MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1669, 8 February 1913, Page 9

MUSIC.

Sarmtn" in Wellington. " •' "Carmen" must rank among one of'tli ost popular of-grand operas. It is les >an three years ago since the opera wa •oduced in Wellington by the Williamsoi jmpany, headed by Mdlle. Bel Sorel; am iring 1911 it was frequently played ii rdnoy and Melbourne by the . Melbi pera Company, aqd always to very goo( lsiness. Now,, .by,some strange freak,"we are ti iar the exotic work in concert formrely ono of the last grand operas tha ad themselves' to the'cold formality o 0 concqrti ~.. .• • , \ . ,- ~ . "Carnen" lives not-, altogether on no unt.of its irtusie, which 'has its dul .tches/ but to a great extent !on"dramati< irit,-with which it palpitate?!'", still ; avalleria Rusticana,.'. which .may b< id to he closely'idlied to it in character is been ■. successfully sung on the conceri atform, and there is no reason . whj !!armen" should not be a big success as r as the Royal Choral Society is. conrned. Tho dramatic side of the opera .11 be missing, but we will all be glad hear. Bizet's coloursomo music once are. Tho opera will bo conducted by Mr. J aughan Barnott. and will be his final oral effort in Wellington prior to takg up his duties as city organist atAuckad. . huniann on Chopin. 'Imagine an r aeolian ham possessed of 1 the scales, 'and these made to vibrate :ogether by an artist's hand, with every nd of fantastic embellishment; but ' in oh a manner that a fundamental bass te and n.softly singing upper part-were rays audible, and one has a fairly good >a of Chopin's playing.: No wonder that e prefers those of his pieces heard from mself, and therefore let us mention,- in o first place, the A flat Etude-4no're a em than a study. • It would be a : misre to imagine thatMie'nllows: alt' the all.:notes to. be distinctly heard; one aware, ralMsr, of the undulation of s,'A.flat ■ major chord,- strengthened :esh here and there by the' rise .of • the ireaal, but ono was always sensible through the harmonies of tho wonderful'melody* of the big notes, and about the middle-of-the piece a tenor _ part was', heard distinctly from the chords. _When the piece terminated one felt as though, but half awake, ono would like to seize a 'beautiful pfc.ture seen in a dream. It was 'impossible to say much and -praise was unutterable.' He went on to the second in the book in Tlll { 10r : another which leaves' an unforgetablo impression of his originalitv-so seductive,- so dreamy, so soft-something like the singing of a child in its sleep.'; Note!./ y Undaunted by 'his own previous failure' and that of Oscar Hammerstein, Thomas iJeocham is going to make another attempt to develop London as an. operatic' "Ola. Ho has .announced a six weeks"season of German opera and Russian bn,K ; let at Covent Garden. The season wiU' ! 2 o? tl ) e Performance in England ot btrausre . ItosenkavalieYas' well as special performances of 'florae," "Elektrn,"Tristan und Isolde," and "Die Meistersmger." Tho composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, whoso Jewels of Madonna"' met with sifoa success at the hands of-tho y Chicago Opera Co., last year, has just completed a new opera founded on M-olicre's comedy, _lo JMado Imaginairo." He is also working on an opera entitled "Honmy soit qui mal y pense," the libretto of which will bo by Enrico Golisciani. Gustave Oharpentier, the composer of "I/>uiso," has just completed an opera tfiology upon which he has been working for years. Tho first part, entitled "Amour au Faubourg," will bo produced this winter at tho Opera Comique in I'aris. ' Tho two other parts of tho biology are entitled "Comodianto" and "Tragediante." Another work by tho same composor, written twenty years ago "La Vie du I'oete," will also bo produced this season. 1