New-York tribune., 1922-03-25
'COsi Fan lutte
Is Sung in n. Y.
For First Time
AIozart's Opera Given at the
Metropolitan After Wait.
ing 1872 Years to Have
Presentation in America
Company's New Triumph
Nine. Easton. Miss Bori and
Associates AT Their Best
in Comedy Masterpiece
By II. E. krehbiel


performed for the first time on the
public stage in America at the Metro
politan Opera House last night. That
- should have waited 1872 years before
receiving a hearing on the htherward
side Of the Atlantic mas caused some
amazed comment. but the fact is far
from inexplicable and perhaps on the
whole not so deploraDle as that the
acknowledged masterpieces of Mozart
should have so long been absent froE
the establishment which boasts of be-
ing the finest in the world We have
not heard lie Nozzc di Figaro since
February. 1918; Die Zauberhotc" since
April, 1914, nor Don Giovanni" since
the season of 1S9798, and these are
All of MOzarts operas, unless we ex-
oept "Die Entf6hrung aus Dem Serial" :"
Cor I'll Seraglio," as it is sometimes
called in Italy and England, which
have maintained a footing on the con-
temporary stage. Since Mozart depart
Cd from the great temple of lyric
dramatic art some prctentious rep
resentations have been given in Eng
l1sh to THE Impresario" and "Bastien
and Bastienne," but the former is only
Mozartian opera by courtesy, the
-. - MOI VI eA4itSL4C music III IL ndNIHR
been written as incidental to a COM
edy, and the latter being work of
MOzart's youth.
There are dead works in the lists Of
all great operate composers, and Mo
zart forms no exception. In all he
wrote nineteen operas and one which
order of composition falls between
'Cosi fan lutte" and "Die Zauberf0te," >"
which was his last dramatic WORK.
50 / q f'IpYr 1I TitO''--ic
door nail or Marley was to begin
Win. As for the earlier operas. one,
La fnta Semplice," which he wrote
wren he was twelve years old, waited
ongar for its first performance than
CGsi fan lutte did for its American
premiere; it had no representation at
all, anywhere, until last October, when
at sort o. operate festival in Carls-
rube it was associated with Korngold's
Die tote Stadt" and Strauss's
"Ariadne.' Dead from birth. it was
resUrrected to crafty curiosity or pro-
side study in contrasts.
The Operas Variegated History
Cos; fan lutte" has had checkered
career. II criticism Of it's book could
nave killed it, it would not have out
we'd infancy, for deep damnation has
Deen Oreathed against it from the time
li its birth. But always the love of
nd anon efforts have been made in
musical capitals TO breathe life into it.
After its first production in Vienna,
though apparently successful it soon
disappeared from the Italian list Of the
.hrsty an capital till 1888. Meanwhile
periodical efforts were made to yivify
by German versions. Gieseke, who
-eipcd Shikaneder to make the book of
Die Iauberfl0te,' made version.
ohihaned himself tried to revamp it,
in 1884. 1904, 1919. 1868, Vienna wit
messed varied attempts to fiji the music
10 German texts Waich, Il not better
than the original Italian or the first
translation. were at least different.
Berlin was endowed with a new Ger
man version in 1892, Leipsic in 1894.
There were other versions in other
ulaceS in 1920. 1926, 1891 1892 1885
l646. The last of these versions was
shat of Schneider, the man who made
an operetta, put Mozart and Shikan-
cder into the story borrowing the
music which Mozart had written for the
festival comedy Der Schaus spieldirek-
tor The plot of Schneider's operetta
IS at the bottom of the English piece,
which little company of MI. Hin
shaw has been performing throughou
the country all season.
Dresden seems TO have been the first
German city which found an abiding
liking for "Cosi ian tutte.' 1t was the
first of Mozart's operas which it heard
lin l19D, and was the only one till
1912. Milan heard it in 1908 and Turin
in lS16. Turned into English, it
REACHED London in 1871, being the sec
ond of Mozart's operas heard at the
Kings Theater. Two or three English
versions were made of it, the last by
The Rev. Marmaduke Browne, which is
that current now in the list of Novello,
1t ado for
ance by tho pupils OF the Royal College
Of Music, unde- c. Y. lnow SIR Stan
lord, IN 1880. The pupils of the Royal
h @cauemy III London gave it in English
unuer Clprlani Potter friend and pupil
y OF Beethoven) as long ago as 1929.
IN London the tenor Naldi was nopu-
Iar IN the Italian performances. which
Gated back to 1907. and he was engaged
lot The performances in 1920. One dav
@ wnlle Garcia who introduced Italian
opera IN New ! ork five wears laterJ
was showing new-fangled kitchen ket-
tie to Naldi 1t exploded and killed the
TENOR. ne opera was withdrawn from
Vhe fePertory and remained shelved
uHli 1868, when it was brought for
WARD vita new text by Barber and
Oarfe, the authors of Faust"
Many Versions OF the Libretto
a new text a new text ALWAYS
ne" text and new title. We haven't
'ltne or patience to enumeratc them
an. save IN the original the title is
troublesome and calls for circumlo-
cuuon. Thus they all do" will not
serve tor the reference goes to the do
ih9S OF women. their coQuetry and in
cohsUancy, which is the foundation of
the comedy. A cynical old man Of the
World, amused at the trust reposed in
Vhelr llancees by two Of his friends and
confident that a constant woman is as
uttie TO be found as the tabled phpnix
wVagers that the women will fall under
inc assaults OF their own lovers in dis
&ulse' hey agree to make the test
ahder ms direction. and he begins by
announcing to the damsels. sisters. that
thelr lovers have been summoned to
the battlefield. Farewells are said
AMID d profusion of protestations and
tears. The maidens have not had time
70 cease their lamentations when theih
lovers are introduced to them in the
dlsgulse OF Albanian gentlemen. Each
rays siege TO his Chloris and is jgno-
mlniously routed The lovers feel
triumphant. in the fidelity of their
mistresses. But Don Alfonso. the j.
eynic' insists that the game be played
through to the end. lie enlists the
nefp OF Despjna, maid to the sisters
iordlilgI and Dorabella, who under
mines their belief in mans faithful
ness and insinuatingly breaches the !
natural and inalienabla privi1ooo f