MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2953, 16 December 1916, Page 13

MUSIC

(By " r iToMo-Clef.")

Tales of tho Opera,

To play twelve oporas in a, seventeen nights' season is a record for AVellington or any other city ill. jaTow Zealandl, yot that is what the Gonsalez 'Company will have accomplished by next Saturday evening. Tho achievement is an illustration in a nutshell of how close a part and parcel of Italian life is tho opora. Tho Italian idea of proOTess in a new town is first to build a church' and then i-.n opera house. Sunshine and song go band in hand, and tho truo Italian is never quite happy unless he is within attending distance of an opera house, where those masterpieces of lyric composition, so often associated with his own life's romance, caii bo heard. And ho is over such- a critic. If a singer doe 3 not meet with the approval of tho audienco ho is very quickly made aware of tho fact. Iu Italy they give no encouragement to the mediocre or incompetent. In New Zealand wo stand it, and there are those who will even lavish fulsome praise whero only sharp comment is deserved. The visit of tho Gonsalez Company has boon a rich delight to all who love tho best of music. Tho orchestra is a soTind ono throughout, tha principals included some of the finest artists in jjrand) opera wo have over heard, and in tho Signori Gonsalez we have two most capable conductors, with tho honours in favour of Giovanni, who is highly temperamental, and throws his whole soul into his work. He rarely has to glanco at his scores, so thorough is his knowledge of the oporas. Business in Wellington has not, up to tho present, been eo uniformly good as it should havo bedn, but the popularity of the operas to he played! during the coming week should onsuro ovcr-crowded houses. Tho pro. gramme is as follows:— .iuoiiuay—"iviignon." Tuesday— "li Trovatore." Wednesday—' 'jYladani© liutterlly." Thursday—"Carmen, v Friday— I '"Faust." (Saturday afternoon —' 'Cavalleria Rusticana'' and "1 Pagliacci." ' ' Saturday night (.end of season)— ''Oarmen.'' Tho following are tho stories of tho operas that aro to be played hero for tne arst time by t-his company next week, "Mignon." "Mignofl," which has not been produced .here for many years, if ever, is <»!s«l upon Uoetne's novel, "Wilhelm ..ieist-eiv' The scene is laid ill Germany and Italy. Tho first act opens by discovermg Lotario, an old harper, « reality a wealthy Italian nobleman, who is wandering oVer Europe in search ■J: his only. dau{rh^, s tjperata, who lias been stolen lrom him. by gipsies o'. childhood. Immediately there arrives at tho inn ( where the old man is resting a band of gipsies. Giarno, the leader, commands Mignon to dance, and on hor refusal on the score of weariness, ho beats hor. Lotario is too feeble to prevent this, but a young student in the person of Wilhelm Meister arrives, and at once proceeds to deal with tho gipsy bully. : Mignon, full of gratitude, entreats him to keep her with him; and full of compassion for tho. ill-used girl, lie pays Giarno some niouey by way of compensation and takes her away as -his page. Of t course Mignon falls in love with her preserver, who does not notice the fact, having, himself fallen under the fascinations of Filina, an' actress., who knows him to bo of good family. Tho company, of which Eilina is a member, proceeds to the castle of a neighbouring prrncc, taking with them Meister and Mignon. The latter contemplates drowning herself in tho lake because of her unrequited .iissipn, but is saved by Lotario. In her misery Mignon wishes tho castlp and everyone in it destroyed, and Lotario, knowing this, secretly sets firo to tho castle. As the people rush from tho burning building, Filina, sends- Mignon back for her bouquet, and the poor girl, becoming cut off by the flames, is only rescued by the daring of Wilhelm Meister. In the third act -'Lotario has brought Mignon to his ,own castlo to recover from the effects of tho firo. and there the loves of Wilhelm and Mignon prosper, and through tho production of a trinket, Lotario recognises in Mignon his longlost daughter. "Carmen." "Carmen" is ono of tho most picturosquo of grand operas. It is a revel of colour, and Bizet's music is very entrancing throughout. The scene is laid iri Seville in 1820. Thero in front of the. guard house, the gentle Michaela brings a loving message to Don Jose, a corporal, from his mother, and a pretty scone ensues between the two. At noon tho girls from tho adjacent cigarettes factory troop out, and Carmen, who is one of them, flirts with Jose. In a quarrel, Carmon stabs one of the other girls, and Jose "is ordered, to arrest hor, but ho allows her to escape. At the smugglers' inn Carmen meets Escamillo, the toreador, whero there is more love-making. Thither also repairs Jose, now- madly in love with Carmen. When the bugle blows, Zuniga orders Jose to leave, but ho declines to do so, - and flies to the mountains with Carmen and the smugglers. Escamillo also follows, and a duel ensues, which Carmen stops, but immediately transfers her affections to the bull-fighter. This drives Jose frantic. Michaela appears, and begs him to return to his dying mother; and he consents. Later, Joso meets Carmen in front of tho bull-ring, and begs for the return of her love. . She re-, pulses him, and, mad with jealousy, lie 1 stabs her to the heart. Shouts of triumph come from tho arena, and Escamillo enters, only to find Carmen dead.

