New-York tribune., 1920-01-17
By William Henry Chamberlin


MORE CHAPTERS OF OPERA. BY Henry
Edward Krehbiel. Henry Holt & Co..
New York
"A BOOK OF OPERAS. BY Henry Edward
krehbiel. The Macmillan Company New
York.
In "More Chapters of Opera" Mr..
krehbiel gives a most complete and
authoritative account of opera in New
York during the year 190S-'l8. The
authors knowledge of his subject is
absolutely unique; as the dean of
New York musical critics he is prob
ABLY as familiar with the course of
events at the Metropolitan as any other
hvlng man. In addition to it's critical
and historical scholarship the work is
characterized by an abundance of in
innate anecdotes about various pictur-
esque flgures that have appeared in
New York musical life. Mr.. Krehbiel
often leaves the critics seat to go be-
hlnd the stage door and give the reader
a peep at the human personalities that
exist behind the masks of Rhadames
and Tosca, Carmen and Mephistopheles.
The period under discussion is rich
IN operate history. 1t witnessed the
downfall Of Heinrich Conried and the
inauguration Of Mr.. Gatti-Casazza as
the directing genius of the Metropoli-
tan policies; the exciting but unsuc-
cesstul efforts of Mr.. Hammerstein to
gain place in the sun; the retire
ment OF Nine. Sembrich and Emma
Eames, and the appearance of many
new singers and conductors. Its close
was marked by the elimination of Ger
mar opera from the Metropolitan rep
ertory as result of the feeling ex-
cited by the war.
Inc author gives particularly
brilliant description of Hammerstein's
furious but futile attempt to break
through the solid phalanx of wealth
which was arrayed behind the estab-
ilshed Metropolitan institution. With
his love for the novel and the sensa-
tlonal and his remarkable capacity for
becoming involved in quarrels and
scandals, HammersteiA was a veritable
goodsend to newspaper editors in search
OF feature material. 1t was the cordial
support of the press, in Mr.. Krehbiers
opinion, that enabled him to prolong
the UNEQUAL struggle as long as he did
One of the most diverting incidents of
Mr.. Hamerstein's career was the fierce
battle between Miss Garden and Miss
Cavalier over the right to appear
scantily robed in "ThaIs."
The glitter of many premieres is in
Mr.. krehbiePs book. He describes the
plot OF almost every new opera pre-
sented at the Metropolitan, together
with criticisms of the music, acting and
singing He is fair, but not unduly
partial to musical novelties At the
present time, when there is tendency
to hail every eccentric notoriety seeker
as genius, there is truth and weight
in the authors defense of conservatism
in musical criticism, which he sets
forth in the following passage:
TO the objection constantly urged
against musical criticism that progress
in the art has uniformly disclosed its
frequently accepts what preceding
generation has rejected, l reply that
no man has a right to an opinion in a
question of art who is afraid to express
1T. and the most foolish course that a
critic, lay or professional, can follow
is to withhold his judgment for fear
that at some future time it may be
found that his opinion was erroneous
After that the next most foolish thing
is for the critic to sneer at the honest
writer of the past from whose views the
ma ority of his successors have turned
The men who could not approve of all
that Beethoven wrote were not dishon-
est fools; nor were they all imbecies
who objected to Schumann, or Wagner,
or Brahms. 1t is not idiocy to-day to
question the artistic. validity of every
phrase penned by Richard Strauss. or
Roger, or Debussy. or Arnold Schon-
berg
The author is rather cold to the fla
miliar complaint that opera in English
has never received fair cons side ion