Evening star., 1927-07-17

duced by the New York Symphony in
1923 and has since been played by
practically every major symphonic
organization in the country; six lyrics
of James Stevens; seven transcript
tions Of American folksongs: "Jurgen."
a symphonic poem commissioned by
Walter Damrosch and played by the
New York Symphony in 1925. and
Portrait of a Lady" a rhapsody for
piano. string quintet, flute. oboe, clari.
net, bassoon and French horn. which
was written for the New York Cham.
Der Music Society and received its first
performance in February, 1925. He
also edited the Schumann Club series
of 60 numbers for women's voices.
and has, in addition, made many trans
lations of Russian, French, German
and Italian songs.
Curiously enough, all this music
work was done during intervals in
Mr.. Taylor's constant literary labors,
for he was assistant editor OF the
Western Electric News from 1912 to
1915, becoming war correspondent of
the Sunday Tribune in 1916. which
post he resigned in 1917 to become
associate editor OF Golfers Weekly.
In 1921, he succeeded to the post of
music critic on the New York World.
left vacant by the late James G..
Huneker, and resigned at the end of
the 1924-25 musical season to devote
himself entirely to composition.
Although details of The Kings
Henchman" were kept secret prior to
the Metropolitan production last Feb
ruary, Mr.. Taylor intimated, prior to
the premiere, that his primary pur-
pose in writing the opera in collabora-
| ton with Edna st. Vincent Millay
was to demonstrate his contention
that it was not only possible to set
English to music and produce beau
| tiful result but to demonstrate that
the opera, to become popular in Amer
lea. must be a drama in music guise
and not merely a three-hour song
recital.
The New York World, the COM
poser's former paper, called the
| Kings Henchman' not only charm
| ing and moving story, but something
| of a "nonesuch" among opera horet-
tos as well. That Mr.. Taylor's choice
| of librettist in Edna st. Vincent Mil
lay was excellent-he stipulated her
as librettist as one of the conditions
of accepting the commission from
| Gatti-Casazza of the Metropolitan-is
Indicated by the following brief resume
| of the plot, as given by the World:
1.-The retainer of an ancient king OF
! England is sent to inspect celebrated
beauty in order to determine whether
| she is sufficiently comely to wed. He
departs on his errand, but when he
| meets the lady he loves her himself,
woos her, wins her and marries her.
To the king he sends a cock-and-bull
story about her excessive ugliness and
explains his marriage by saying that
she possessed certain riches which he
/ ciY, Ynln oil IN
presently leads to superb drama.
For the heroine, once she is mar
ried, begins to chafe; like the hero OF
Cabelrs High Place she finds her
great love only to discover that 1t is
q dreadful bore. So when the king
appears with his faithful retainers
there Is pretty how-to.do. The hus-
band has to confess to her his decep-
ton, and he begs her to help him out
by appearing in an ugly guise. She,
realizing that if her husband had
been honest with her she would be
sitting on throne instead Of leading
her present humdrum life, has her
revenge by coming forth in the most
resplendent robes. And the husband,
because he is now quite without
honor, kills himself.
| Boredom and honor-when did
| these ever figure in n grand opera
libretto? Never. so far as one can re-
call. Yet they play a real part in
life. and it is refreshing to see some.
thing from life injected into the stuffy
artificiality of grand OPERA
1t might also be mentioned that
Fred E. Hand, formerly manager of
the Earle Theater in Washington, and
| who was associated last season with
Mrs. Wilson-Greene's concert activi.
4 kez..
ager OF the Samoussoud tour with
] 1.-THE Kings Henchman."