Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-02-01

of which he is prepared to adjust to
Carrolfs brow without a moments
delay.
There is a division of opinion evil
dent i'll the Brady family. While
William A. Brady is laundering
anathema at radio as a foe OF the
theater and predicting disaster
throughout its whole extent. from
backdrop to box Office, Mrs. Brady
Con the program Grace George
proceeds to demonstrate that the
public can be absolutely happy and
contented with the right kind of
play. Miss George has experimental
frequently and some of her material
has been rather pallid as compared
with the rough realisms, which have
become rougher and rougher until,
IN many instances, they are too
rough to be true A little comedy
entitled, "She Wanted to Know"
sufficed to bring delighted throngs
to the Shubert-Be lasco, demonstrate
ing that despite many weeks of COM
parative neglect the public is still
loyal to Manager Taylor'S theater.
X x
Miss George has demonstrated
mental attitude in play production
that has been as obstinately favor
able to polite quality as that of
others concerned with the playhouse
has been antagonistic to everything
that does not revert toward the era
of unkempt hair, raw meat and a
stone club. With the highly polished
assistance of Bruce McRae, Miss
George unfolds a story of piquant
delicacy. which affords a suitable
setting for her own taste in express
sion and charm of personality.
The greatest event in Washington's
amusement world was the opening
of the new Auditorium with grand
opera, on site where, before the war,
the croaking of the frogs in neigh
boring Potomac marshes constituted
the chief music that the locality
might look forward to with conf
dence. The building is another evil
dence Of the genius of progress,
awakening fancies almost like those
of old Arabian tales. Our structures
were not SO swiftly built as those
reared by Aladdin, but they have the
merit of greater permanency.
x x
The most impressive feature of
this opening was its indication of
solid interest in grand opera If this
interest can be permanently main
tanned on scale anything like that
in evidence on this greatest first
night Washington has ever seen, this
community cannot fail to assert it
self as a center of art as we'll as of
government.
1t was not a reflection of Ameri-
can art, something to be developed
in patience, and in some of its ele-
ments perhaps in obscurity. A
more significant test of the interest
in grand opera will come in the later
season, when series of perform
anceS will be given instead of con-
centrating the attention of a
music-hungry public on single and
unprecedented occasion. Familiar
strains of Faust" came through the
vistas of long acquaintanceship, and
the lure to attention was conferred in
the fame of the basso, Chaliapin. 1t
was again Russia, speaking this time
with the lips of Gounod and the soul
of Goethe. Later Russia will tell
some of her own story when Boris
Gudonoff is sung. Nations, like
poets, may be said ito learn in suf-
fering what they teach in song"
X X
Grand opera as we have it in
America becomes, especially in the
less metropolitan communities, AN
occasional luxury in which melodious
appeal transcends the intellectual en-
joyment of phrase and story. An
American opera, native in theme, in
composition and in performance, has
been the dream of many an inn
pressario. The nearest approach to
its realization was "The Girl of the
Golden West" by Puccini, with
libretto in Italian. The reclame of
the Ballet Russo, the Moscow Play
ers and the rest of the revelations of
Russian art are stimulating and so
Respondent in their standards that
they leave us perhaps farther away
than ever from the subtle national
istic charm of intimate, idiomatic ap-
peal. And the real test of grand
opera, as of any other expression Of