SIGNOR HAZON.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 821, 19 May 1910, Page 4

SIGNOR HAZON.

INFLUENZA AND CRAND OPERA. "It is cold —very—and I have influenza," said Signor Hazon, the eminent musician and conductor of the Grand Opera Company, to a Dojiinion reporter yesterday, as lie snuggled into his big coat alongside a lire in the lounge of the Empire Hotel. "I caught it in Sydney, just before I left, and it was a bad trip," said Signor Hazon in his misery. "There is a difference of many degrees in temperature between Sydney and Wellington at any time of the year, and tlie air of yesterday had a 'nip' in it where not exposed to the sun."

Tell me of yourself. "1 left Sydney unwillingly in tho spring of 1907, my health broken —yes, I was very bad. I went to Milan to live, thinking tho native air and music would tone mo up. I lived there and became better, stronger. Then Mr. Williamson came last year, and telegraphed mo to meet him at Genoa. 1 went to meet him, and 110 told mo 110. had a notion of playing 'Madam Butterfly' in Australia, having bought tho rights some time before. It was to come off some time. I said: 'Why not now?' So Mr. Williamson said: 'If you can get 1110 a prima donna, we'll go right ahead, only it must be dono in English.'

He Looks Round Milan. "So 1 looked round Milan—thoro aro always plenty of artists there studying the Italian repertoire. I look aiound —plenty of Italians, but very difficult to get the right ones who ■ sing in English. Carlo Dani would liavo liked to come—ho wrote mo so —but ho could not sing in English. So 1 looked round, and got some peoplo together, and wlion Mr. Williamson came back from Wiesbaden he hoard them sing. Ho liked, Mdlle. licl Sorel very much, and said: 'Go ahead.' So X went on, and got the present company, which is a very good ono all round. Puccini and His Work. "Puccini heard of the proposal to produce •Butterfly' in Australia, and he sent me a nico letter, wishing mo all success. Then when wo do so well in Sydney, wo sent him a message, and he wrote mo again congratulating me on , the great success. ... It was a success too; perhaps the greatest in the world comparitivoly. We played 'Butterfly' 36 times —H4 consecutively. Wo had 'La Boheme' ready, but they would have the other. What were we to do ? —• it would have been bad business to tako it oft. . . . You will like it, ■ not so much the first time, but when you have heard it three,'four, five limes it is vory line. The musicians rave over it and come ten times to absorb its deep beauties. The orchestration — wo have 36 in the orchestra—is its great charm. It is modern, and, like the kaleidoscope, it reflects in tone and character the situation presented in the opera. Tho pianoforte scorc gives no idea of tho opera —it takes its colour from tho orchestration. 'Butterfly' has a wonderful lcit motif, from which melody and counter melody spread out like a spider's web. It was tho honour of conducting such a work that induced me to leave Milan for Australia, whore 1 had conducted the original performance of 'La Boheme' (with the Italian Opera Company of 1901)." An Opinion of Richard Strauss. Have you heard Richard Strauss's operas ? "Yes," said Signer Hazon, "I heard 'Salome' nnd 'Elektra' at La Seala."

How do you placc him ? "Oil, I think he is a groat genius— ho is very modern, and much of his music is almost grotesque, sometimes alarmingly so. But there is meaning in it." .About "Eloktra," tho opera with tlio "confounding orchestration," in which now instruments were introduced to make strange noises, Signor Hazon liesitatcd at venturing an opinion—it was so very grotesque, bizarre. There were factions for and against Strauss, even in Milan, but lie placed tho composer as a genius more 011 his orchestral poems—"Don Juan," "Death and Transfiguration," and the "Domestic Symphony," the ideas in which were so beautifully varied. Signor Hazon was twenty-one years resident in Australia. Of those years he was for eighteen conductor of tho Koyal Philharmonic Society, and for seventeen years conductor of the Sydney Amateur Orchestral Society, numbering 70 performers. This is now conducted by Slapoffski. Joseph Bradley has the "Phil.," and Arundel Orchard the Sydney Liedertafel.