MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 9

MUSIC.

(Bi Theble Clef.) Pusolnl'sNe\K?stO.nera. The following is tho full cast of'Puceirii's latest opera "The Girl of , tho Golden AVesf,"- produced for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera House 011 December. 11:— Jtinnio Enuny Destimi Johnson. Enrico Caruso Jack; Rancc Pasquale 'Amato Dick .. '. Albert lieiss Ashby . A.damo Didur Sonora Dinh Gilly Trin Angelo Hada Sid Giulio Kossi Bc'lo '. Vincsiizo. Kcs'chigliou Harry ; ! Pictro Audisio Joo Glen Hall Happy Antonio Pini-Corsi Larkens Menofti Frascona Billy : Georges Bourgeois ■\Yowiiie Jiarie Mattfeld Jake Wallace Andrea do Segurola Josb Castro Edoardo llissiano liider of the'Pony'Exprirs' „ Lamberto Belleri

Wagner's First Engagement,

Ag interesting; document relating to Richard Wagner's 'first engagement at an opera house has recently been unearthed in Germany. It was in 1833, when ho was twenty years old, that the Stadttheater in- Wurzburg, where- bis brother Albert was employed as : regisseur, actor, and singer, enlaced Richard to serve, particularly as chorus master. But, the document continues, "lie must also, in case of need, helpalong in spoken or mute roles in plays, and participate in the tableaux of ballets when called upon to do so. In ease of disobedience or insubordination, tho director has the right .to -punish him in accordancc with the rules of the theatre. In case the earnings of said Richard Wagner should not cover tho fines imposed on him, his bondsmen pledge themselves to pay them. Richard Wagner has to place all his energies and time, so - far as - required, at, the disposal of tho directors of the Stadttheater, in rttuni for which he will receive e'verv mouth ten florins as com'pensation."

England's Fey/ Musicians. • The question why England has produced so few high-class musicians is thus answered by tho Londtpi "Times": A review, of our musical history, looking back to the great times of Elizabeth, is humiliating. Wit-lr so greatblocd in- our veins so little has been done. But it cannot bo contended that tho country has not had the brains and tho genius somewhere; , for a nation that has continuously produced men great- in various branches of art cannot suddenly, and at a fertile moment, become sterile ■ for 200 years in one branch alone. Of those.men who have done anything'"formusic a large proportion have adopted the career in the face of opposition; and for every one who has braved this, dozens'.must have I given way. Now that the social stigma of tho profession is being allowed to fade, a corresponding• increase in .the number .of adequately-paid posts.is al--1 ready noticeable; ami no boy of trained mind and special ..musical jyjtitudo need fear that he will not succeed in the world at l?ast as well as if lie adopted law, medicine, or the church. That there is a supply of such boys is beyond controversy. Not only do men aeonainted with both countries assure us that, if there is anything to choose between tho "class" of young talent here and in Germany, tho verdict is in favour of England, but every public school music-master will confess that ho frequently conies across boys who, for natural talent and ease in mastering their subject, would have been hailed as special manifestations of genius a generation ago. ' As it is, such.boys mainly drift into professions to whicli they have no special attachment, to their own discomfort and to England's loss; for it was no fantastic idea of the Greeks that a nation's soundness varied with the virility of its art. That their adoptioii of the career for which Nature soems to have intended them might easily he made more feasible and more encouraging is a fact, which I hops to deal with in another article.