ENCORE!

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1258, 30 March 1878, Page 3

ENCORE!

(From "The Era.") There is a vital question between artists and audiences which ought to bo settled one •way or another. It is a question of some importance to art, and one intimately connected with the personal comfort and future prosperity of those who are highly endowed by nature and as highly educated in the profession they have adopted. The question is, how far artists are bound to comply, and to what extent audiences are entitled to ask for a repetition of some song that pleases the public or some concerted passage that may be admirably delivered. Before dealing with this question in its relation to art, and in regard to its connection with personal convenience it may be well to remind the public of the occasionally dictatorial attitude it assumes towards favorite artists, no matter what branch of art they follow. They are indeed " servants of the public," and they are bitterly made to feel their honourable i'J'hey must never fail in punchey must be consistently submissive, f never be ill. If they are late for a they insult the public ; if they rebel instant from harsh and tyrannical e, their conduct is never forgotten ; suffering torture - be it mental or and are forced against their will to i medical ccrtiticatc, their action is ases out of ten liable to distrust and rption. There is no more intolerant in the world than an audience in on to a public performer If he or eeds, all is well. But if there be htest variation from the accepted , not a particle of excuse i 3 made. gether a one-sided and unfair barthe ri.-k being with the arti.-t, and rofifc with the public. If an artist fail or show indisposition, he is coldly received or put aside for some new favourite. If he succeed, the greedy public is perpetually asking for more, regardless and careless of all consequences. It is with this subject we propose) to deal, particularly in connection with operatic arti-ts and singers at popular concerts. On the dramatic stage custom alone prevents the initiation of the encore system. If art were not outraged thereby, o:ir actors and actresses would be compelled to repeat the " screen scene" in " The School f.,r Scandal," to go back, as at rehearsal, and do some ttrong situation over aaain, or to go on saying some favourite and effective speech until the audience had got it by heart. There is no question of a doubt about this since the public, by its injudicious applause in the Theatres, goes to the vtry vert;e of a deliberate "'encore" It insists upon an actor or actress returning iu the middle of a play, or in the heart of a acene, to receive applause, and if the actor or actress be sufficiently an artist to refuse to

listen t'> so sorry a compliment,a round of hissing is the result. It it were not for custom whole scenes of plays would most certainly be encored. For what do wc see on the operatic stage ? The destruction to art is the same, and yet because custom permits it wh le scones are encored, the action oi the opera is stopped, the thread of the romance is lost, the euergy of the artist U taxed, the length of the performance is prolonged, and a d> liberate anti-climax is secured just be-

cause those who pay for admission to the Opera are .selfishly and greedily anxious to obtain more for their money than they are entitled to receive. Not the smallest consideration in the world is extended to the operatic aitist. It is nothing to the audience assembled if a Patti has just strength on that evening to get through the opera, and no more, if a Titiens he anxious to retain through long years her glorious voice, if a Nilsson has other engagements to fulfil that evening. So many shillings have been paid foi- a gallery stall, the song or the quartet was very delightful, it will be a long time before such singing can be heard again, and sa an " encore" is insisted on. The artist may bow doprecatiugly but thankfully, the conductor may be temporarily obstinate, the opera may be proceeding in order to drown the applause—no, the public will have it again, and for the sake of peace and quietnes the song is repeated. There is no cad to the exactions of these audiences. It may be the chorus of prisoners in " Fidolio" or the famous quartet iu the li-st act in the same opera, it may be the whole of the final scene in " Lucia di Lammermoor," it may be the ' >ld Man's Chorus or Soldiers' Chorus, or the Jewel Song in "Faust," one and all are encored as a matter of course, and any refusal to comply is resented as an impertinence or an insult to their mighty highnesses the audience.