"Madame Butterfly." Puccini's beautiful opera "Madame Butterfly" is based ou ' John Luther Long's story, which was dramatised by Belasco, and later took a .hold on tho imagination of tho leading Italian composer of the present day. Lieutenant Pinkerton, of the United States Navy; has married Cho Cko San in Japaueso fashion, which means to 6ay that whilst sho considers the marriage binding, lie has no euch thoughts. The 1 contract is denounced by Butterfly's uncle, but she is consoled by her love for Pinkerton. Thou Pinkerton rejoins his ship, promising to return "when tho robins nest again"; but three years elapse before ho returns. A golden-haired child (Trouble) is born to Butterfly, Vvho never loses hope that its father will return. At length Sharpies, tho American Consul; arrives with' a letter from Pinkerton, telling him that ho has married an American lady, buii he has not tho heart to break tho news.' Later Pinkerton's ship arrives in port, and Butterfly gaily decorates tho house, and sits waiting at the ■ shoji for hia advent. Ho does not come until the morning, and then arrives with his wife, who. pleads for the custody of the child. Her answer is that Mrs. Pinkerton may have the child in lialf-nn-hour. Then she binds 'ho child's oyes with a tiny American flag, retires behind a screen, and hari-karis, with her father's sword, which bears tho ■prophetic inscription, "To dio with honour, when one can no longer live with honour." A Complaint. "Dear trail of Italian opera is over everything. The milkman arrived tho other morning humming the tenor part in The Miserere.' I hear my butcher cuUh"' ' ; !■>!•■ chops to the rhythm of "Tin; -.' ••• i Chorus,'' and tho nurse-girl next door, gives rno 6pasms of 'Ah, Fora lo lui'

when she is not being nagged at by hor mistress. When I called in a fisherman: the other day to show me Ilia wares, ho came down tho garden path whistling the drinking song from •Cavalleria Itusticana,' and on concluding to take a couplo of bundles of flounders from him, he wont forth to his cart again carolling "La Donna e Mobile.'- A carpenter is usually considered a most unemotional soul, but in tho sunshine of a- recent morning my super-sensitives ear caught tho' strains of "Di Provenza" coming from a lyood-pilo near tho skeleton of a house. I suppose tho visit of the Italian Opora Company will givo a new lease of life to the barrel organ, as I know it is affecting the sale of gramophone records. The rage for Ally music theatres to do for ragtime for some time to come, which is not an unmixed blessing.—Dorothy Perkins." ' ' » Personal Notes. The gifted harpist of tho Gonsalez Company's orchestra is Signor Truda, brother of Signor A. P. Truda, conductor of tho orchestra of tho Queen's Tho 'cellist (load) is Mr. Laurie Kennedy, of tho clever Kennedy family of musicians, and the trumpet player is Mr. Stoneham,' of Melbourne, son of an old Melbourno resident, and a former friend of Mr. Clias. Hill, senr., tho head of the well-known firm of hattors and ■ merccrs. The silver flautist is ono of tho Gonsalez family. So is the basoon player. There are five of them trvelling with tho company. . M. Tarcynski, the brilliant and sympathetic'leader,, k a gifted soloist, whose work is known and appreciated in high, places in Europe. M. Tarcynski is a Pole. Signor Giovanni Gonsalez, • bosides being a remarkably able and richly temperamental conductor, is a 'Very fino violinist. Signora de Revers and Signorina Russ are both Russians, not Italians. : -r

Signor Scamuzzi, of tho Gonsalez Grand Opera Company, is quite young, and made his first. appearance as "RigoJetto," in the Royal Theatre at Qisa in 1913, in which he scored a grea,t success. Then he joined a leading grand opera company for a tour of_ Russia. He was for some time principal baritone at La Scala di Milano. the first operatic theatre in Italy. > ■ ■> Notes. There seems to be some' doubt as to who is the real live aristocrat, among the Italian Grand Opera artists of "tho Gonsalez Company. Ho is a baritone, and belongs to the _ great Borgheso family, the Conte Filippini. He is a cousin, of Prince Borghesej and a nephew of Cardinal Tongaucci. . 'Audiences at the Gonsalez opera performances seem to be a race apart from the revue and musical farce crowds. There is littlo swank of the race night rush, but a prevalance of disinterned dress suite from the catacombs of a buried past. Butthey aJI lite imisio. The Fuller enterprise is proving clearly, that neither picture show nor musical farce can dim the glories of legitimate, opera.