The New York herald., 1922-12-31

ings of some contemporaneous opera
goers to be told that there were kings
before Agamemnon. The opera be-
gan when they began to go to it. So
let Pasta rest with her dead past.
The writer of these lines is very old
is indeed 'doddering into the twi-
Tight Of misspent life"-but he did
not hear Pasta.
Nor Is it necessary to the enlighten-
ment of operagoers that a history OF
the fortunes Of William Tell" in this
city should be given. It's Metropolitan
Opera House record Is worthy of note,
chiefly because there is so little of it.
1t was first performed in that temple
of music on November 2S. 1884, with
Adolf Robinson in the name part
Udvardi as Arnold, Staudigl as Gessler,
Koegel as Walter, Nine. Schroeder
Hanfstaengl as Matilda, Nine. Slach
as Jenny and the great Nine. Mari
anne Brandt as Hedtci0e. Leopold
Dasnrosch was the conductor.
On December l, 1887. the opera was
produced again with Robinson as TELL
.i-Iiii Il iSNlCi do w utttf anu JUL
Perotti as Arnold The women were
Miss Alma Foestrohm as Matilda and
Nine. Koschoska as Jenny. Anton
Seidl conducted
On December 10. 1889, it was again
brought forward with Perotti,
Fischer and Koschoska in the same
parts, Theodore Reichmann as Tell.
Miss Betty Frank as Matilda and Paul
Kalisch in the small role of the fisher
man. in which his good singing at
tracted the attention of this writer. In
no one of these seasons did the opera
have more than three performances.
And that is the number it received in
the last season in which it appeared in
the Metropolitan repertory previous to
this.
Last Presented in 1898.
1t was produced in Italian (hitherto
II had been sung in Germany on No
vember 81 1894, with Ancona as Tell
Tamagno as Arnold. Edouard de
Reszke as Walter, Miss Bauermeste-
as JENNY and Mime. Libia Drog as
Matilda. 1t was on this occasion that
the soprano broke down, as will pres
emily be related. On December 20,
when the opera was repeated, Miss
Lucille Hill. who should have sung
Mdtilda at the first performance. bu.
was Ill and gave way to Nine. Drog.
appeared. The rest of the cast was
the same. The little Plancon, by the
way, was the Gcssler. But such insig-
nificant matters are best left unmen-
toned. The last performance took
place on January IS. 1895. with the
same cast The conductor at all three
representations was Luigi Mancineli.
The collapse of memory which in
.capacitated Nine. Drog at the first
performance was one of the most ex-
traordinary incidents of Metropolitan
stage history, and II was never en-
planned. 1t is imperative to repeat the
tstory in the words in which II was
told in 1894 The writer apologies
10 the reader for the brevity of the
account, for the absence of streaming
bead lines and the general want OF
appropriate excitement. journalism
has immensely improved since those
far off days and what the foolish
newspaper man of that period re-
garded as an incident the scribe of to-
day recognizes as an event. However
here are the words of the ancient re-
porter. He guarantees at any rate
the accuracy OF his story:
The role of Matilda was to have
been sung by Miss Lucille Hill. but
she was taken sick two or three days
ago and Nine. Libia Drog. a dramatic
soprano of the company. agreed TO
sing the part. which she had never
sung before. She made her entrance
at the proper time in the second act
and sang the recitative preceding the
air 'Sombre fors' with smoothness and
ease"
Then she embarked upon the aria
and sang the first stanza I'm manner
that promised only fairly but still
could not be called distinctly bad She
made an attempt to begin the second
stanza, whose melody is the same as
that Of the first, when her memory
utterly failed her. She stood and
glared at Signor Mancnelli. who
stopped the orchestra and glarei at