MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1061, 25 February 1911, Page 9

MUSIC.

(Br t'heble CLir.) >'' Cost of Producing Opera. . The question so often raised in London as to why British operatic composers can so rarely sccuro a hearing has croppcd up again, and has elicited some/interesting figures concerning the ccst of experimentally staging a new work at Covent Garden. . Tho directors point otit..that,-';except..in tho case of a now 'opera by -'eho of . tlio great masters of tho day, Puccini, Strauss, or: ;Leoncavallo, English people in tho mass can hardly bo persuaded'to accept even'.a free admission for a real /'first night, npon any stage." London does not possess, apparently, tlio audience of amateur experts, connoisseurs, and musioal enthusiasts -who aro generally ready to support tho management on such occasions in Paris,' Berlin, or Vienna. Oil tlio other hand,' tlio' cost of production is greater, frequently exceeding--£2OOO. Tho rental'of Covent Garden is £500 a week, and £500 a weok is quoted as tho cost of wages of tho 70 stago hands employed. Tho orchestra costs £300 (as there aro about 80 players, tlio- musicians earn littlo more than half' the Wages of tjio mechanics), and then there aro principals at enormous salaries, attendants, cleaners, and managers' staff, as well as an enormous electric light bill, and. £150 n week for advertising. Under tlieso 'cij-cumstances, it is urged by tlio syndicate that to produco a new English opera is to deliberately-. incurr'a"...heavy has been suffered in the'interests "of British art ouito as often as can.be.reasonably expected. '

Whan Sousa Conducts. "Exilo 1 ' (London) in tlio "Bulletin": I liav'o just licarfl Sousa and his band. Tho combination includes'six blowers with glasses, seven wlio aro wholly bald, and six who aro bald in spots. Tour wear beards. Tho bassoon is Sft. long, and. thcro is a tympnnist who deserves a column, to himself. Ho represents 'tlio dernier cri in drum-banging. Ho pats,; scolds, carcsses, and whispers : to them, and they whisper and (occasionally) howl back at him. I havo walked behind Niagara, between tho wall; of water and tho cliff of rock; I've heard Carlton beat South; and I'vo looked inside) a Cornish boiler under repair. Amalgamated, thcso. aro all noiseless alongsido Sousa's drums.. Tlio cornet player is a revelation. Thero has been nothing like liini sinco Levy. And then 1 - Sousa! Ho is a very wizard of music.Sousa plays with that band of his as Kubelik ..used. to play , with his violin. He causes the volume of sound to shrink,' fade, disappear, only to compel a monstrous body ■of noise to begin, grow, crccp upward and gain forco with every \vavc. Unlike all-tho great conductor's I liavo aeon, Sousa conducts witji his fingers, and the thousand and ono movements of each is recorded on tlio. instruments. . Ho opens ono hand slowly, gently, and the, sound from the band, issues softly, sweetly perhaps to bo crushed out of being by a sudden closing of that fist, perhaps to swell to a roar suggestive of 14 zoos in full cry. Sousa's band will-bo with Australia shortly.'

A Saint-Saens Story. An excellent story is told ancnt SaintSacns's recent visit to London. Whilst there lio celebrated his seventy-fourth birthday and incidentally was induced to give a recital at tho Bechstoin Hall. The programmes included tho difficult Third Concerto of-Mozart, which the wonderful old genius played perfectly. At its conclusion he was given an ovation, tho like of which has seldom been heard even in llio Ucchslein Hall. In acknowledgment the aged virtuoso rose and said: "It is sixty years since I played tho Concerto in London. 1 was then a boy of fourteen. ' I only wish 1 cuuld play it as well now hs 1 thought I could play it then." The brilliant hu-mour-of the rcplv induccd a storm of laughter and applause*