New-York tribune., 1920-02-22
Geraldine Farrar Fund
To Assist Famous Singer
impoverished by World War

AlC WHen Cney Sal0 carmen thought
Hauk. No sooner did Colonel Mapleson
announce the opera for his season at
the Academy than Max Strakosch, who
was in the field with an opera COM
pany headed by Clara Louise Kellogg,
prepared also to bring it out. And
this he did in Philadelphia with Miss
Kellogg as Carmen two days after
the performance at the Academy of
Music. A fortnight later the Kellogg
company, which had taken to the road,
was in Cincinnati, and there we, al
ready outgrowing our pin feathers as
a music reviewer, heard it. Miss Kel-
logg was therefore our first Carmen:
but soon after we saw and heard Min
ME Hauk, who was still delighting New
York audiences, which crowded the
Academy when we came to New York
to enter the service Of The Tribune
toward the end of November, 1880.
Europe thought then that she had only
two rivals-Galli-M Marie, the original
creator of the character in Paris, and
Pauline Lucca, in Germany. AS we had
heard Miss Kellogg first in Cincinnati,
SO we first heard Minnie Hauk, whose
fame had gone all over the country. Of
this there is evidence which has an in
terest to literary folk, and also to Miss
Hauk's admirers, in a letter to H, E,
Krehbiel, printed with an incorrect
date) in the first volume Of the "Life
and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn" by
Elizabeth Bisland. Hearn had just
read Merimee's novel, which, as he
said, had enthralled him: II am in love
with it. The color and passion and
rapid tragedy of the story is (sic) mar
velous." Later he writes: ~ read that
Minnie Hauk plays Carmen in gorgeous
costume, which is certainly out of
place, except in one act of the opera.
Otherwise, from the first scene of the
novel in which she advances 'poising
herself on her hips like a filly from
tho Cordovan stud to the ludicrous
episode at Gibraltar, her attire is de-
scribed as more nearly resembling that
picturesque rag-blinding Of color Dor6
describes and depicts. II you SEQ the
opera, please send me your criticism in
The Gazette" Cincinnati Gazette that
was)
Amusingly enough, whom something
over five years ago we passed q genera
ton Of our Carmens in review for the
diversion, II not the edifcation, of The
Tribune's readers, We were unable to
find in our collection a photograph Of
Miss Hauk to introduce among the
illustrations of the article. A few
weeks later Nine. Won Hesse- Wartire
(the Minnie Hauk that was) sent US a
photograph in character, and in a
pleasant letter brought the same
charge against her successors that
Hearn had brought against her. They
were all overdressed, she asserted,
while her costumes had been carefully
patterned after the actual habili-
ments worn by gypsy girls Of the Car
men stripe in Spain. Among those
many successors were Nine. Trebilli,
Lili Lehmanh Adelina Patti, Zele de
Lussan, Emma Calve, Olive Fremstad
Clotilde Bressler- Gianoli, Maria Cav
and the then most recent Geraldine
Farrar.
After her first triumphs in the opera
Miss Hauk was absent from New York
for lustrum, we believe. In the sea-
son 18Sb-'66 she came to the Academy
again and resumed her successes with
the opera. Then she was absent till
February, 1892, when she was engaged
by Mr.. Edmund Stanton for the Ger
man opera domiciled at the Metropoli-
tan Opera House. The promise that
Carmen" would be performed with the
old favorite in the part with which she
was more intimately associated than
any singer known in New York was
"one OF the loveliest signs Of the
times on the operatic armament re-
marked The Tribune.
But the loveliness proved to bs not IN
the performance but In the audience
room. which was crowded "as It only Ia
on gala Wagner night" The perform
ance was disappointing. The Gallo spirit
WAS foreign to the German singers To
them. 1t was plain, Bizet's opera was
unknown territory. Miss Hauk's i'm
p@sonation was still one Of marked
and fascinating individuality from
histrionic point Of view (she still fol-
lowed the example sst By M6rim4es
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