MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1860, 20 September 1913, Page 11

MUSIC.

fßr TEIBLI CLIF.I The Nordloa Concerts. It to be hoped that the public of Wellington are fully aware of tho status jn the musical world of Madame Lillian Nordica, who is to sing in Wellington on Thursday, Saturday, and Monday next. Those who take a live interest in the doings of the great operatic stars, which have shone brilliantly during the past quarter of a century,'will have no difficulty in placing the visitor among the foremost dramatic sopranos of the age. She has been to America what Melba has been to Australia —tho idol of her country on tho operatic as well as on the concert stage. There are many artists pre-eminent in one or other of these two spheres of vocal endeavour, but there are very few who are able to adapt themselves with equal facility to both, and of these Noraica is one of the most striking. In support of this fact—it is no more assertion—one has only to refer to Calvo and Eleanora di Cisneros. The former could never be called a purely ooncert artist, and to illustrate her undoubted gifts she was fain to introduce excerpts from tho operas, which she illuminated with action and costume, and so achieved tho desired end. In the case of Cisneros, who is a fine artist in opera, one need only recall her concerts in Wellington. She made tho mistake of taking up tho concert platform without serious training for it, and, from the outset, it was easily seen that she was out of her element. Lights, orchestra, scenery, and chorus were needed to tone her up to the "sticking point," given which she was capable of doing excellent work—such work as was witnessed in her Delilah in "Samson and Delilah" in Australia with tho Melba Company. With Nordica tho case is very different. She lias been .giving concerts aa long as she has been associated with opera, and knows how to attune hor voice and manner to tho exacting demands of the former. She is supported by that admirable concert tenor, Mr. Paul Dufault (here with Madame Cisneros last year), Mr. Franklin Holding, a- capable violinist, and Mr. Romayno Simmons, bolo pianist and accompanist.

Vooallsm and Education. Madame Clara Butt is a great believer in the broadening effects of a foreign training. In her own caso sho supplemented her studies at the Royal Collego of Musio with periods of training under M. Bouby, of Paris, and Fran Etelka Gerster, of Berlin. This was entered upon not only to pcr'fect technique, but also ,to learn French and German' songs in .the 'country of their origin. By this means she was enabled to got the right atmosphere. Sho now percoives tho value of this, for she is now as nruch appreciated for her ability to sing in French, German, and also in Italian as ever sho was for her rendering of English melodies. i

Opora Epldemlo. The latest issue of tho Now York "Musical Leader," in an article entitled "An Operatic Epidemic," by Robert Grau, refers as follows to tho entcrpriso of which Mr. Thomas Quinlan is the head:—"The unusual activity in operatic circles in America has attracted much attention abroad. Tho writer is in a position to stato that at least two foreign impresarios are' extremely well equipped for an American campaign, and aro looking longingly in this direction. ■ Particularly does this apply to Thomas Quinlan, who plans to visit America this year. Lot no man belittle the importanco of this undertaking, provided it really does- become a certainty, for tho advont here of the Quinlan organisation would mean just such an evolution as when the intrepid Colonel Mapleson first came hither to show us what 'Her Majesty's opera' stood for."

"LguISO." ' Tlhe first performance in Australia, of Charpentier's "Louise" was given by the (Juinlan Opera Company .at 1 Melbourne, Her Majesty's, oil Thursday of last week. "Louise" is a musical romauco in tie truest sense of tiie phrase. Tho anchor of it is -tho composer liimsolr, and, following tho lead of Bruneau, collaborating with Zola, it is in prose, sparsely dotted with lyrical snatches. The subject, like that of Puccini's "La Bohome," is concerned with Parisian grisettes, midinettes, milliners, students in poetry, paint, and music, - with the life of tho stfeots in Montmartre, aiid witli two most pathetic portraits of a working man and his wife, who, in tho end, are bereft of their only daughter, Louise, the lattor' being allured by tile call of pleasure-loving Paris. Gharpentier lias written several works for tlio stage, but "Louise" is considered t his mastorpiece, and a masterpiece it is of 6ubtlo portrayal of character. The principal roles were taken by Jeanno Brola, Edna Thornton, Gladys Ajicrum, Edith Ciegg, Mabel Dennis, Maurice l)'Oisly, Spencer Thomas, W. J. Samuell, Arthur Wynn. Siguor Tullio Voghera conducted.

"Barber of Seville" Revived. Mr. Quinlan did well to include in his ropertoiro Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" (says tho "Australasian"), for, despite its old style, form, and content, it is a. work which oven to-day, with the thunder of Wagner still echoing in our ears, has a strong-appeal, as was proved at the performance given of tho work on Saturday. It is Doth mirthful and musical, and in a oomic opera puro and simple that is all that can bo asked, unless, as in tho case of Wagner's "The Mastersingers," wo want a comedy in which tho thought and manners of a wholo period are to be reflected. • This, of course, Rossini does not do. Ho was a pure opportunist in music, and no moro tried to swim against the stream than to put any loarning into his work. But, for all that, his music still lives, bocauso, whatever the oomposors faults, ho never erred in his instinct for giving exactly tho kind of musical background that tho words or tho action of the piece suggested. So, shallow as is tho stuff in "Tho Barber," it is still genuine in its shallowness, and, wedded to an artificial typo of comedy, tho tiling attracts by its perfect shaping of means to an end, comparatively low as it is in tho artistic scale.

Miss Felico Lyno was tho Rossini, and the charming performance which sho gave of the pert littlo figure will long be a pleasant memory with music-lovers. Sho sang as charmingly as sho acted, and mado a great success with tho two brilliant solos "Una voce poco fa," and tho interpolated itom, Meyerbeer's "Shadow Song," tho coloratura in botii being perfectly dond. Mr. W. J. Samuells was a lively and dashing Figaro, and tho Count had an excellent exponent in Mr. Maurice D'Oisly.