the talents of men
who, besides being linguists, should ne
musicianly, poetic and at least to some
extent real playwrights.
With the exception of Mr. Hin 81 aw,
of the Park, what American is pro iu"-
ing serious opera in this country? You
cannot hope for any living interest in
opera in English from foreign mana
gers. NJ. atti-Casazzi, indeed pro-
duces an occasional work by an Amer
lean; so does Nj. Campanini But can
they judge the value of an English
singers learn English diction?
Until we have a national conserva-
tory as foundation for our art, and
American managers to take charge of
our lyric drama, the faults which Mr.
Krehbiel finds SO fatal may go unre-
formed. But they can be reformed,
and they soon Will be- The United
States may once have been in swad-
ding clothes. The time is near. though,
when they will insist not only on hear
ing and seeing, but also on understand
ing, what we call opera
| stand with Addison. who, as Mr..
Krehbiel reminds US, derided his coun-
trymen for enduring opera sung in for
eign tongues. And chiefly stand with
Paul the Apostle, who, in the First
Epistle to the Corinthians (chap.
xiv, wrote these Illuminating SEN
fences:
Except ye utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood, how shall it be
known what is spoken? For We shall
speak into the air There
fore, if | know rot the meaning of the