New-York tribune., 1921-02-02
Chicago Opera Company
Gives Superb Production
of Shakespearean Score
Heard Here First i'm 1887
MIR. Marshall Has Part
Voice Possesses Quality
of Barytone With Phe-
nomenal Upward Range
By II. F.. krchbiel

Metropolitan Opera House and else
where have generally been contingent
upon the presence in the company of
a stentorian tenor, the prevailing
opinion among managerial folk ap-
apparently being that the opera is
summed up in the representative of the
principal character Gin name, at least)
and the character in voice.
There have been occasional timid
protestations that something was also
! demanded of the singing actor who
should enact the part of Iago, but
we doubt if that consideration has had
as much weight as the one mentione d.
Certain it is that the first effort to
produce it here broke down because the
tenor, Marconi, was not felt to be of
sufficient heroic mold.
Absent for Eight Years
Since then we have had others, in
cluding Tamagno, who fixed the type,
II set the model, but the managerial
impression seems to have been also
ways been something hectic and un-
stable about the work in whatever rep
ertory it was incorporated. 1t has been
absent from the Metropolitan list for
eight years. 1t was mute during the
FIVE years of Mr.. Conried's consulship,
from 1903 to 1908.
Last night it was performed by the
Chicago Opera Company at the Man
haitian Opera House. Other operas in
the company's list are palpable relics
Of the Hammerstein period, but not
"Otello." In March, 1909, that astute
manager brought it forward but it was
only as one feature Of Nine. Melbas
brief engagement, and artistic success
did not smile upon it. The company
which is in direct succession to that
housed at the Manhattan Opera House
! twelve years ago is. much better
equipped to meet the operas require
ments. Its performance last night did
not rest upon the shoulders of the
broad as they were and loglly as the
Chicago triumph of Mr.. Charles Mar
shall had been proclaimed. The repre-
sentation was notably and generally ex-
cellent, but its chief merit lay in the
performance by Mr.. Tito Ruffo of the
character of Iago. In that character,
indeed, Is the supreme merit of Verdi's
work, and, we are tempted to add, the
highest achievement of the combined
genius of Verdi and his lihrettist, Boilo
1t is as large and luminous as could
we'll be conceived in an operatc para
phrase of the Shakespeare creation.
We have been taught by much expert
ence not to expect much when any mas
terpiece of literature in transmogrified
into an opera, but Poito, Verdi and
their great interpreter Maurel showed
that even when reduced to the terms
of operate song Iago could be made
into dramatic portrait worthy of be-
:np placed in the gallery in which hang
the pictures of the great tragedians of
the last generation at least.
Nv 1o1, Fnr
the part. Hard and unyielding a were
his tones in the first act, his art as
singer became irresistibly compelling
in the second, when he rose to his
full stature in the delivery of the
sinister "Credo." We might have
wished-we did wish-for a more in
sinuating. subtle and insidious man
ner of utterance and action, but there
was no gainsaying the masterly treat
vocalzation, as exemplified especially
in the characteristic downward chro-
matte phrase, and the marvellous skill
with which by occasional use of tones
which hovered between speech and
song, yet always remained musical, he
gave color to his declamatory song.
In Contrast With Marshall
In refinements of this sort he was
in marked contrast with Mr.. Marshall,
who was an exponent in all that he
did of the fortiter an re principle. We
ought not to expect in an operate por-
trayal of the character of Othello to
/, notice such distinctions as whether
his consuming passion was solemn
agofy" evoked by the discovery that
his ideal of pure womanhood should
prove as he thought, wanton, or the
mental infirmity of jealousy grounded
in weak and suspicious human nature,
which may be misconceived and mag
nified and nourished by trifles eight
as air"
But we are justified by Boito and
Verdi in thinking even the operate
Othello something more than a stalk
ing horse to hang resounding musical
phrases upon, something more than a
man of conventional pose, conventional
gesture and conventional operate ex-
preston. Mr.. Marshall, though he ex-
hibited a most extraordinary voice and
capacity for sonorous utterance, did
little else, at least, in the way of char
acterization. His voice is unqualifedly
phenomenal.
Its quality is that of barytone, but
in it's upward range it is thrillngly
clear and ringing. We know of no
voice like it; we cannot we'll imagine a
varied use for it in the current oper-
attic list, at least not as he treated it
last night, but if it could be brought
into artistic traces we do not know
who would be his fellow in some of the
tragic French and German roles. 1t is
rare material and should be polished
and kept for high artistic use.
A generally hard and unyielding per-
formance was that of Miss Raisa as
Desdemona. it's merits and defects,
sometimes quickly alternating, being
those to which she has accustomed us
in other representations. Miss Claes-
sens Emilia was complementary to the
other impersonations, which do not call
for special mention, though they may
all be remembered in a commendation
of the performance for uniform techni-
cal merit, if that can exist without at
least modicum of poetic nuance. Mr..
Cimini was the conductor.
Miss Wycherly Dominates