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Musical Courier 1895-03-20: Vol 30 Iss 784, 1895
81 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1Brema, the Coming Vocalist.
3THAT is a well-known tale of the person who went to bed a stranger to the world and awoke in the morning to find himself famous. History is continually repeating itself, and it was only last week that the citizens of New York arose to read the story of one who, by unanimous critical declaration, had suddenly become one of the tragic (great tragic) figures of the lyric stage.
5Reference is made to Miss Marie Brema, of the Damrosch German Opera Company.
7It is well worth the while of the student of character to look in upon Miss Brema when she is out of harness, as it were. She may be found at her comfortable quarters looking radiant after a rehearsal that would send the majority of singers home weary and peevish. She will greet her visitor cordially. Her hand is the index of a candid heart. Her features light up well. The warm intensity of her nature springs forward and asserts itself in a tremendous individuality, an imposing personality, a regal command in every movement, every gesture, that makes you feel that the pride of an Ortrud is hers by natural inheritance. Quite so, because the dignified spirit of a Virginian mother makes itself manifest in her. But the next moment (mark the contradictory traits in this newly discovered singing tragedian) her whole soul is bubbling with laughter. And it is because of these direct contrasts that her individuality appeals to you with the greater force.
9Miss Brema's eyes are strong, steady, liquid, brown, soulful, alluring and set wide apart; her brows are arched and well defined; her forehead is full, intelligent; her jaw is firm; her chin is not too square, yet commanding, resolute; she has a good, assertive nose, straight, not too prominent; her head is rather haughtily posed and well shaped; she has dark hair, a splendid neck, a full bust, and she is tall and well built from foot to crown. In certain moods she is in appearance not unlike Lady Randolph Churchill. All of the points enumerated indicate that she has an almost unlimited working capacity, great endurance. Some of her photographs are deceiving, inasmuch as they lend a Hebraic cast to her features—her nose especially. Oh, no; there is not a drop of Jewish blood in her veins. Her mother was born in Richmond, Va., her father in Germany, of German parentage, and Miss Brema's place of nativity is Liverpool, England. So that does away with the oft-printed paragraphs about the bonnie Scot.
11Miss Brema's rise in the operatic firmament was as sudden as it is remarkable. She has a quick study; but prior to the year 1890 she had never taken a lesson, let alone singing a note in public. True, she had "hummed a little," as Mr. "Pinafore" Gilbert makes one of his characters remark, but only at home, and she was not even aware that she possessed a voice. One night, at the house of a friend, Miss Brema went over a song in the hearing of Mr. Henschel. This was in November, 1890, at Norwich, during the festival season. Mr. Henschel manifested a willingness to teach her to sing, and so she went up to London and studied with him. In March, 1891, she made her début at St. James', on the occasion of one of the Monday Populars, and after that she had two or three small festival engagements.
13But now let Miss Brema tell the story in her own words:
15"I still had an inclination to do more," she began, "and had an idea that there might be something for me in the dramatic field. So I went to Henry Arthur Jones, and asked him if he would not hear me recite. He was very discouraging, and distinctly told me that he could do nothing for me. 'But,' said I, 'you are the great man now, and you can do everything.' Well, at last he agreed to hear me recite. Before I left he told me that I might choose any rôle I liked and he would furnish me with the support. One has to have pluck, you know, so I selected Adrienne Lecouvreur. I rehearsed the part at Newcastle with the Judah troupe and played it at Oxford. My interpretation was pronounced a success. Just at that time I got offers of concert engagements, and my friends thought it a pity that I should allow my voice to go to waste. Signor Largo heard of me and induced me to go to the Shaftesbury, but I did not feel much confidence in my own voice, and so I took the part of Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana. But fancy my surprise upon singing the part forty-eight consecutive times! By the command of the Queen we gave the first representation of Cavalleria Rusticana at Windsor—in fact, that was the first operatic performance given at the castle for thirty years. Her Majesty gave me a bracelet as a souvenir. My next engagement was in the character of Orfeo during the season of Italian opera in London. I sang the part eight times. Then I made several concert tours, notably with little Gerardy, Mr. Plunket Greene and Miss MacIntyre. After that I played several parts at Covent Garden, including one of the Walküren. Certain Germans took notice of my voice and acting and suggested Bayreuth. In the meantime I must tell you that Henschel had gone to Germany and I had continued my studies with Miss Bessie Cox. Finally, I went to Mr. Alfred B'ume, who is Mr. Plunket Greene's teacher. When I am in London I never let a day go by without taking my lesson from Mr. Blume. He and his wife went to Munich and invited me to join them. I sang for Levi and he asked me to accept an engagement in Germany. He wrote to Frau Cosima Wagner, and she sent for me to go to Bayreuth in October. I made my début there in Ortrud, with Mme. Nordica as Elsa. Then I sang the rôle of Kundry in Parsifal. I went back to London and studied the end of the Brunhilde and sang it in concert at Queen's Hall with Siegfried Wagner, and repeated it three weeks later, with Mottl as conductor. A Brussels critic heard me sing at the first Queen's Hall concert and got me to go to Brussels, where I sang Ortrud three times. Frau Wagner went through several of the Wagner rôles with me for my American engagement. Imagine how I have worked! And I must tell you that after I had given them Wagner in Brussels they engaged me again for a recital of English songs. I took Miss Maud Valérie White, of London, as my accompanist and gave a recital at the Circle Artistique. I sang twenty songs, and won new friends."
