New-York tribune., 1920-01-31
Rip an Wiilakle
impossible ] as
A Folk Opera
Human Element Dissipated
in Mackaye's Version.
Which Introduces MANY
innovations. Says Krehbiel
Dutch Ghosts 'UnnaturaI'
Lexington ThealerAuei.;e,1ce.
However. Gives Evidence
of Cordial Appreciation
By II. Z. Krehb;eJ


1t IS to be hoped that the we'll
"ishers Of native or national school
OF opera viii not take it too much 10
hcart If there is critical. or even a
popular, record of disappointment over
the opera rip Van WinkIe," which had
ITS first performance in New York by
the Chicago Opera Company at the
Lexington Theater last night.
Concerning the popular verdict. we
are a little in doubt, though there was
plentiful punctuation of the per
iormance with applause and an obvious
dlspOsitlon the part OF the audience
to like the work at all hazards and as
much as possible
Magic Flask introduced
There were. indeed several outbursts
Of applause the spontaneitv and sin
ceritY Of which were unQuestionable
and they came after the numbers which
mad more or less resemblance to the
good stiff times which are associated in
the public mind with Mr.. De Koven nd
his "Robin Hood like the sailors
chanty sung by Drck Spuyten Duyvil,
whom Mr.. Mackaye. the author of the
book, has invented TO be a companion
Of Hendrick Hudson and cocoon spirator
with him in an amazing plot to send a
hoydenish girl, who follows Rip up the
mountains, hom, with q magic flask,
the contents of which are to be imbi bed
by Rim twenty years later and make
him young again, so that he may marry
his little playmate.
She finds the flask in his ruined hut
Just in the nick of time to prevent
herself from being married off to &
man of steadier habits and more
money but less poetry than Rip. That
is the substance of the new matter
which Mr. Mackaye has introduced
into the old legend, and very queer
matter it is.
There was enoui ,h applause, too, after
the second act. which deals largely
with q match game of ten pins. TO
bring Mr.. Mackaye before the curtain
and enable him to pay tribute to
the memory Of his late colaborator
and inform the audience tina, 1t was
Just a year ago that MIR. Campanini
had commissioned him and Mr.. De
Koven to write an opera and thus
make beginning for American
dramatists and composers upon the
American stage That beginning seems
always to be making but never made
"The Canterbury Pilgrims' was
beginning two years ago; "Cyrano de
Bergerac" beginning some years be-
fore that; "The Pipe of Desire" be
fore that; "Madalne" and "Natoma'
before that; and ever so many operas
stretching back in time to before the
beginning Of the eighteenth century
before that. 1t would seem that in
the matter of genuine American
opera we never are but are always to
be blest.
While we are not ulite certain Of
what will be the popular verdict IN
RIP Van Wrinkle" We can pretty well
critical opinion; but that viii not mat
ter The critical voice is much 700
busi y occupied just now to persist III
either condemnation or lamentation
for any considerable period of time
Resides, it is not essential to the
development Of national art that an
opera should have a ,iative subject, a
native poet and q native composer. The
most potent influence which Ameri-
can music has felt for many years
came from Czechish composer and
there are still many critics and
musicians who refuse 10 believe that
Dvorak employed American idioms or
reflected an American spirit in the
=
typical of American taste.
As for the material OF Rip Van
Winkle." N It's iovoiiest form. it con
ssts only in the outward vcscments of
the story-ts local habitatioa and
name
There Are Other Rips"
Those have become endeared 10 our
hearts through the delightfully."- quaint
and whimsical romance OF Washington
Irving The legend itself, in its es-
sence is as old as the hills not only
the Catskils, but ali the hills of the
world In the legendary lore Of Eu-
ropean peoples there are many Rip
Van Wrinkles The Swiss call him VIII
lam Tell; the Franks called him Char
lemagne; the Germans. Frederick Bar
barossa; the Danes, Olaf Trygvasson;
tho Moors, Boabdil; the Spaniards Don
Sebastian; the Britons on both sides
of the English Channel. Arthur.
Even Sicgfried. who has gone to
sleep at The Metropolitan. is only con
tinung the deeper slumber which he
began when Wagner was still III the
Ions OF his remote, very remote. an
cestors The Seven Sleepers OF Ephesus
walked up, after slumbering lG4 years.
like Rip Van Ninkle after only twenty.
10 find a new government IN place of
the one from whose persecution they
had fed
Outside OF Irving's romance, the Rip
whom d generation now grown old had
taken to their hearts was the lovabe
old vagabond created by the singuiarly
amiabie genius OF Joseph Jefferson. All
the other stage Rips were pinchbeck
jefferson developed his character out
Of Roucicault's creation, which was nor
the first of the stage embodlmcnts OF
Irving's fancy. AS the precursors of
,Jcfferson's Rip died so did the euccess
ors, despite the fact that they had pu.
on the dramatic Aabiliments which
Jefferson placed in their hands.
If the lyric Pip Van Winkle of
Mcssrs Percy Mackaye and Reginald de
koven dies it viii only be one of sev-
era operas on the subject which were
born with the seed Of mortality in
them, though they were all more
dramatically vertebrate than Mr..
Mackayc's singularly amorphous thing
which he calls "'olk-opera. Their
librettists, though they did not make
Il poetical voyage "nor noreast of the
Milky Way and SOU sou'-west of the
Dipper" in All effort to double the
Aurora Borealis, adhered close enough
TO the old story to be intelhg BILE.
Some Other Operas
As for tho composers, three Of them
at least we're better musicians than
the late Mr. De Kovcn. Two Amer
leans. Frenchman and an Italian
,,.a-o o,,,oncr tbrrr Tha-r vora