The New York herald., 1922-01-27
CHICAGO COMPANY REVIVES
GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST
Miss Rosa Raisa Sings Title
Role i'm Puccini
Opera.
By w. j. HENDERSON.

Puccinis "The Girl OF the Golden
West" was given at the Manhattan
Opera House last evening by the Chi
cago Opera Company. This work had
the peculiar distinction of receiving its
first performance on any stage at tn,
Metropolitan Opera House on December
10. 1910. Its repute was intertwined
With that OF Miss Emmy Destinn, Mr..
Caruso and Mr.. Amato. The glory of
the singers endured longer than that of
the opera, which was found to. be singu-
larly lacking In the qualities essential
to the true Puccini flavor. In the season
OF 191S-14 it slowly faded from the
public gaze.
Whether it's resurrection by the enter
prising Chicago organization will give
It. permanent place on the American
stage Is not to be determined at this
moment. The public response TO Miss
Gardens invitation to hear 1t was not
tumultuous. The audience was of fair
size, but 1t was attentive rather than
demonstrative. Perhaps q better per-
formance would have evoked warmer
plaudits. That of last evening was dis
tinguished chiefly by honorable effort.
Miss Rosa Raisa was an attractive
Minnie to see and she sang some parts
OF the music very well, but in many pas
sages there were signs OF the results of
hard usage OF a voice naturally of ex-
traordinary beauty and power Ulysses
Lappas. Greek tenor. was the remark
able representative CT the gentleman Of
the road. Mr.. Johnson of Sacramento
Mr.. Lappas looked somewhat like a
Guacho, but not much like a cowboy or
a miner of the days when the Wells
Fargo Express was periodically held up.
Mr.. Lappas sang vigorously and exhib-
taH fax I, ~, ~
But his voice was for the most part
dry and not warmly expressive.
Mr.. Rimini was the Jack Renee. He
wore the wrong kind of hat and coat
for SiciIian bandit, but otherwise he
looked not unlike one. He walked
about quite as solemnly as Puccini's
Western Sheriff is supposed to walk
and his gaze was full of unutterable
things. This was fortunate, for his
singing was so gloomy that no auditor
could have wondered that the emo
tional Minnie preferred even the lyric
wooing of the Greek tenor. Mr.. Du-
frame as Sonora was wandering in
strange regions. but Edouard Cotreuil
as Billy JGckrobbit, the Indian. was
still further at sea.
The miners were astonishing persons
What a pity they had not had Mr.. Be-
lasco, who sat in an orchestra chair, to
tell them to put their hands in their
pockets when they felt like gesticulating !!
Mr.. Polacco conducted with generally
good judgment. But it remains an open
question whether 1t was brilliant idea
to make an opera out of the forty miners,
the road agents, the pony rider and
straight whisky.
Among those in the audience were
Mr.. and Mrs. Il. McNiel Bacon. Mr.. and
Mrs. Eben Stevens, Mrs. J. Archibald
Murray. Mrs. II. Van Rensselaer, Ken
nedy. Mrs. Arthur B. Twombly. Mr..
and Mrs. Schuyler Schieffelin, Miss
Muriel Mccormick, Mr.. and Mrs. James
L. Hand. Mr.. and Mrs. Marcel Stein
brugge, Mrs. James Mackay, Mr.. and
Mrs. Robert e. Johnston, Mr.. and Mrs.
Jesse Wassermann, and Mr.. George
Maxwell.
Mr. Belasco. producer of the play from
which the opera was made, was the
guest of Miss Garden for the perform