New-York tribune., 1922-05-14

( print on the great, full pages assigned
to you tabulated list of your ceuvres,
at the same time answering the oues-
ton which turks in many of our minds
! BY what divine right arc critics?'"
Let us take up the writer's "points
and dispose Of them as summarily as
possible. Like the multitude of those
who write to the newspapers to air
their grievances or vent their spleen,
! our correspondent is at loss to un-
derstand why this journal employs such
a man as it does ns reviewer, OBJ
viously editors do not feel their con-
duct to be as shameless or rcprehen-
slble as the correspondents who know
so much more about their business
than they do.
Secondly, ore is not necessarily p
dotard who recalls Miss Farrar's pro-
German sympathies in time of national
trial. Before the war she said in a
German newspaper that she would not
return to America for the reason tina
there was no art in the country
nothing but money" "For that" she
continued, II went over. For that all
go over. The American has no annrn-
clation OF art Art is an impos-
s1ollIty IN q country politically cor
rupt.' Similar sentiments she ex-
pressed in an interview published in
The Times newspaper After the out
break Of hostilities, we think, but are
willing to be corrected ic wrong.
German singers were dismissed from
the Metropolitan Company for less:
yet the Tribune's reviewer did not
permit the fact to influence his opinion
Of Miss Farrar's artistic merits. He
does not now.
Third-The "deplorable things in her
career" were not her failures in some
of her undertakings. In fact, there
were amazingly few of such failures,
We thought we had made our refer
cnce plain by specifying certain per
formances. If we did not, we say now
as we said at the time when the occa
sion called for it, that we think it was
an ,neXcusable act Of vulgarity on the
part of Miss Farrar to sing sceno
IN Romeo ct Julette" rolling about
IN bed. In laudatory review Of
MISS Farrar's career M. Henderson re-
called that exhibition and did not at
tempt to eXtenuate it, though he said
that bedroom scenes are more familiar
row than they were then. So thew are
In the theaters and movies. Thev
are signs OF depraved tastes there:
they are more so in operas in which
the authors did not contemplate that
they should be injected. Goethc,s
HIe'cheh talks over an assgnation
with faust and accepts from him ouito
as matter of course the slcepine
or"ught Tor her mother. The Mar
guerlte Of Barber, Carre and Gonnod
throws herself into Faust's arms i,
moment of passionate ECSTASY. Wbe,
MISS Farrar came to us from Ror,;,
.She Drought new nuance into the
scene. After proclaiming her exa1to-
1lon at the thought Of Faust's love +ho
cmotlon surging within her alone with
the song of birds, the murr1ur or +bo
oree7a and all the voices of nature sbe
leil back into the gloom when Faust
was about to take her into his arms
aho-opened back door to him, Tho
act may have seemed dramaticalIy ont
10 hef' but It was inartistic because
ahlagonlstic to the wishes of the an
."ofs' however, she did not persist in
q vulgarism. Nothing need bo
adoeo to what we have said Of "z..-. -
fourth-The opinions of an English
man living in Cape Town conccrn;ng
lane. Jeritza have nothing to do with
Che case. Neither have ours. Tho
question is one Of Miss Farrar's artis-
TIC conduct, not of Nine. Jer;tza,s aoe
or abilities.
Fjfth--Wc do not remember the sirc-
ers OF seventy years ago; nor have
we compared any OF to-day's artistic
with those of five generations AGO II
Is OF our correspondent splenetive and
unhlnd to wish that We were dead he
cause Of things we never did, Also II
seems to US naughty, if not positively
wicked.
Sixth-~Others have printed lists If
our "ouvres'' and we are thus spared
the trouble. Yet if we were half os
desirous to seem witty as our corro-
spondent is 10 vent his spleen we might |
attempt foreign pun and say with
apologies to the elder DIsraeli and
Bernard Shaw that it is not NECESSARY
for man to be able to lay an eeuf In |