17"And with all of your Wagner work, do you find the music detrimental to the voice?"
18"On the contrary, Wagner properly sung does the voice good."
19"Then you will continue in German opera?"
20"No doubt. After my London season is over—June and July—I shall go to Bayreuth and study with Frau Cosima Wagner and rehearse the Trilogy for 1896."
21"And of the Wagnerian rôles, which do you like best?"
22"I much prefer Kundry. But Parsifal would not do in this country. You could not transplant it. To sing that work outside of Bayreuth would be to divest it of its sacred surroundings. It would be taking it out of its native climate. There, I have annoyed you with my conversation quite long enough. Look! this wreath is from Mme. Nordica. She sent it to me with some nice words on a card as a souvenir of my appearance here in Ortrud. That is so encouraging! Really, it's all a dream to me! I can't realize it—really, I cannot. Good-by!"
24"The Break" Not a New Discovery.
25A QUESTION FROM MR. JOHN HOWARD.
27MR. EMILIO BELARI certainly imparts news to me when he asserts that the great physiologist Fournié discovered and published the true cause of "the break" in the singing voice. I read the work with great care while preparing my Physiology of Artistic Singing, and remember well and gratefully his scientific argument for physiological study on the part of the teacher (p. 579). Also his description of the mixed voice, followed by the interesting statement that the great Fournié, though observed to "nuance" the voice in a wonderful manner, never displayed the true mixed voice, but simply moderated the force of his blowing. On page 419 he notices a fact to which I attribute great importance in explaining "the break": "La partie postérieure du cricoid est appuyée, pendant l'acte vocal, contre la colonne vertébrale," &c.; but this anatomical fact is followed by no physiological explanation of its vocal importance other than the statement that it interrupts all issue of breath—"de manière a intercepter toute issue sur la partie médiiane."
29My note book contains a brief summary of the views of this author upon the falsetto voice, upon resonance, upon various subjects; but not one clause upon "the break" itself or the cause of "the break."
31Now my private copy is moldering in a damp Boston cellar, and to visit one of the libraries to examine the whole voluminous work again would indeed be a task.
33If Mr. Belari will kindly mention the page or chapter or quote from the book the passages explaining "the break," I will forgive him for the rather slighting comments which close his contribution to THE MUSICAL COURIER, the readers of which will also be benefited. If he does not, my claim to the discovery is not invalidated.
35Furthermore, let me congratulate him upon his success with his distinguished pupil. If he asserts that she left his hands with an even scale, there is no desire on my part to doubt it. But the main question is: Did Fournié discover and publicly explain the true cause of that ugly little phenomenon popularly styled "the break"?
37JOHN HOWARD.
38321 West Fifty-ninth Street, New York City.
40Stuttgart.—Janie, a musical idyll by Emile Jacques Dalcroze, was performed on February 20 at Stuttgart. It has three acts, and has for subject an Alsatian village love story. Dalcroze was born in Vienna in 1865; his parents were Swiss. He is now teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva.
42Theodor Habelmann.—The former stage manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, during the period of German opera, Theodor Habelmann, has just now celebrated his fourth anniversary as stage manager at Breslau. Old opera and concert goers will remember Habelmann as a fine tenor. His Fra Diavolo and George Brown (Dame Blanche) were unique performances twenty-five years ago.
