New-York tribune., 1920-02-04
Norma Fails
10 Meet Test
Of Traditions
Chicago Company's Rendi-
ton of Bellini's Work L.
Weak in Contrast With
the Accepted Standards
Last Heard Here i'm 1891
Ar, of Lehman as Lyric
lragedienne Apparently
Lost TO Modern Singers
By II. E. Krehb;el


u 'he music reviewers of New York
wore h'rsute appendages like the Turks
instead of being bare chinncd like five
S'aVes or the seraglios there would be
great "agglng Of gray boards in the
newspapers this morning, for "Normor
WIS performed at the Lexington The
ater last night. and Norma" thoucb a
classic, had not been heard in Ner
YORK before for more than twenty.
eight years
traditions cluster thickly around the
Old work. Three or four of the c,,t;cs
SUN IN servltude may recall that last
performance, which took place in the
metropolitan Opcra House on Decem.
Der l9, 1891. 1t was in the first season
under Abbey e. Grau, after the seven
years of German opera and the reason
for Its production was the presence in
the company of Nine. Lilli Lehman.
VINO mad revived" the opera for a Ger.
man performance at her benefit on
repfuary ~. 1890, and sung in it twice
AFTER the end Of the season at Hammer
stems Harlem Opera House. in an
abortlve attempt at rivalry with Adel-
ma Patti and her company. which had
.aken possession of tie fashionable
mouse at the close of the regular sea
son. ne opera was announced once
alter the date first given. in 1899. but
we believe MARTHA was sung instead
Lehman Without Successor
For us Nine. Lehman was the last
OF the race of Normas. She was also,
so Mr. Gatti-Casaz2a recently observed
TO the writer the last efficient Druidic
prlestess IN his ken. In our expert
ence Nine Lehman had no peer.
InouEh the general manager spoke
highly OF the mother of Fernando
Galettl, bass butfo OF Mr. Hammer
stems second season at the Manhattan.
Our memory includes no other really
heroic exemplar Of the character
though it goes back to Nine. Palmicri
in 1877 and Miss Teresa Singer in 1879,
both OF whom sang in companies man
aged by Max Strakosch, and Nine. Pap
penheim in the Mapleson season Of
1855 'S4; but they as little measured
Lp to the artistic stature of Nine. Leh-
mann, as they realized the ideals asso-
GATED through history and tradition
With the great Normal Of forty years
before Pasta, who seems to have been
the supreme eXemplAr. and Grisi, who
with Mario, produced the opera in New
York in 1854. This was some time be-
fore we began to trouble ourselves and
The Tribune's readers with operate
"reminiscences and criticisms, fact
that we deplored last night for a while.
though we became reconciled to il
later. Nine. Tictjens. who was in a
way connecting link between the old
regime and the new, and who sang in
the opera in New York in 1875, we
did not hear except in concert; but her
command OF the grand style was such
that we can easily believe that she was
noble Druidess, as she surely was a
noble priestess of the art of dramatic
song. Damerini and Parepa, if they
sang in the opera at the old Academy
of Music, as they may we'll have done,
found The Tribune's seat occupied by
one of our admirable predecessors.
possibly Mr.. Hassard or Mr.. Watson.
The significant fact about all the rep
reservations of Norma" which swan
irto our ken is that at those somewha,
phenomena. OF Bellini's other OPP
eras LA Sonnambula" and ~ Puri-
tani" occasionally showed signs Of life
but "Norma' was moribund. Why?
We think we know. 1t was because
though the line of singers OF the light
voiced. forid variety was yet unbroken,
that of lyric tragediennes. by which we
mean singers who combined histrionic
powers with musical capacity. singers
fitted to portray such characters as Nor
ma, Lucrezia Borgia, Constanza, Donna
Anna--.to mention few typical cases
singers with voices voluble but elo-
quent, with sufficient art TO infuse
roulades as we'll as the melodlc line
with significance. with an instructive or
acquired sense of the value of declama-
tory recitative--that line was particu-
larly extinct. They no longer came out
Of the schools or We're developed by
the operate needs of the latter half or
the nineteenth century. We certainly
did not hear phrase or see pose
or gesture last night OF which they
would not have been ashamed
Longed To BE Waynerian Heroine
Nine Lehman had had some OF the
old-fashioned training, besides intelli-