MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 304, 15 March 1928, Page 16

MUSIC

(By

F.I.R.

Vhe Schubert Centennial Prizes in i America, with a total of 20,000 dollars, will be diverted from the completing of the •Unfinished” Symphony, to the composition of an “Homage to Schubert,” which is to be in two movements, following the model of the “Unfinished,” and in the Schubert idiom and style of orchestration. The contest closes in July, 1928. Bellini s “Norma” has been revived by the Metropolitan Opera Company ••f New York, not having been heard in that temple since the season of 1891-1892. At that time it will be recalled that .Lilli Lehmann, who interpreted the title role and was the last of the great Normas, said, “It is easier to sing all the ‘Brunnhildes* than one ‘Norma.’ In this late revival it seems that Rosa Ponselle is to take a place with the other great Druid Priestesses” of operatic history, who include Jenny Lind, Malibran, «Irish Pasta, Viardot-Garcia, Schroe-<ier-Devrient and Lilli Lehmann. Marion Telva, Minnie Egener and Lauri-Volpi completed th€; leaders of the present cast. • * * Feodor Chaliapin, Russian basso, has been alarming such conservative European centres as Vienna and Am - sterdam with his concert platform manners, says an American paper. In Amsterdam the critics and public took exception to his unhidden directions to his accompanist, and also to his habit of taking applause before his piano accompaniments had been finished. In Vienna last year he had a public struggle with an opera conductor whose ideas of tempo differed from his. By stamping his feet to his own time he managed to swing things in his own direction. Chaliapin is going out after De Pachmann’s laurels, apparently, for championship stage eccentricity. He brings an uncommon element of suspense to the concert hall, for the audience is inspired to wonder what he will be up to next. Last year the management of the Vienna State Opera prohibited members of its famous orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Society, from playing in jazz bands. This prohibition has just been renewed, because three members of the society intended to increase tlieLr income by joining a jazz band at a place of amusement, which wanted to use their names for advertisement. Th© Philharmonic Society thereupon expressed the opinion that it is unworthy of any member to belong to a dance band, and the management gave the three members the option of playing jazz or remaining at the opera. Without hesitation the players decided in favour of the opera. An exception to the rule, however, is Professor Charlie Gaudriot, who was the best bassoonist at the State Opera Last year, when the prohibition was first made, he asked for a long holiday. This was granted, and he has since played the saxophone in a first-class jazz band. He was, however, badly needed for certain performances at the State Opera, and has been repeatedly 'inVited to play as “guest.” Professor Guadriot has now made up his mind to return to the opera at the expiration of his “holiday.”

AMERICAN OPERA SKYSCRAPER THEATRES MONEY BEHIND MUSIC An instance of the extent to which wealthy Americans will go to support opera was griven by Mr. E. J. Gravestock, the well-known impressario, while in Auckland recently on his return from a visit to the United States. Mr. Gravestock said: “A brief but enjoyable stay in Chicago enabled me to see four performances of the Chicago Civic Grand Opera. A large number of operatic artists, who are only names to most music-lovers in Australia ancl New Zealand, were attracting crowded houses: Rosa Raisa, Claudio Muzia, Toti dal Monte, Charles Hackett, Tito Schipa and Formichi. The vast auditorium, which holds over 3,500 people, was a joy to see, and I mentally conjured up a similar opera house in Sydney or Melbourne. The financial side seems all so easy. Five hundred Chicagoans guarantee £2OO each a year, and they have a 20weeks’ opera season which permits visits to Boston, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. The property on which the auditorium is built has become so valuable that it is to be demolished, and a vast skyscraper is to be erected. MILLIONAIRES AND OPERA Since this would leave the town without a home for its grand opera, the energetic multi-millionaire president of the Chicago Civic Opera Company, who is, by the way, an Englishman, has arranged with a few other Chicago millionaires, to build their own skyscrapers, which will include a perfect Opera House and a small rehearsal theatre at a total cost of £5,000,000. They anticipate that the rentals forthcoming from offices, shops, etc., will repa3 f the capital outlay in a few years, and quote as an example a 40-storey skyscraper built in Chicago five years ago at the cost of £3,000,000, by a big banking concern, which wrote the building off at a dollar a few weeks ago. The New York Metropolitan Opera House is also having its troubles, us improved land values are forcing it from its present position, and the securing of a new site is proving a greater problem than running the opera itself.”