Stars of the Opera

Оглавление

Mabel Wagnalls. Stars of the Opera

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARCELLA SEMBRICH

"Semiramide"

A CALL ON EMMA EAMES

"FAUST"

"WERTHER"

CALVÉ AND "CARMEN"

"CARMEN"

"HAMLET"

A TALK WITH LILLIAN NORDICA

"LOHENGRIN"

"AIDA"

"THE HUGUENOTS"

AN HOUR WITH LILLI LEHMANN

"THE FLYING DUTCHMAN"

MELBA, THE AUSTRALIAN NIGHTINGALE

"LAKME"

"I PAGLIACCI"

"ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE"

THE GENIUS OF GERALDINE FARRAR

MADAME BUTTERFLY

Отрывок из книги

All great prima donnas have in their repertoire the majority of famous operas, but through fitness of physique or temperament or quality of voice they become associated with certain rôles more than others. Sometimes it is merely a caprice of the public that holds them to a particular line of operas. At present Madame Sembrich is regarded as the great exponent of the old Italian school. Among her thirty-seven operas "Semiramide" is one in which New Yorkers have not yet heard her; but it is in some respects the most typical of its kind.

"Semiramide" belongs to the old style of Italian operas. It is light in substance, but glistening with scales and cadenzas that are scattered over it like spangles upon tulle. Rossini's music is always beautiful but conveys little meaning, and it impresses the modern musical taste like a meal of bonbons. Although Semiramis lived hundreds of years before the Christian era, we listen in vain for any ancient atmosphere to the composition or for the "melodrame tragico," as designated by the libretto. This music would be as suitable to the "Barber of Seville" as to the "Queen of Babylon." In other words, the old operas were a series of separate songs adapted to a connected story, whereas we now expect the score so thoroughly to embody the text that the two are inseparable.

.....

Now follows a musical adaptation of Goethe's very poetical and ingenious plea for suicide.

"Do we offend Heaven in ceasing to suffer? When a son returns from his journey before the expected time, far from feeling resentment, the father hastens to greet him; and can it be that our heavenly Father is less clement?"

.....