MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 568, 24 July 1909, Page 9

MUSIC.

1•' ' (Br Tskble Clef.) ' I: -V-i Successful Australienno. • 'Miss Eva Mylottj in' a\ letter received in Sydney from Montreal, and Miss Fannie Bauer/from London, both incidentally rofer .to generous treatment "in foreign parts." Before Miss Mylott had .quite. established herself in New York two years ago, she was taken up with' enthusiasm by Mrs. P. TV. Vanderbilt, who engaged hereto sing thrioe in one week, sent a motor-car .for her on each occasion; provided her:/ with flowers, and finally handed her a cheque, for 1000 dols. Not only so, but"this good patron' "floated" her ■at the ,mansions of other society' leaders,' and made her known. Now the, Sydney contralto forwards cuttings, and a complete list of a Canadian tour of nearly fifty concerts,_ which she, closed during' May with six starring engagements with the famous Elgar Choir. ; This singo'r, who was Signor Iliccardi's pupil 'here, and went abroad under the advice of Mme. Melba in 1902, finds her voico matured both, in volume and in range, and now sings the , high "6 sharp" without losing, the- contralto timbre of the voice. Just now'her portrait is being exhibited at .the Paris Salon by Ricbardieu Ponsot, a French painter who i 3 quite the vogue amongst the New York "Four Hundred." Miss Fannie Bauer, after, three years divided between Stuttgart and Dublin, is now finding work ill London, whence she forwards a concert programme (Steinway Hall, May 15) of the British Artistes' Society. This socioty,. under royal and. other patronage, is a section of the English Women's Home., Industries, and' forms an agency "for engaging musical artists for England and her Empire in preference to foreign visitors." Miss Fannie Bauer sang four numbers, and she speaks gratefully of this and other helpful societies in London, where the Imperial 1 and tho Austral clubs and others of'the''colonial,'group-'all. prove.'useful in making newcomers known, whilst the Sunday League Concerts keep''an army of artists omployed, from . students to stars.. In Sydney, Miss Bauer sane it oiie of Mark Hambourg's recitals, and the Hambourg family is now interested in her. Melba. - ( , Before making her reappearance at Covont Garden next May, Mine. Melba will spend a month at Nice, Cannes, and Monto Carlo. .At..the close of tho London Opora season tho illustrious prima donna will in August enter oil a four-months' concert tour of America, Canada, atid Mexico,, opening at Halifax, Nova Scotia, under a minimum guarantee of 200,000 dollars. _ December, 1910, will be devoted!to a rest, in California, where'lier. concert tour will end, and during the following month she will niako her operatic rentroe in New York. With a superb orchestra, directed by Mr. Landon Ronald, as her sole support, Mr. Percy Harrison will star her through tho English provinces in March, 1911. ; Revival of Russian Opera. Russian opera*,was made a special featuro at the last Monto Carlo season by. M. Raoul 1 Gunsbourg, tho enterprising manager. Glinka's "Lifo for tho Tsar/' and Rubinstein's "Demon" were mounted by him in turn, and then came Dargomijsky's "Russalka." The composer of/"R'ussalka," who died in 1869, may claim t6 have shared with Glinka the distinction of founding the school of "Young Russians," which has incliided in its Ranks Balakirev, Cesar Cul, Moussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakoff. His music is little known outsido of Russia, and the success which "Russalka"—-or-iginally performed ,in 1856—seoms to have obtained at Monte Carlo is hardly likely to lead to its production elsewhere, though the work evidently possessos a considerable degree of originality and musical interest. Tchaikowski, it is true, did not rate his compatriot's gifts very highly, but this docs not mean much, seeing how perverse wcro tho views ho not infrequently expressed concerning tho works of other composers, and that, moreover, ho was unfavourably disposed towards the circle in which Dargomijsky belonged. "Dargomijsky was," wrote .Tchaikowski in his dairy, "no master. Ho possessed a certain originality and piquancy. He was most successful in . curiosities. But artistic beauty does not lie in this direction, as so many of us think."