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10 H
IIEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, GA.. SUNDAY. APRIL 27, 1913.
OJI
‘Butterfly on the
v • *F *!••*«• • v
Forsyth Theater
Lyric to Close After This Week.
Bijou Offering Full of Variety
and Drawing Crowds.
■ !
Looking back and reflecting on the I
beautiful music which was rendered
this year by the Metropolitan Opera i
Company will be the greatest pleas
ure of the next few months for mu
sical Atlanta, until it can once more !
begin to count the days remaining
before another season.
Greatest of all the treats that this
year’s offerings brought to this city
was the two new women stars—Lu- |
orezia Borl and Frieda Hempel. Two j
such exquisite singers by themselves :
should be enough to delight the
hearts of any audience, and combined j
with the other rare voices that were j
heard they afforded superlative pleas
ure.
It 5s practically Impossible for
anyone to say which of the two aing-
ers is the best. In ‘The Tales of
Hoffmann” the two appeared togeth
er. Hempel as "Olympia” and “Giu-
Hetta” portrayed by Rori.
Roil, if there is any superiorltv.
should be given first place for the
deep feeling and magnetism which '
she Injects into her tones. In Hem- j
pel’* voice there is always a slight
coldness, never dominant but ever
present, that detracts the least little)
bit from its charm. As an artist In l
the handling of her superb tones the
German singer cannot be surpassed.
Dramatically both stars stand on an
even footing without a single short
coming.
Older Stars Please.
Of the older stars It is needless to
say a great deal, not that they do
not deserve all the praise and more
too that can be given them, but be
cause Atlantans have been swayed I
by their superb tones and rendition I
so often before that they appreciate
intimately every note they sing.
Caruso, the incomparable, whose
wonderful tones have echoed through
the Auditorium into the hearts, minds
and souls of Atlantans on many pre
vious occasions, was tn as “good
voice” as he has ever been.
Amato, master of the world’s bar
itones, delighted with each note, and
STcottl vrns the same brilliant singer
and exquisite actor that he has al
ways been.
Five of the seven operas presented
had never been presented by the
Metropolitan in its Atlanta appear
ances. "La Giodonda” and “Tosca”
were already old favorites. Of the
five operas presented one. ‘‘Cyrano,’’
fell fllghtlv short of the standard set
by the other presentations. In or
chestration it was magnificent, but
it never gave the beautiful chances
for individual solos that could have
been interspersed.
Amato. Madame Alda. Maria Du-
hene, Ricardo Martin. Putnam Gris
wold. and William Hinshaw, In fact
all the singers who participated in
its production showed great talent
and vocal efficiency, but somehow all
through it there was a hitch. Then,
too, in spite of the fact that it was
presented in “English It only seemed
to demonstrate the contention of
many musicians that opera in En
glish adds nothing to Its production
before English speaking people.
“Manon Lescaut” Success.
“Maaion Lescaut,” well termed a
light opera, presented with the Puc
cini version, was an instantaneous
success, not only on account of the
score, but because of the wonderful
work of Garuso, Scott! and Rori.
There an 4 some wonderful passages
in the work, and Rori and Caruso
extended themselves to bring them
out in their perfect best.
“La Traviata” will go down with
out doubt na the opera which reached
a greater part of its audience than
any other. Frieda Hempel was mag
nificent and exquisite in the leading
role. The wonderful final duet rose
above her work in any other part.
"La Gioconda” was Louise Homers
triumph. Here for its second appear
ance it was nevertheless a great fa
vorite, presenting as it did five of
the world’s greatest singers in one
<ast. Emma Destinn, as La Giocon
da. with her beautiful sacrifice of love,
touched the heart chords of the au
dience with her presentation of the
part well as with her voice. Ca
ruso and Gilly were both superb.
"The Tales of Hoffmann" light and
fantastic, presented an unusual treat
to the operagoers because of the un
usual number of stars who appeared
In it. Some of them had parts of
only a few lines, but the ensemble was
delicious and an enjoyable treat -to all
lovers of music.
Marvelous Close.
Yesterday brought the marvelous
week to a fitting close with “Lucia”
in the afternoon and "Tosca” at
night. “Lucia" with its three great
parts, presented by Hempel. Maenez
and Amato, and the illustrious sex
tette will no doubt be brought back.