But there is a place in which this encore nuisance is felt even more severely than in the Opera House, and this is in the Concert Room, and in particular at those popular concerts composed mainly of English ballads. Here the cruelty and selfishness of the whole proceeding are shown in their most demonstrative form. Nearly every one present really wants, only all would be ashamed to say so, exactly double the value of that for which they pay. It is against every known anel acknoAleelged commercial rule, but still it is a fact If any one who attends the ballad concerts goes to his tailor's and orders a coat, he does not expect for one minute that a waistcoat or pair of trousers will be thrown into the bargain for nothing ; if he sends out for a loaf of breael, he does not ima ine that the baker will present him with a cake as well; if he purchase a pound of tea, he would be extremely daring if he demanded half a pound of sugar for the same money. And yet at a ballad concert he does not hesitate to ask for more than that to which he is entitled, but actually grumbles and makes a disturbance if he does not get it. When these ballad concerts are advertised, those who pay for their seats know perfectly well what singers and what songs they will hear. There is no secret or mystery about the matter. Mr Boosey do s not hide anything. Why, then, should the owner of a stall purchased on an implied contract demand exactly elouble the amount of art and song for which he contract! el ? When Mr Boosey has got the public into their scats at St. James's Hall, he does not instantly send the hat round and demand just double the price of the seats or refuse to give any concert at all. But the public, having paid for their seats, demand twice as much song as they are entitled to for their money, or they refuse to let the concert proceed on any terms whatever. Fur! her than this, the spirit of meanness is pushed to a disagreeable extremity. These lovers o c ballads new ami old, trading upon good nature and concession, are not content with a repetition of the same song, they actually demand an additional ballad as a.reward, for singing a distinctly different s:>ng. If Mr •-antley sings " To Anthea" to perfection, he is forced by the boist< rous applause into giving "The Stirrup Cup," and thought an unkind fellow for not throwing in "The Vngabond" and "The Yeoman's Wedding" into the bargain. If Mr Edward Lloyd succeeds with the newest song by Arthur Sullivan, he must follow up his success with a little hit of Molley. If Mrs Osgooel charms eveiy soul in the Hall with her infinitely pathetic anel admirably dramatic rendering of "Let me dream again," she is forced to throw in a flavouring of Gounod before she is allowed to retire. For one success by M iss Antoinette Sterling in a rare olel English ballad, she is instantly asked to make her audience familiar with the fashionable melodies of the modern drawing room. Does the auelhmce never consider how unfair and ungenerous this is to the singer ? That noble and heaveuly-giftcd organ the voice is the singer's stock-in-trade. It must be nurtured, coaxed, and humoured in this detest able climate of ours. If it fails, if it breaks down, if it is overtaxed or strained, away on the instant goes not only a foitune, but a "livelihood. No delicate infant from its birth and during the tender months of its earliest childhood requires so much care ar<d watching as the human voice. As we look out of the windows during the pea-soupy Chiistmas, as we see before us a dull, dirty, yellow-ochreish haze which it would require a oirving-kuife to cut, the wonder is, not that singers sing so seldom, but that they ever sing at all. No wonder Italians, pining for their beloved blue skies, and Frenchmen, longing for the sunny Bordeaux lands, execrates our terrible ciimate. Anel yet in the country where the voice is exposed to the most terrible atmospherical trials, the audience is the most obstinately exacting. There i? positively no mercy for the singer with the delicate voice or the artist who desires to preserve anel not to squander his precious heritage. A refusal to comply with these exacting anel unkind demands is fol lowed by an avowed spirit of di-.courtesy, and ultimately ends in unpopularity. An audience refuses to argue the matter out on any logical basis. They will have more than their money's worth if they can force it. They forget, or refuse to remember, that the singer at the ballad concerts is not engaged like the Music Hall artist, for so many turns, at so many songs a piece. He contracts to sing the songs set down, and no more. All the rest is between the artist and the audience. There is, of course, a remedy for every grievance, and the most summary remedy is, of course, a bold and determined refusal to comply with any such exorbitant demands, but at the same time such a course provokes open hostility between audience and artist which is unfair to the artist, who is naturally anx : ous to please the public even when it is deliberately contrary to the future interest. The only other remedy lies with the impresario, and from him alone the reform must ultimately come. If Mr Gye and Mr Mapleson were boldly to announce at. the beginning of the season, and on their programmes, either that they would permit no encores at all or only so many encores for each opera, the difficulty would be nipped in the bud eo far as the operatic stage is concerned. And if Mr Boosey at his deservedly popular ballad concerts were courteously to take the blame on his own shoulders and say that he could not a'low so many songs from each singer, the abuse would soou die out. There would be just as much pleasure afforded, anel those who wantetl to hear more songs, woulel be compelled to pay their money- again and come once more, insteael of being indulged for uttering that often sellish cry, " Encore !"