New-York tribune., 1920-02-14
Ruffo's'Hamlet.'
An Example of
FINISHED Art
Italians Wonderful Per.
formance Thrills Admir-.
ing Audience at Met.
ropolitan Opera House
----l'-
Drinking Song a Triumph
Barytone Is Compelled to
Repeat Melody to Salts
fly Demand of Hearers
By H. E. krehbiel

oometnlng over seven wears ago
Slgnor Titta Ruffo sang drinkin o
song at the Metropolitan Opera House
and evoked such storm of no;sv
acclaim that it seemed as if the proper
thing for Mr.. Caruso to do was to
go and hide forever his diminished
mead. Last night the incident was
repeated at the Lexington Theater. and
'ne reverberating plaudits were nos
slbiy longer and louder. At least thew
were so long and so loud that Sirnor
Ruffo had the curtain raised and sang
the song over again.
incidentally, it may be remarked that
the singer was pcrsonating Hamlet
a. the time and the song was supposed
TO be Tor the entertainment Of the play
ers who had come to him to learn
something about how to act play to
eaten the conscience of king. It has the
stoutest and most swinging tune in tho
opera, whose other high light is the
mad scene and death of Ophelia, in
which the poor lady before going down
to muddy death mixes some glitter
ing vocal pyrotechncs with pathet-
lcally beautiful Swedish folksong mel
ody.
Familiar Qpip Reversed
Everybody has heard frequently of
Hamlet" with the melancholy Dane
left out of the play. The opera con-
cocted by Carre, Barber and AMBROSE
Ihomas, when performed with Titta
Rufo IN the cast, is in the opposite case
"A Hamlet with the play left out. It is
olJ Il the most futile of the efforts
whlcl constituencies French opera
makers have made in trying to fit
Shakespeare to the lyric stage.
Verdi's "Falstaff" is one OF the best
and his "Otello" IS a good second, but
IN both of these the great Italian COM
poser had a collaboration who was a
scholar and poet as we'll as a mu~
sician. Rossini's "Otello" and verd's
"Macbetto" have gone into the limbo
of forgotten things.
People who are so old as to be proud
OF their long and cspacious memories
or so timid that they are afraid to
be accused of seniity may recall a
scene from Bellini'5 "Moutecchi g
Capulett," in which Adelaide Phillips.
OF noble memory, used TO sing the part
of Romeo Git was about The time when
Charlotte Cushman played the hero in
Shakespeare's tragedy, and the mid
dle-aged patrons of the Metropolitan
Opera House remember with exquisite
mods Romeo e. Juliet+e''; bu5 they
were iH the days Of Meiba and Jsaa
de Reszke, with whom such radiant
glorles vanished from the stage of the
gllded house IN upper Broadway.
Old Performance Recalled
An older generation may hark back
to a single performances in German Of
Nicolai's fascinating opera in which
Mines. Sembrich and Schun,arn -1Ieink
were the Merry Wives. Only four
years ago We also had a German Tam
ing OF the Shrew.' There is so mucl,
artistic e-blood in these two operas
that it might be worth while TO vivify
them with an English translation. but
as for the one other opera of this
Shakespearan list which comes to
mind just now when we are making an
effort not to be too reminiscent, ii is
a. dead as Handel's ".Eulius C4sar"
We have in mind "Le Songo dune Mutt
music for Hamlet" which we heard
last night.
"Hamlet' lives through Titta Ruffo,
and if one mans art can Justify its
existence it finds its justification in
such singing and acting as the Italian
ba1ytone exhibited last night. 1t was
certainly an excellent, a wonderful, an
extraordinary performance; most Of all
extraordinary in the volume and range
Of voice disclosed by the singer. in the
mastery of vocal technique, in the vi
tality, vibrancy and beauty Of his
tones, his skill in giving dramatic ex-
preston through finished diction and
vocal color
He fired the enthusiasm of the multi
tude with his sonorous high tones, but
he won the admiration of the judicious
by his finished art, his plastic poses,
graceful and significant movements,
the mobility and expressiveness of his
features. He made all else that was
seen and heard during the evening sink
into nothingness, though we are un-
willing to forget the excellent singing
OF Miss Florence Macbeth as Ophelia
Simply for the sake of the record we
add that Gertrude van Gordon sang
the music of Gertrude, Edouard
Cotreuil that of the Ghost (very we'll,
by the way, Villorio Trevison that of
Polonius, Lodovico Oliviero that of
Laertes, Jose Mojica that Of Marcelo,
and Constantin Nicolay that Of Horazio.
NJ. Charlier conducted and the opera
was sung in Italian.