Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08

far was it from being a failure
that it registered 81 perform
anceS, a record not attained by
operate failures. Precisely
one week after the premiere, Ca
mile du Locle, director of the
Opera Comique, is reported to have
approached Bizet with a view to
finding out whether he would be
willing to compose music for an
other libretto to be supplied by
Meilhac and Halevy, who had been
responsible for the text OF the
work just presented"
It would be intereSting'to know
the reactions of these librettiStS,
if they are still living, to the
Shanghai idea of making laun-
dress out OF a hard-flghting ciga-
rette factory girl. What they did
with the card scene no one knows,
but perhaps Carmen foretold her
fate in the soap bubbles of the
steaming laundry tub. Perhaps
the sword swallowing villain
killed her by drowning her in the
same tub. This would at least
eliminate seeing the same eight
sham toreadorS from the chorus
trot around and around trying to
look several times their number in
the final grand scene.
X Il X
MANUEL DE FALLA, an out
standing Spanish composer, is
the subject of sketch in the Au-
gust issue of The Alhambra,
WaShingtonians are familiar with
a number of his compositions,
chiefly through their performance
by artists brought in Mrs. Town
sends morning programs. Paul
Kochanski, violinist, has arranged
De Falla works for his inStru-
ment. Miss d'Aranyi last season
played a KreiSler arrangement of
La Vide Breve.." Myra Hess has
created a sensation playing the
"DanSe Rituelle du Feu," from his
opera, Eel Amor Brujo." Lucrezia
Bori has sung some of his songs
and Guiomar NovaeS, Brazilian pi-
anist, played his "Andaluza. Or
cheStra audiences have had cou-
pie of hearings of his famous eel
Sombrero de Tres PicoS," which
could well stand more frequent
repetitionS.
In the recent article about De
Falla, Gabriel G. Maroto says, in
part:
HE is slight of body, engrossed
in himself, with large, expressive
eyeS-dreamy, melancholy, kind
He is past so. Sometimes, when
his voice, always flexible in quail
ity, is expressing subject that
he feels intensely, he becomes a
stammering child, credulouS, tim
i'd, DESTROYS of knowing that most
roSeate dreams are truths.
Sorrowful, enthusiastic, ardent
his frail body excites him, re-
strains him, often prostrateS him
in painful lethargieS. But a
pleasant morning of AndaluSian
sunlight, of intensified sorority, of
gentle, fragrant breezes, brings
his enthusiasm to life again, and
once more immerses him in his
initiated work.
"In this mortal world he feels
that he is his own ghost, which
fingers upon the face of the earth
only to bring to comprehensive
supreme duty of essential Coop
eration-his perfected work. His
friends have been well aware of
this, and with a tenderness not
without touch of Andalusian hui
NOR have presented the musician
with a pottery vase that bears the
legend: 7 am the palpable ghost
of Don Manuel de Falla y Mateu.
1.-THE great musician lives mod
eStly, with the modeSty of a gen.
tleman. In the Alhambra at Ora
NADIA, lost in a pleasant corner
overlooking the Vega, stands his
house, his unpretentiouS dwelling
that is always as white as snow.
Manuel de Falla'S house has q lit
tie garden, divided into two parts,
connected by a pine stile. The
garden has its little flower pots
and a tiny stream of water. Be-
low it, the CITY; in the distance,
the Vega, used for irrigation; in
the background, capped by
clouds, the Sierra Nevada reflects
the sunlight, breaking its passion
ate violence into a gentle, delicate
rain.
1.-THE musician goes out every
day, quite early, from his secluded
dwelling. He hears mass devoted
ly in the church of San Cecilio,
and returns home, crossing the
outrageous gardens Of the AL
hambra with slow steps. In the
morning, in the gardens Of Ora
NADIA, on successive days Of alb
sorbed observation and vivid emo
tions. the musician has collected
the rhythms of Andaluzia."