Its rapturous music lingers in the
depths of memory for many years.
“Tosca,” famous for its dramatic
power and beauty, and rendered by
the super-stars of modern grand op
era, was Intense in its grip and pow
er. It brought to a close with Ruc-
<cini opera a program that had opened
with a work by the same master.
The selections of the season were
marked by the absence of any Wag
nerian music, but it presented a vis
ion of grand opera that was every bit
as magnificent and enjoyable.
• * *
The year 3 913 brings the centen
nial of the birth of Richard Wagner.
The world in general will pay him an
Sncreasing tribute. This recalls many
ahings in connection with him. “Tann-
ihauser, one of his earliest works,
was presented in this country in 1859.
but “Lohengrin” was not presented
until 1871.
• * #
That Lillian Xordica will leave
Chicago for an extensive concert tour
of the world is of much interest to
music lovers. Madam Xordica will
(her* seme rivalry abroad, as she has
taken a bold stand fo: the suffr -
fcette«.
• * *
There ip a great move to encour
age. American music. On the great
est concert programs are many Amer
ican songs, it is indeed interesting
to feel that through Victor Herb -it,
at least a style is being established.
His work in "Natoma,” the Indian op
era, he has struck American music
and ideas. .Many singers from the
Metropolitan Company who have
been on concert tours are given many
numbers in English. At a recent fes
tival abroad, special mention was
made of Mrs. Reach. Sh«* has Just
completed a group of new “little’’
songs.
* * *
Tuesday evening William Hinshaw
gave his excellent voice to assist Miss
Eda Bartholomew, in a Joint recital
at Saint Marks Methodist Cliurjh.
The church was overflowing with mu
sic lovers who enthusiastically re
ceived the Metropolitan star. Mr.
Hinshaw’s interpretation of the beau
tiful selection from the “Barber of
Seville,’’ was well received. His ren
dition of the “Lost Chord,” and the
"Chimes” song was especially appeal
ing.
Miss Bartholomew's numbers were
cordially received.
* * *
Tills evening at the First Baptist
Church the beautiful oratorio, “The
Triumph of David,” will be presented.
Mr. O’Donnellj’, the director, has won
much favor with his past efforts.
The choir will be assisted by a
large chorus. Mrs. Peyton Todd, so
prano, has a beautiful lyric voice and
is well suited to take the aria which
she will sing. Mrs. James Whitten,
Mr. Solon Drukenmilier and Mr.
Rates compose the rest of the quar-
■
• • *
Roth Tate, thr California singer,
had a peculiar experience re
cently. While appearing at a. Lon
don music hall she was asked by a
foreigner if she would sing that night
at a private entertainment. She said
she would at a certain big figure,
which was immediately paid. After
her performance at the music hall
she was driven to a country house in
a tmignficent limousine with curtains
carefully drawn so that she could not
see where she was going. She ap
peared on a stage where the lights
were so fixed that she could not see
the audience; she simply knew that
people were there by the applause.
She was taken back to her home with
the same seorecy.
l^ater she discovered that she had
been at the bouse of the Grand I}uke
Michael at Hampstead, but the rea
son of the precautions and secrecy she
was unable to ascertain.
* * *
The German critics not only do not
like Puccini's music in "The Girl of
tlie Golden West,” but the story It
self makes them as “a clumsy mix
ture of brutality and sentimentally.'"
“How exalted. In comparison, is even
the ‘Tosca’ text.” exclaimed Hugo
Rasch in the Allgemeine Musik-
Zeitung, after hearing the opera in
Berlin, Puccini, lie thinks, has been
steadily going down hill, and the end
of the act represents low tide in the
activity, while the action in this
scene Is “an Insult to any even half-
cultivated audience."
* * *
Mine. Bchumann-Heink now is not
only an American citizen, but she
owns three American homes; one at
Singac, X. J..'another in North Da
kota, and a third in California. Un
fortunately, she has little time to
dwell in any of them, as she is busy
with concerts nearly all tin* time she
Is in this country, and when th
season is over she has to hurry across
the ocean for the Wagner and other
festivals. An incident during her re
cent Western trip shows—as her
singing does—what a big heart this
woman has. Having a day off at
Omaha, with nothing to do between
early and late trains, she went to
tin* county jail and sang for the pris
oners. The songs chosen by her were
“My Rosary.” “Mavourneen,” "The
Morn Dance.” and “The Lord Is
Mindful of His Own.”