44He Will Show Them the Way.
46MR. WALTER DAMROSCH has completed his bookings up to April 27. The New York season will end March 23. Then the company will go to Philadelphia, and give three performances the evenings of the 25th and 27th and a matinée the 30th.
48From April 1 to 10, including one matinée, is booked for Boston; the 12th and 13th will be devoted to concerts at Carnegie Music Hall, when the principal artists of the company will make up the program; April 15 to 20 the company will sing in Chicago, and April 23 to 27 they will be in St. Louis.
50That date will no doubt almost wind up the season, as the majority of the artists are under obligations to return to London in May for the season.
52Lucky Damrosch! But he is deserving of the $25,000 (some estimate it at $50,000, but that is rather too high) that he will clear on his season. But for a fact he deserves it all. Any man who has the metal in him that will lead him to mortgage the roof over his head to obtain working capital is entitled to more credit than words can define. Indeed it requires a good bit of the nerve of the gambler to make as bold a venture as did Mr. Damrosch. But he is already "on velvet." And yet he was modest in his first start. He fairly crept along. In an interview with the writer Mr. Damrosch declared that this would be his last venture as an impresario. It was the outcome of a mere suggestion. Speaking of it at length for publication in THE MUSICAL COURIER December 19, Mr. Damrosch said:
54I was first induced to enter upon this scheme through the performances that were arranged last spring under the auspices of several charitable societies—notably the Society for Ethical Culture, of New York, and the United Charities Society, of Philadelphia. I may say, at the beginning, that the coming season will be the final result of accident. That is, the artists who performed for charity were those who had been brought together here by chance—among them, Materna, Fischer, Behrens, Schott. The success was tremendous and revealed a desire, in fact almost a hunger, upon the part of the audience to hear Wagner opera. I must say that although I am not inclined to manifest any amount of over-enthusiasm, it awoke a new ambition even in me.
56I at once went to Messrs. Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau (for whom, by the way, I wish you would say I entertain the greatest admiration, owing to the liberality of their grand opera productions), and endeavored to interest them in the project of incorporating a Wagner season into their own. They, however, did not seem inclined to enter into the scheme in a proprietary sense, but offered to rent the house to me and in every other way assist as best they could, &c.
58Such is fate! Perhaps now Messrs. Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau wish that they had been "inclined to enter into the scheme in a proprietary sense." Again, perhaps this short season of Wagner opera in German will spur them to the duty of giving a supplementary season of German opera in 1896. If they do, must they not admit that Mr. Walter Damrosch showed them the way?
60English for the Provincials.
62MR. WALTER DAMROSCH, after having seriously considered the advisability of producing the Wagner operas in the provincial cities of Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis and Chicago, with the names of his artists anglicized, has decided not to adopt that plan. At the outset it was feared that the unfamiliarity of the provincials with the names of foreign singers and their inability to properly pronounce the same if printed in German on the program would be a bar to the success of the out-of-town season, but Mr. Damrosch having been assured that there are a few German-speaking people in the provincial cities, particularly in Chicago, he has finally consented to the publication of the casts of the various operas in precisely the same form as they appear in New York.
64However, it is none the less interesting to follow up the idea and show what would have been the result had Mr. Damrosch decided to print the names of his singers in English. The names of his principal artists would have read like this:
66Mrs. Rosa Sugar.
67Mr. Alvary Ashcreek.
68Mr. Nicholas Redmill.
69Miss Marie Mason.
70Miss Marcella Lindtree.
71Mr. Rudolph Upperhouse.
72Mr. Paul Long.
73Mr. Paul Seal.
74Mr. Franz Black.
75Mr. Emil Fisher.
76Mr. Adolf Sonofpeter.
77Miss Johanna Goabout.
78Mr. Adolph Builder, stage manager, was one of the victims of the steamship Elbe disaster, and Mr. Sigismund Grainhandler, chorus master, disappeared December 5 and has not yet been heard from.
80Cologne.—The Gürzenich concert at Cologne February 19 produced a novelty—an interesting symphony by Alexander Glasunow, one of the most able representatives of the new Russian school. The pianist who took part in this concert was the former prodigy Hofmann, whose earnest studies with d'Albert and Rubinstein these past years were due to the liberality of an American Mæcenas.
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