New-York tribune., 1920-03-25

Mr.. Urban, which were more than
pretty Chose of external nature indeed
were beautifully, and there was much
talk IN melodious style of recitation.
The rest was music, for of action out
SIDE CT duel there was none
Plot Summed Up Briefly
AS for the plot, it might be summed
up briefly: Thefe was woman who
would and a man who wouldn't. And
so the man, after quarreling with a
friend who objected to his dancing
with his sweetheart and killing him,
went away from there. After a space
ne came back and found that the wom-
an who had loved him was married to
a prince. Now he would and she
wouldn't; and he went away from there
again. And stayed away, presumably;
at least, there was nothing more doing
on the stage. The opera was over.
Very thin and pallid dramatic blood
the music in the opera, and it was the
music that must be credited with nine
tenths of the favor with which the
opera was received last night. The re-
naming tenth may go to Mr. Urban's
pictures and the singers. OF the ma
tlonal color which constitutes the
strength and charm of the operas by
Moussorgsky and Borodin there is
none except the songs of the reapcrs
Here we have genuine Russian folk
tunes, combined with delightful
mimicry of harvest home festival,
with antiphonal singing and a peasant
dance around a mammoth sheaf Of
wheat, decorated with flowers. 1t is a
ceremonial of great antiquity and
lovely significance, concerning which
we should like to discourse, but must
not
1t carried the senses and fancy Of
the audience captive last night and
etition, with which Mr. Bodanzky
would not comply When the incident
was over the interest in the drama was
over The rest was concert in costume
amid pictures, the high musical lights
falling on a waltz, mazurka during
which the quarrel which has fatal
ending takes place., polonaise, what
may be called the death song of Lenski
before the duel, and (better than all
else in melodic beauty and truthful
ness of dramatic expression) the scene
in which Tatjana puts confession of
her love for Oncgin into a letter.
But this, though the chiefest, is only
one of many evidences of Tschaikoff-
sky's fecund melodic gift and his mas
terful command of the technique Of
composition. With this scene Nine.
Muzio won a generous guerdon of ap-
plause, and deserved it, at least by the
intensity of her singing. But intensity
marked nearly all the.vocal utterances
of the evening--a great deal more in
tensity than the situations or words
LenskD was intense; Signor De Luca
(Onegin) was intense, explosively in
tense. Deep feeling, it seems, can ex-
press itself only noisily in these days.
The time when the shadows murmured
and the deeps were dumb is gone by.
Other singers who deserved mention for
having contributed to the success of
the music were Flora Perrin (Larina),
Frances Ingram (Olga), Kathleen How
Gremn), Angelo Bada (Triquet-he
sang his couplets quite in the proper
French style), Milo Picco (Zaretzki),
Louis d'Angelo Ca Captain) and Adam
Lillman (Guillot). Perhaps some of
these people would have acted if the
opera had given them an opportunity.
But the chief musician was Mr.. Bo-
danzky, who played that excellent in
strument, his orchestra.
The opera seemed to have awakened
an unusual interest in the public, es-
peclally among the denlZenS OF New
Yorks East Side. There were hun
dreds who sought admission to tho
cheaper places in the theater who had
TO be turned away, and the specifically
Russian scene awakened joyous
tumult among the spectators behind
the rails. where, also, the familiar
Italian claque displayed great industry
whenever Martineli or De Luca sang.
The opera was sung in Italian. Why ?
1t must have been because the majority
of the singers implicated in the per-
formance were. or are, Italians, for
the opera has been published in an
English version by Schirmer.