New-York tribune., 1920-01-29
New Light g ON Japan
In 'Chrysantheme'
OF Chicago Artists
Beautiful Presentation Of
Messengers Opera Omits
Tragic Devices of Story;
Nipponese Star Alluring
By II. E. Krehbiel

oPoi" "ao representation by the
Chicago Opera Company in the Lex
iington Theater yesterday afternoon.
IT was Andre Messengers Madame
Chrysantheme," which antedates Puc
cini's opera by several years. Men
nonlng 1T In criticism of "Madama
butterfly" some time ago, we con-
beyond the fact, which was only a
surmlse, that as it was based on Pierre
LOUIS fascinating sketch Of his life in
Japan. 1t presented the incidents of his
amatory adventure in Nippon, and that
1T had passed and left no sign. We
lntimated further that its disappearance
rom the stage was probably due to
ITS too faithful adherence to the
actualltles of japanese life, and there
lore could not awaken that throb of
emotlon without which lyric drama
is merely sounding brass and tinklinp
cymbal. '''''s
inns surmise was confirmed by the
performance which we witnessed YES
terday. But We are yet in the dark
touching a great deal In Messengers
opera; for the work was presented in
mutllated form and with a great deal
o. ol alloy. This was deplorable, for
music and so much suggestion of wha.
might and ought to have been in the
representation that we are inclined to
DeIlevc that had the opera been pro-
d!uced here before "Madama Butterfly"
1t would have found an abiding place
on our stage for several years at
least. Perhaps it would have pre-
vented the creation of Puccini's opera,
however, which would have been a
greater pity than its loss.
Mr. Long in his story and Mr.. Be-
| laScO in his drama which nrovidod tho
material which Sgnor Puccini and his
hbrettists moulded into the beautiful
and Justly admired opera, took many
liberties with NJ. Lofts romance SO
did NJ: Messenger and his lbrettsts,
MM. Georges Hartmann and Andre
i Alexander So did Mr.. Herman Ro Sc,
VINO designed the mise -cn-sccne of the
opera as it is presented by the Chicago
company. The American authors of
lhe story and play introduced the Gle
ment of tragic pathos by making their
heroine woman who believed her
marriagc" to Lieutenant Pinkorton to
be as sacred tie as that which she
had been told existed in America, by
| giving the couple a child and ending
,, the drama with the pitiful death of the
deceived woman.
All OF this is not only eXtraneous to
Pierre Lofts story, but false to the
customs which he described in so bril-
liant a manner But it put pathos into
the drama and made Of it a very dif-
fercnt thing than the French author
designed it to be, an exotic curio, a
quaint, grotcsque, preposterous trillc,
brought back from the land of pre-
posterous things. The French authors,
like their American successors, made
the heroine a geisha, professional
singing girl, though Lott had taken the
pains to make it plain that the agent
who arranged the contract of service
between the navai officer and the maid
would as soon have thought OF marry
ing" his client to a geisha as to the
devil himself. When he presents his
wares to the French naval officer they
are of a different sort. The first is the
daughter of wealthy Chinese mer-
chant, who is intellectually accom-
plished and has written poetry; but she
is disfigured with scar
The second is a pretty girl Of fifteen
who is brought for inspection by her
mother and aunts; but Lofts moral
stomach revolts at the thought of hir-
ing child for his purposes Finally
Lott himself selects one of Miss JAS
MINIS friends, who is eighteen years
old, and the broker makes terms with
her parents within few hours. She
is not geisha, but mousmc, and in
looking upon her representative yes
terday, who was the dainty little Jap
anese artist, Tamaki Miura, we were
able to appreciate Lofts words when
| he said that mousnao was zone of the
prettiest words in the Nipponese Ian
guage; it seems almost as if there
must must be little nloup in the Very
sound, as if pretty, taking little pout,
such as they put on, and also q little
,ert physiognomy, were described by
it," The little m0ue was in Tamaki
Miura's mouth, and she was the en-
bodimcnt of every fascination in grace
full pose and action with which mag
ination can endow the human flowers
of Nippon.
Pierre Lofts Madame Chrsantheme
didn't permit her heart to break at all
when her quondam husband left her
dollars with n hammer and went home
20 her mother to await, doubtless, the
coming of another foreigner who
wanted to hire a "wife." The operate
Chrysantheme weeps few tears at
parting and sends a letter to Pierre
bidding him when he is far away to
reflect that there are in Japan also
women "who love and-weep! A rather
lame and impotcnt conclusion, for it
makes little for it's obvious purpose
which Long and Belasco attained by
their tragic device. Lofts denouemcnt
is more in keeping with the story and
the verities of the phase Of Japanese
life which it describes.
Madame Chrysantheme and her
friends, who are the wives" of other
officers Of the French warship, go out
on the water and see them off, peeping
through the curtains Of their sampans.
But Loti when he is far out on the
great yellow sea, looks tenderly at the
faded lotus flowers which his singular
little companion had given him at
parting, and then throws them through
the portfolio of his cabin, making his
best excuses for "giving to them, ma
tives of japan, grave so solemn and 50
vast" and he utters the prayer, like
that prayed by the landlady in the first
act of the opera, 80 Ama-Teracc-
Omi-Kam, wash me clean from this
little marriage of mine in the waters
of the River of Kamo!"
In the stage pictures made by the
Chicago artist there is also an avoid
ancc of actualities or their likeness