Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-07
THE CRITIC TALKS
TO MUSIC LOVERS
Weekly Comment on Things
Musical in Discriminating
Philadelphia
THE performance Of. Henry Hadley's s

hlE performance OF f1enry hduley y
4 new opera. cleopatra Night" by
the Metropolitan Opera Co., in this city
last Tuesday evening, brought up again
for at least the several hundredth time
the perennial question of the practica-
bility of grand opera in English. One
of the great lessons pointed out by this
and by several other performances of
opera in our own tongue, within the
last five or ten years is the necessity
for an adequate libretto.
| Without going into the merits or
otherwise of the libretto which Mr..
Hadley has set to music in his latest
work. the matter of a fine and, above
all, a really poetic libretto, is of more
Importance than anything else at the
| present stage of American operate de-
velopment. Curiously enough, much Of
the American music that has been COM
posed for the grand operate stage by
the present generation is good enough,
but in many cases its real merits have
been largely obscured or at least nulli-
fed by the lbretto.
The reason that a libretto is more
important than the music to American
opera just now is because we have no
operatic traditions. We are not ac-
customed as the European nations are
to hearing everyday phrases and com
monplaces sung instead Of spoken, and
the first impulse of the fun loving
American public upon hearing such Ito
him) an apparent incongruity is to
laugh.
THIS was just what happened on
i Tuesday night in a number of stu
ations which were anything but humor
Gus from the dramatic standpoint, and
quite naturally the laughter. which at
that was hardly more than ripple OF
amusement, entirely spoiled the stage
situation. The most fragrant occurrence
was at the death of Mardion, when
Cleopatra ordered her body to be
thrown to the crocodiles. Perhaps here
the situation might have been saved by
the defamation Of these words instead
of having them sung. 1t occurred again
as Cleopatra was about to enter the
bath, but here it might justly be laid
! to causes other than the libretto.
However, for a long time to come, the
libretto of grand opera in English will
have to be so circumspect that where
there is any question of the common
place, the poetic form of speech should
be used. At least this will save the sit
uation, for we are accustomed to hear
| ing this form in song and otherwise
set to music.
1t is not that the librettos of the
operas in English are any worse than
many of the librettos in Italian or
French. for some atrocious things have
been perpetrated in both these tongues,
but the Italians and the French are ac-
customed to hearing these things sung,
and from years and generations of asso-
citation with them, they no longer see
anything strange in it. We are not,
nd fr1p
knows what the Americans do in this
| case.
WE AMERICANS are an eminently
w practical people, and it will prob
ably be n long time before we can hear a
plain narrative expressed vocally in
| English without at least a twitch of
| the risibilities. When this time comes
we can do as the foreign nations do and
sit under the most ridiculous absurdities
such as constantly occur in the French
and italian operas without a smile, but
that time is not yet.
But, while we have not an operate
| tradition of our own, we find it easy to
adopt one. Many who are Americans
in all that the word implies, and who
go to hear the opera regularly, under
stand what is being said on the stage
in foreign tongue, and it sounds all
right and they see nothing funny in it.
But put the same thoughts into every
day English and there are comparatively
few of them who could keep quiet.
Therefore, the first need of a success
| full grand opera in English is a first
class poetic libretto. We have the com
posers who can set it to music which
| will compare favorably with many of the
European novelties which we have heard
in the last few years, but the limitations
of our operate experience as a nation
must be taken into consideration in
using a language with which all are
| familiar, but under circumstances which
are decidedly strange.
And. incidentally, while American
operate composers are on the lookout
for suitable libretto, why doesn't one
of them take a look at Longfellow'
play. "The Spanish Student? Here is
play written by one of the great mas
ters of English and containing all the
elements which go to make opera popu
lar nowadays, including a high class
shooting affair at the close, while the
by the fact the 'Stars of the Summer
Night" "All Are Sleeping, Weary
Heart" "Tell Her, Thou Moon, ''"GooC
Night, Good Night, Beloved, and som,
other wonderful lyrics are taken from
this play.
THE writer of this column wishes t.
l. acknowledge hereby the receipt o
n large number of letters calling atten
ton to a slip, which occurred in tn
notice of the Boston Symphony concer
in last Tuesday afternoons paper. Th
protesting readers are every one of then
right The Vincent d'Indy symptom
was played here for the first time in tn
United States by the Philadelphia Or
chestra, and not by the Boston Sym
phony, as stated in the article. If al
apology can make any amends for a.
erroneous statement which was mad
from memory and not looked up, as
should have been, said apology is hereb
: made.
TT IS seldom indeed that musicia
l. can take the works of another com
poser and by changing them in any way
make decided improvement in them
Busoni has done many wonderful thing
with some of Johann Sebastian Bach
music (wonderful in more ways tina
one). but there are many purists wh
E think that he has utterly failed to i'm
i prove it in any way. OF course, Nj
Busoni idea was neither to improve no
to modernize, for Bach is compose
whose work is impossible to improv,
and most of it, especially the chort
al IL