New-York tribune., 1920-02-01
irregularities in
Dress and Behavior
On Operate Stage
By Grenville Vernon

"Tha Anomalies of Opera" Wha. a.
| title for book, book to include all
! the nonsense ever written about the
opera or done in the opera housel A
book lit would be u whole Carnegie
Library! For the opera at bottom is
founded upon nonsense and rears itself
in Land of Cockaigne Why should
we take it serlously7 Is not serious
attitude really the height of folly, and
la not any cavlllng against absuruitles
upon the stage tie mos. utter of all
abSurdltles?
lake the performance o. "Marouf'
at the NJ Metropolitan Opera House, per-
lorinance OF truly gorgeous spleuuer-
oslty. In the second act q muezzin
Guns from the tower. lac sun IS rls-
ing directly behind MIN, Docs he face
1t, that East which every muezzin has
laced alnco the days OF Manome.2 He
goes nor. 10 be strictly just, he
faces from West TO nor northwest,
tie is truly operatic muezzin.
lake the th4rd act Of Faust" the
scene before Marguerite's house. 1t is
the dead OF night, The people have long
retired. Presumably even In old Nu,
remoers the worthy burghers and their
equally worthy wives were not lAe
the kings of table, who went to bed
IN their crowns and ermine robes
1hese medieval Germans, while not
possessing the blessings of the pa
jana, undoubtedly knew the uses OF
The nightle.
Yet what happens in every opera
house in the world, including the Met,
ropolitan? Faust slays Vulentin and
the housea promptly empty themselves
ol crowd dressed as lor midday
stroll upon the ramparts. Not nightie
nor nlghtcap to be seen.
1t would violate the sacred tradi-
tion OF the Paris Opera If any reality
were attempted. SO through the ages
opera audiences will be persuaded 1hat
the medieval Germans went to bed in
thelr boots and rullles.
or sake "Cagmen.' There have In the
past been many Carmens and they all
had their ecccntricities. Let US speak
OF the Carmen of to-day. Carmen is Il
cigarette girl, at least in the nrst act.
She Is on her way to work She is
dressed presumably neither for II bail
cigarettes. Yet Nine. Geraldine Farrar
on.ets dressed for the bul.rlng. splen-
dl1orous IN her comb and lace and
high heeled shoes 30 wonder poor Don
Jose's head reels. He wasn't accus-
toned to seeing Spanish working girl
enter her factory attired as a Flo Zleg-
Ted Follles girl entering her limousine
we wonder, in fact, why the audiences
head doesn't reel as well, and it is du-
blous satisfaction to have the sugees-
ton whispered that in opera an audience
doesn't have head.
And then there is Henry Hadley's
"Cleopatra's Night 1t was only pro-
duced Yesterday afternoon, but it Is
already in the swim We use the term
SWIM advisedly. Yesterdays audience
saw the hero in the person OF Or
Vile Harold emerge from the bathing
pool after subterranean swim of con-
siderable proportions. He emerged as
dry rs a Broadway cafe in this year of
vlrtue 1920. Not so much as q single
drop OF moisture tw1nXied from an eye
lash 1t was the one touch of origi
nality In the opera.
But why lengtnen the listg L. goes
on. 1t has gone on, and it probably will
go on, and nothing that We can think,
say or DO will weigh a camels hair in
the scale Of decision. The land of opera
is, indeed. the true Land CT Cockaigne.