* * •
From Leipzig odmes the news that
Berlioz’s fifty-year-old opera, “Bea
trice and Benedict,” has been pro
duced there with great success in a
revision made by the present Phil
harmonic conductors, Josef Stransky
and Wilhelm Klefeld. The critics
speak of this version as “very clever.’
It seems that there was need of a
good deal of editing to make tin
opera presentable. The libretto,
which is based on Shakespeare's
"Much Ado About Nothing.” had t<
be completely worked out, and Mr
Stransky not only transferred tin
musical numbers to more advantage
ous places, hut interpolated airs from
other juvenile works by Berlioz.
* * *
Ernest Sehelling. the eminent
American pianist, will give concerts
in twenty-two different countries be
fore returning to the United States
for the season of 1914-1915. He will
play throughout the British Isles, tin
Continent, and Russia, and will then
make a complete tour of the West
Indies. Central, and South America.
This South American tour, which will
In* made under the management of
Max Rabinoff, will be made possibl
by the opening of the Panama Canal.
* * *
Partisans of Felix Weingartner, tb
Bavarian conductor who is at war
with the management of the Kaiser’s
Royal Opera, have arranged a demon
stration in celebration of his fiftieth
birthday anniversary in Berlin th
last week in May. They purpose to
organize two large concerts, which
will he conducted by Weingartner
before an invited audience In the
Marble Hall of the Zoological Gar
dens. The final concert will be f<
lowed by a testimonial banquet. Wein
gartner can he invited by the au
(lienee to yield the baton without vio
lating the orderof the court, which
debars him from directing an orches
tra in public within thirty-five mile-
of Berlin for a period of five years.
* * •
Mme. Nellie Melba and Jan Kubelik
will arrive in America early In Oc
tober for a joint tour that will last
the entire season. The prlma donna
and the violinist will fill seventy-five
engagements, assisted by Edmund
Burkv, a young Canadian baritone.
T HIS week witnesses the reopen
ing of the Forsyth Theater
with Keith vaudeville, which
has been transferred from the Grand;
the second, offering of the Miss Billy
Long Stock Company at the Atlanta
and the close of the regular dramatic
season at the Lyric.
The Forsyth, it seems, is better
suited for warm weather attractions
and that Is why the Grand has been
closed and the Keith weekly vaude
ville bill sent back to the house from
which it was taken last September.
In spite of the center attraction f
grand opera, vaudeville and musical
comedy, the stock company at the
Atlanta proved an excellent attrac
tion last week, and the second offer
ing, “A Butterfly on the Wheel,”
which is the hill this week, is ex
pected to introduce the company to
a great many more theatergoers.
There will he no performances of
“A Butterfly on the Wheel” Wednes
day and Thursday evenings, but the
usual Wednesday matinee will re
given. Another matinee will be giv
en Saturday.
The play which the stock company
presents this week was a great suc
cess In New York and has never
been seen in Atlanta.
Lots of folks w'ho enjoy vaudeville
and who rarely miss an offering of
the Keith brand in Atlanta will
douhtlss give a sigh of comfortable
satisfaction as they settle into their
seats in the cosy Forsyth to-morrow
afternoon when the first hill of the
spring season will he presented in
Wheel/ New Play at the Atlanta
Reopens With Keith Vaudeville
()tRIO OF LEADING FIGURES IN THEATERS')
that house. There is something very
homelike in the Forsyth and its sur
roundings.
Matinees will be given daily, as in
the past, and on Saturday, which is
Memorial Day, night prices will he
the rule at the matinee. It has been
the custom for a number of seasons
to charge night prices at all holiday
matinee#
“Billy, the Kid,” a melodrama, will
complete the regular season at the
Lyric. The play is constructed >n
lines which will doubtless make it
popular with patrons of the Lyric
who enjoy western plays with plenty
of action in them. Matinees will lie
given Tuesday, Thursday and Satur
day:
At the Bijou a good program >*
family* vaudeville and motion pictures
is promised. Daily matinees will be
given, beginning to-morrovV.
Genuine Novelty Bill
Offered at the Bijou.
The Bijou announces for the com
ing week four of the cleverest acts
to be seen anywhere—featuring com
edy, novelty, singing and dancing.
