RUSSIAN GRAND OPERA

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 7

RUSSIAN GRAND OPERA

tfHE-DRURY LANE SBAiSON. ,- . War and "rniisio afe very far apart.Save that'the, first, has ."some'Mies inspired some of .the inost w'pnderful niusio in the world. '.And yet it would E"eoti\ that st the".. present tuomint-' Russia is occupying a dominant place in both. Ih "a inost inttresthig. article which apeesred, recently ih the ."Sydney Daily' Telegraph" . on Riissito .gratfd opera,-the writer, Mr. Arthur'Jlas6n, state's that .the RuiSsiah seasori at Dru'ry Lalie was a revelation in. more ■■Wftye : than one, thaiiks to-.Mr. Beecham. "The' great glory of Mr. B.eecham,'-''he states. "is in the fact thd,t he : alone', toas had "the' courage tcj teach London 'that Russian music is a really big thingj and that the brilliant groiVp 6f' composer's' who niide that music ill the latter, half of last century, n<st to mention' Senabine and. $fra.vinsky, who mate it now, and iabre to say than T\ r e' drfeinieci of. "•;, _ . '

."It , has - come upon us, indeed, with something- of shtfck, this reveltttibn. of Russia.as , a gre'at'ftrt cbuhtry., with its mu^teal life' a tueming activity. Only, a very .little while ago v.e thought Rusf ei'jiii-. miisic;. began and. .ended .with Tschaiiovsky. New, thanks to Mr. Beechanij and iii les'ser degree its our concert- orchestras,. we>lniow it to have been richly served, ■ in" programme a n d Bymphonic' mnsic, by many writers, and in opera. by the composei-s who are drawing eiicli crowds- and , siiori entiiusiasiii to Drury Lane. That is onb. reason for our Rus'sian.opera excite--intrinsic" beaitty of so much of this Russian. music. ■ There is, tobj for our further excuse, tho inipressiveness of the subject matter with which it is associated. For these Russian operas are mostly written roiiiid Russian history or Russinji historical legend. Their literary basis' is thus hovel, and .'often it is strangely attractive. It is far reinbved from' that of the Wagner mythology, for i example, arid still further removed, from , the', sordid melodrama 6f tho Italian libretti:" . ■ .

There is another reasori .in chief. Mr. Bejichani has given Ldhdbricrs Chaliapirie; greatest of Russian bassos. It is,not a giant Chaliapirio hiiiiself hae the stature of a arid it is a voice of peft'uliar timbre. But into it goes the strength and the:. infe)'ipity, of a great man. -The whole evening through Chaliapirie will not sing more than two or three notes, at his full power. But you will have been following his'singing breathless. He is a greater actor .than singer—an actor of genius, in point of fact,,, with the grand m'aimer. His tragody in "Boris Godou- . ndv'-'> ftiid "Ivan, the Terrible" is over- ' whelmiiig. He bestrides the stage like a Colossus. Tile'other characters are lay fieures beside thi-s tremeiidous pereflnality. There are very , few acWrs in the *brld to-day who would riot" look

like lay'figures besides Ghaliapine i'u his big liioiherits. Wat<!hirig him from your ribint of space in the crowded, breathless tHeitfey ydu realwe. that here at iiny rate is tnd acting.. 6f wliich .you M# fe"ad ~vi much andi Been eb litt.lp. , ' Happy. Lbndoiiersl • \ ■ ■