New-York tribune., 1921-11-20


soul of Mcndelssohn, wherefore he de-
nounced tho operate taste OF his dny
and generation.) He upbraids her as n
wantop and declares that in embrac
ing her he had embraced only his dead
love, that hers we're the lips he had
kissed, hers the hair he had fondled.
But she sends her friends away and
with few honeyed words. woven PAGES
and waving arms ensnarcs his soul
again, compels him to recant his words
and to admit her to the home which her
fronts the memories of the departed,
throws down the gage of battle between
past and present, between the quick
and the dead, and when he rebukes her
for daring to bring her impurity into
comparison with the ineffably pure,
haunts the trcsses Of the dead woman
in his face, intertwines them with her
own and waves them in wild, baccha-
nalian dance. Maddened, he strangles
her with the golden strands. She lies
dead before him: "Now she looks just
like her!"
The Action and the Music
All this in the opera is a dreann--the
longest, strangeJt dream that we ever
heard set to music-except that which
Berioz would have us think of as de-
lincated in his "Fantastic Symphony"
Rodenbach was q better dramatist than
the German librettist He carries his
psychological study to legitimate
dramatic conclusion. The experience Of
the morbid widower is represented as a
real occurrence and at the end the muir
derer is a madman.
Perhaps there Is extenuation for the
strain which the opera makers impose
upon the credulous fancy of their audi
ence in the fact that outside of a few
lyric moments, particularly the song
which awakens the voice of the dead
woman in the soul of the pitiful hero,
there is little which presents itself as
musical material in an amiable sense
to the composer. That song, whose mel
ody sounds again in the epilogue of the
play, where it may proclaim renuncia-
ton by a cankered and morbid soul, is
Korngold's choicest bit Of tune, though
it's manner and mood belong to Wen
nese operetta. 1t is mushily sentiment
tai, but it serves to plead for the opera
and it gives voice to all the pathos in
the story What is left to WOO the ear
lies in the first, the expository, part Of
the drama in the scene of the
reves of the theatcr folk in the
second act Here sentme entail
song by the impersonator of Pier
rot has the Tilt of graceful
slow waltz, but the rest of the music
conceived as q contrast to the tragic
gloom of tempestuous night and the
storm in Paups soul has labored
with the dramatist's conceit than it is
with the nocturnal picture which
shrouds it about the procession of
nuns, the tolling of bells, the driving
clouds, the lamps Pickering in the
wind. Korngold is heavy footed must
cal funmaker.
The play is largely constructed for
the sake of contrast and is an ingeni-
Gus structure, though the expressive
material is turgid and unpoetical. We
could not help wishing yesterday that
DR.. Hanslick, who was the predecessor
of the young composers father as
musical critic and feuilletonist of the
"Neue Freie Presse" newspaper in
enough to give us his thoughts Of the
language Of the lbretto Omit dem
wird fertig ich" sounds like an echo
from the Viennese ghetto) and its
music. All the dialogue of the play,
when it is not swamped floats upon a
flood of tones which seethes and roars
whenever the tragic element enters
and whirls in few mellihuous eddes,
not unvexed by rocks, in the few mo-
ments when passions are quiescent.
In this instrumental flood swim and
squirm fragments of tune, phrases
whose latest paternity is that of Puc-
cini and his precursors back to Wag
ner. The tempest i3 one that ragged in
"The Ring of the Nibelung." Sprinkled
ever what ought to be a naive canticle
of children in religious pageant are
the glittering celesta chords which
shine like dewdrops on Sophie's bou-
quet in Der Rosenkavalier." Puccini's
"Tosca' contributes its quota of
phrases. Plainly everything. is fish
that comes into this composers net.
trail idioms, whether taken from the
lips of Strauss or his imitators, but
his score shows lamentable paucity
OF original thoughts.
In the frankness CT his conveyances
(to use a polite word)s he reminds US
of an old Elector of Cologne who used
to compose music by singing any
thing that came into his head to a
composer who brought it to paper,
| whereupon it was published as the
work of the august. reverend and
Elector composer. Delightfully."- honest
was the old Elector in his confession.
"The methodun, which l have adopted" :"
said he, sis that of the bees that draw
and collect the honey from the sweet
est flowers; so, also, I have taken all
that | have composed from good mas
ters whose MusikaHen pleased me.
Let no one, therefore, get angry if he
hears old arias in it, for, as they are
beautiful, the old is not deprived os
its praise. | ascribe everything to the
grace of God who enlightened me, the
unknowing, to do these things" We
do not know that young Korngold has
ever been quite so candid; he is GER
| tainly a brilliant technican and in
| genious transformer.
Madame Jeritza and the Performance
There is much that is fascinating to
mind and fancy in Die Tote Stadt" in
it's plot, its pictures. VIII ich are so
thoroughly admirable that they deserve
special praise. in its music and in its
per. ormance. These elements Of charm
are so many and potent that we dare
to venture upon prediction OF success
Tor Mr.. Gattis latest adventure. It's
most pulssant element, however, has
been found in Madame Jeritza. In the
newcomer we find beautiful voice
consorted with beautiful personality,
and loveliness of face, figure, pose and
movements inspired by finished art in
song and dramatic action. 1t is not
enough to say that she has charm.
though that quality must needs be
great to overcome the handicap i'm