The program announces Dick Ham
lin. tlie quaint character comedian;
Sutton * Caprice, in songs and
dances; the Stephenson brothers .n
a novelty musical act, and the Min
strel Claude R. Summers, with the
dainty little comedienne Rrnotse, in
relined singing and talking act that
is said to lie one of the cleverest on
the vaudeville stage to-day.
Especial attention will be given to
motion pictures, and these will he se
lected with particular care to furnish
films full of dramatic interest and
real value. Matinees will be given at
a o'clock every day except Monday
and Saturday, when two matinees ar«
given at 2:30 ami 4, Night show* ;:i
T: oO and !».
“A Butterfly on the Wheel,”
Next Offering at Atlanta.
Now that the grand opera season
is over and tlie Miss Billy Long Stock
(Company at the Atlanta has settled
to smooth working order. Atlanta .s
will bo given an opportunity to 3^e
some excellent plays during the sum
mer season. These will be put on in
the right way and as the company
has already shown capability. Atlan
tans are expected to make the season
Theater Bills
For This Week
ATLANTA The Miss Billy Long
Stock Company all week in “A
Butterfly on the Wheel.” Mati
nees Wednesday and Saturday.
FORSYTH Keith vaudeville all
the week. Matinees daily, be
ginning Monday.
LYRIC—“Billy, the Kid,” all the
week. Matinees Tuesday, Thurs
day and Saturday.
BIJOU—Family vaudeville and
motion pictures all week. Mati
nees daily, beginning Monday.
an enthusiastic success. Beginning
to-morrow night the company will
offer the big sensational success of
this and last season, “A Butterfly on
the Wheel," which Lewis Waller and
the Shuberts produced and which has
never been seen here because of be
ing a Shu belt show.
Miss Long and the members of her
company have made a pronounced hit
among the patrons of Atlanta. The
nervousness of the opening night
passed quickly away and the com
pany is now in its real stride. Noth
ing more worthy could be produced
than “A Butterfly on the Wheel.” The
play has spectacular scenes and is a
woman’s play of intense interest. Its
strongest scene is in a divorce court,
where a society woman is being sued
by her prominent husband who has
found her in Paris at the same hotel
with an old admirer and in an ad
joining room to his.
"A Butterfly on the Wheel” is In
four acts. The play gives fine oppor
tunities for comedy work and Joseph
Kirkman, as an English Lord, has
lines that are absolute gems of harm
less idiocy.
No play in recent years has at
tracted more attention. Last year a
novelization of it ran as a serial in
The Georgian and readers of the pa
per are doubtless thoroughly familiar
with the scenes and strength of the
offering. Tiie local company has been
particularly well cast for the play
and there is little doubt hut that their
efforts will be received with enthu
siasm.
During the week no performances
will he given Wednesday and Thurs
day nights, hut matinees will be giv
en W ednesday and Saturday.
Woodrow Wilson
Vice President of
Remus Association
Music Notes of
the Whole World
An almost plotless, action!ess opera,
In which whole acts pass without
anybody appearing on the stage, has
just been produced at the Nice Muni
cipal Casino.
The opera is entitled “La vie breve”
and is an adaptation from the Span
ish original by Senors Carlos Fernan
dez Shaw and dc Falla. The story
is that of a young woman, who hear
ing that her lover is about to marry
another breaks in on the engage
ment party and falls dead, when the
man denies any knowledge of her.
During the second scene the piece
is carried on by the scenery and the
orchestra between them without the
intervention of actors. The music in
terprets the approach and fall of
night with the gradual lulling of the
noises of activity of the city. The
windows of the houses light up one
after another and the river—the Wag-
nerlian symbol of the forces of na- |
ture—flows evenly on all the time.
The music, in fact, is intended to be
the rendering into sound of the sen
sations experienced by the audience
while regrading the landscape.
* * *
Can you imagine instead of the
magnifleient orchestra of the Metro
politan Opera Company, a series of
contrivances in the orchestra pit
which will produce the roaring of an
auto exhaust, the clanging of a street
car, and other such joyous sounds?
In other words a futurist or cubist
style of music? That is what a
Parisian writer named Russolo calls
“the art of noise.”
