AN INTERVIEW WITH MADAME SEMBRICH, THE POLISH PRIMA DONNA.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 68, 20 September 1884, Page 5

AN INTERVIEW WITH MADAME SEMBRICH, THE POLISH PRIMA DONNA.

In many regards Madame Sembrich stands alone among prime donne. First of all, she stands incontestably far above all others in many-sided knowledge of her art. Her voice is by no means her only gift ; as a player upon the violin and piano she has but few equals, and could as easily have ob tamed eminence here as upon the lyric stage. Further, her knowledge of languages is quite unequalled ; she speaks Russian, Polish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and English so fluently that many a linguist might envy her colloquial powers. Knowing and admiring her gifts, I thought it might be interesting to the readers of '•The Evening News" — inasmuch as the interview previously reported by me with Madame Lucca has attracted considerable attention — to place Madame Sembrich's opinions on record, so that one might be able to compare what two gifted singers thought upon the same subjects. Madame Sembrich received me with much kindness, and, when I told her the purpose of my visit, seemed pleased to forward it.

sembrich's early life. At once I asked her to tell me something of her early life, how she had come to choose the stage as a profession, and whether she had begun to train for it when young. "lam a Pole, you know," she answered frankly, "born in Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, and when I was only four years old my father taught me the piano, and made toe practise incessantly. I loved the tasks he set me, and so found them easy, and year by year he grew prouder of my progress. Only instrumental music, you will understand," she said, " the piano first, the violin afterwards. Then, when a girl, I studied with Herr Sembrich. You see my master became later my husband. But he had already seen that my voice was worth cultivating. Accordingly I practised under his direction, but still kept diligently at work at my piano and violin. Shortly after our marriage he took me to Vienna to Herr $ and the famous master heard me play on both instruments. After professing his belief that I had chosen my career wisely, he recommended my husband to keep me some few months longer in Vienna before taking me to Liszt. This was agreed upon, and we prepared to go. Suddenly Herr stopped us by asking, { Does the lady sing ?' and when my husband answered that he thought my voice was a good one, nothing would satisfy the maestro but that he should hear me. After listening to one or two songs he ceased playing, and cried, ' That's the vein to work ! The voice is not very powerful, but the timbre of it is ' Well, you know," she added smiling, "He complimented me, and that satisfied my husband. The piano and violin were relegated to the second place, and I practised singing assiduously. A year and a half afterwards I made my debut, and was at once well received."

HER OPIMOX OF ENGLISII AUDIENCES. I asked — "Do you agree with Madame Lucca in what she says of English audiences ?" " No," she said, "I think one requires to know the English in order to like them, just as the English want to know a singer before they like her. They seem cold, I admit, but the coldness is in seeming, or else they wouldn't cling to their old favourites as they do. Why, when some singers I could mention had no longer the vestige of a voice — when they would have been hissed on any other stage — they were still well received in England out of old affection (pietal). An English audience is constant. It is hard to win, but once won it remains faithful as long as life lasts in the singer, and long after the voice has disappeared." ■ "But," I said, somewhat nettled, "this is surely the case in other countries too. I remember seeing Herr Nietnann as Lohengrin enthusiastically encored in Berlin, when not only his voice was gone, but also seemingly the place from whence his voice had aforetime come— if he ever had one," I added, "which I much doubt." "Ah, yes!" she said, "but look how splendidly Niemann acted ! He did not ouly look the part ; he teas Lohengrin, and no flther trod the stage as he did By-the-by," she added, "I heard the other day that he was about to appear as an actor, and the part in which he will make his debut is that of Egmont in Goethe's tragedy."

CONTINENTAL AUDIENCES. Taking up again the thread of our conversation, I asked Madame Sembrich whether she liked other audiences better than the English or not. "Ah," she answered, enthusiastically, "they have all of them, their good points. I like them all. One is well treated, well received everywhere. In St. Petersbxirg I sang for two seasons, and got to like the Russians very much as soon as I had learned their language. It is a dear people {liebes Voile), so amiable and so kind ! Then, in Dresden, where I am best known, they treat me as one of themselves, and call me a child of Dresden, for there I made my debtit. The most difficult audience to please that I know of is that of Madrid. The people there are very critical, and do not in the least hesitate to hiss if one doesn't please them. But then, again, when they are pleased they encourage one just as heartily by never-ending applause." " May I now ask who your favourite composers are ?" "I love nearly all the great German musicians— Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann, and particularly my own never-to-be-forgotten countryman Chopin. His music always affects me peculiarly. I can see that what foreigners regard as strange in it springs naturally from the genius of my people, and so his music always brings my beloved fatherland before my eyes. Chopin is a musician to whom we Poles owe as much enjoyment as we do to our greatest poets, and accordingly we repay him with enthusiastic admiration."

HER OPINION OF WAGNER. "Among your favourites you have referred to one man in regard to whom public opinion in England is by no means unanimous, and therefore I would ask you to tell me exactly what you think of Wagner and his innovations." " I scarcely know how to express fully my high esteem for Richard Wagner; it is almost a species of adoration. " Not only do I consider him the greatest German composer of this century, but indeed as an artist he seems to me to hold somewhat the same place in Germany that Shakspere does in England. In fact, I often call him the German Shakspere. I must confess, however, that I prefer what are known as the works of Wagner's first period. ' Der Fliegende Hollender,' 'Lohengrin,' * Tannhawser,' and even the * Meistersinger,' seem to me to stand among the very first of all operatic productions, and I can never hear them without the keenest pleasure, which becomes, in recollection, a satisfying joy. "On the other hand, the later words of the great master — some parts of them excepted—excite in me an intellectual interest rather than afford me artistic enjoyment. Still, Wagner remains incomparable ; and just now I am congratulating myself that in Paris—where lam to sing in the coming

■ ason— one of my first parts will be thatoi Elsa, in 'Lohengrin,' which I reckon among my favourite roles," I then asked her which was her favourite role. She answered at onoe, " ' Lucia di Lammerraoor,' although I like also the parts I take in 'Faust, 'in 'The MagioFlute,' in • Rigoletto,' in ' Don Juan,' and in • The Marrage of Figaro.' "

sembrich's intentions. I then asked the prima donna where she j was going to play next. " 1 am engaged for three months in Paris, after which I have promised to go to Madrid in the winter. Besides, I have received excellent offers from Vienna and Berlin, and and if I have determined to go first to Berlin, this issimply becauseßerlinisnearer to Dresden, where, as you know, I have made my home." Wishing the diva the success her great talents so well deserve, I promised to send her the proof sheets of this interview to correct, and then toMe my leave, congratulaing myself upon a conversation of quite singular interest, inasmuch as it reveals to the English public the esteem in which Wagner is held by perfectly cultivated musicians who are not biassed in his favour by patriotic considerations.