Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-27
In Reply to the Recently Reported Utterances
of Mascagni, the Composer, Contending
That lax and the Modern Demand for
Something Ne7o in Music Are Sounding
DeathkneN Of opera.


discarded because, to modern ideas, it appears
too simple, too obvious. People attempt to
be unusual and end only in being groteSque
In modern pictorial art, for instance take
such everyday matters as advertisements. Too
often the faces appearing in them, rising above
frocks or peeping with one eye from under hats,
are not like human beings, but figures created
by distorted fancy.
Today, If a woman has personality and vi
vacity, she is regarded as beautiful. The
preston of the features longer
standard for judgment. I fear the romantic
world is finished; imagination no longer counts.
Romance has gone into the discard. Peo-
pie meet, fall into each others arms and are
married. Then they fall out again and are
divorced. The prompting thought appears to
be, There are SO many in the world not
There is only one" Everything is more mat
ter-of-fact. Maybe it is better, only jazz and
romance do not go together
Truth in art, in everything else, alone
stands the test of time. To strike the truth
means success. A genius is a man who comes
nearest to expressing the truth. For that rea-
son Shakespeare will always be played more
or less-now less-but he will not disappear
entirely.
In one way we are improving getting down
to simplicity and truth. But in either literature
or conversation simplicity may be reduced to
minimum SO laconic that one word expresses
all there Is to say. That will be fatal to the
imagination which, if used in the right chan
nels. is one of the best gifts have.
A MONG opera composers, DebusSy reflects
in his music the age in modern speech and
detached sentences Both "Boheme" and
Madame Butterfly" are direct; they go across
as the theatrical term puts it. On the other
hand, the public fiocks to hear "Rigoletto,"
'Trovatore" and Aida" notwithstanding that
the long line" in Verdis music is not followed
successfully by modern opera composers.
However, composers like Verdi Donizetti and
the old masters of opera did not write for
money but because they had to express them
selves. 1t was the same with master painters
like Michelangelo Raphael and Rembrandt.
Their work is eternal for the reason that truth
is eternal.
In painting to be modern means to be I'M
usual The modern artist Is not striving to
find the truth but to get away from it. The
great thing today IS to distort, be grOtesque
People afraid to express themselves The
modern composer hesitateS to write melody
When 1t begins TO creep in, he says: "Oh!
That is too obvious! Let us distort 1t a little
and be original" If one is sincere one is orig
inal But one cannot labor to be original
Maybe the standard of beauty Is changed, but
it seems to me that the truthfully beautiful is
beautiful forever.
Will the opera of the future be along sketchy
lines? To reflect our age, it must be. We are
impatient of anything but brevity Short, de-
tached sentences quickly moving scenes rule
the theater The stage directors favorite motto
is Make it snappy." In everything from lit
erature to transportation, the main idea is t6
get there in a hurry If there is to be any
opera written at all worthy of hearing in the
years to come. it must be written with sin.
certify and truth; no distortion grotesque.
to simulate novelty
once knew a famous actress, striving al
ways for truth in her expression, who wept bit
terly because critic wrote: She does not oct
she simply does things And yet he paid thu
genuineness of her simulated emotion a flint
compliment. Intense. contemplatve thought
and doing things as the result of 1t, makes
them appear the most natural in the world
which is the highest pinnacle that art car
touch.
THE beautiful will live forever Unless it il
exactly that in the best sense, it will b.
snuffed out completely by the taste of sue
ceeding generations. The man who writes ugly
books with a purpose, to show how disgusting
such things are, may make name for himself
a realist. But a composer who starts ou
TO be ugly with other motive than to b.
thought novel and completely modern wastes
his time.