“Beethoven and Wagner stirred us
delightfully for many years.” he says,
“but now we are tired of them and
take infinitely more pleasure in our
ideal combinations of the noises of
street cars, automobiles, and excited
crowds than in an heroic symphony
or pastorale.”
Henceforth violins, ’cellos, clario
nets, and all instruments of the ordi
nary orchestra are to be discarded as
conventional and artificial, and to
render the new art other instruments
are to be constructed capable of re
producing “the bubbling of water, 'air,
and gas in metal pipes, the hum
ming and roaring of motors, which
respire with (undeniable animation,
the palpitation of valves to and fro.
the movement of pistons, the strident
cries of steam saws, the sonorous
leaps of street cars along rails, the
cracking of whips, the shouting of
crowds and the various uproars of
rail stations, forges, spinning mills,
printing shops, electric works 'and
subways.”
The noise compositors of the fu
ture, it is announced, will devide all
sounds into six classes, beginning
with whistlings, snortings, and hiss
ings, and ending with snarlings, sob
bings, roarings, and ravings.
In between will come, for example,
suckings, crackings, hummings, foot
steps, falling water, hammerings, and
groan ings.
“The day will come," says Russolo,
“when we shall be able to distin
guish 30,000 different noises, which
we must not simply imitate but com
bine according to our artistic fancy.”
& * 4
Madame Emmy Destinn, world
famed soprano, yearns for her home
in Germany. And yet she is an ex
ile, probably forever, because Amer
ica offers her four times, five times,
maybe, the money that would be paid
her by her own countrymen.
This is the story that she told yes
terday, with a note of regretfulness
in her voice.
She likes the United States and its
free hospitality, of which, she says,
Atlanta is the best exemplar. But
Berlin is her home.
“They can not pay the salaries
there,’’ she said. “A leading tenor
gets $10,000 a year only. Nobody
gets more than $20,000. It is unfor
tunate, but it can not be helped. The
budget for the Royal Opera is pre
sented to the Diet, and an appropria
tion made to meet it. It is a state
institution; the salaries are paid by
the Kaiser, who is its manager. Un
der the arrangement the compensa
tion can not be great.
different. Salaries are large, the pub.
lie is generous and singers are well
treated.”
Then she added, sadly:
“But Berlin is my home.**
MANBCL
President Woodrow Wilson has ac
cepted the honorary vice presidency
of the Uncle Remus Memorial Asso
ciation, and it is hoped that he will
come to Atlanta in October to offi
cially dedicate the Wren’s Nest as a
memorial to the late Joel Chandler
Harris.
Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt
and ex-President William H. Taft are
metnbe'rs of the honorary hoard of
the association, and have been con
tributors to the purchase fund and
to the autograph collection for the
Wren’s Nest. Mr. Roosevelt having
given his first lecture after his Afri
can trip for the benefit of the home,
and Mr. Taft contributed both his and
Mrs. Taft’s autograph pictures to the
autograph collection.
Three years ago, when at Prince
ton. Woodrow Wilson, contributed in
autograph copy of his “Life of George
Washington.”
The home will be formally dedicated
in October, and not this spring, as
was at first planned, and many dis
tinguished writers and public men will
be asked to take part in the program.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie wrote Mrs.
Wilson recently that he would not he
able to come this spring, as he would
be in Scotland, but hoped to come
later, and will probably be one of the
distinguished visitors when the home
is dedicated.
During the summer Mrs. A. McD.
Wilson will make elaborate plans for
the dedicatory services, which will be
conducted with military pomp and in
teresting program.
* * *
Mrs. Ralph VanLandingham has
been pleasantly entertained the past
week. Mrs. VanLandingham is a for
mer Atlantan, and is always cordially
welcomed on her visits here. She now
lives in Charlotte. X. C.. and was ac
companied by a party of friends from
that city for the opera. Mrs. M. M.
Murphy and Mrs. Lyddeli were charr
ing members of this party, and wore
some exquisite toilets during the
week. Among the parties for Mrs.
VanLandingham and her friends were
a luncheon given by Mrs. Everard
Richardson at the Driving Club; a tea
at which Mrs. Dan Harris was host
ess. and a tea party at the Driving
Club, given by Mrs. Robert C. Alston,
the honors of this being shared by
Mrs. Alston’s opera guests. Mr and
Mrs. Mayhew Cunningham.
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