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Musical Courier 1895-06-26: Vol 30 Iss 799, 1895
90 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1Guy de Hardelet; Pensée d'Automne, Massenet; Gavotte, Lemaire; Grands Oiseaux Blancs, Viardot; Herodiade, Massenet; Sans Lendemain, Dorchain, Brunette, Thomé; Tout en Valsant, Beissier; Lamentation, Roger-Miles; Soleil Riche, Richepin.
3There were also short theatrical sketches showing the dramatic training, and a most charming Quartetto Sentimental, representing the invocations of a Poete of La Muse, l'Eveil de l'Amour, L'Idylle, Tralusons and l'Idéal. Mr. Jancey personated the poet, and the evocations were charmingly sung by pupils with accompaniment of hautbois, harps, violin and 'cello. Mr. Jancey was all that could be desired in the part.
5Of our pupils who sang were Miss Wallen, of New York, Miss Rondebusch, Miss Thornton and Mrs. Howell. The concert was held in the elegant new Salle Galerie des Champs Elysées. The audience was very select. Many artists assisted.
7The Monde Musical, Paris, is publishing a remarkable series of letters on the rhythm of the Hymnographie Latine and the poetic chants of the Gregorian hymns, translated into the natural rhythm by M. Dechevrins.
9Ste. Cecile be thanked for any study of rhythm these days. It has become a lost art in latter day writing. The effect of the new (intellectual) effects is of walking on the ice after taking skates off, or of seeing a regiment of soldiers march out of step. Hypnotized dervishes become drunk under certain rhythmic measures produced in their vicinity. They could maintain the most exemplary sobriety, and even their sleep, in our concert halls. What is the matter, anyway?
11I know of a girl who used to wear a very homely dress once in a while in order that she might look all the prettier in a becoming one by contrast. Who knows but that the musicians are preparing an agreeable surprise for us. They cannot offer it too soon, we have been patient and polite so long.
13M. Noël, of the firm of Mackar & Noël, music publishers, has bought out the interest of his partner in the precious burden of music carried by that house. Chief among the works are those of Rubinstein, Siloti and Tschaikowsky. A good sign of the times here: papers are asking why are not the works of the genial Russian made en evidence in France as in other European countries?
15Mlle. Laus has taken the part in the bacchanal dance of Tannhauser, heretofore the graceful privilege of Mlle. Zucchi. Mlle. Lola Beeth replaces as Venus Mlle. Breval, who has commenced rehearsals of Aida.
17Twenty-seven pupils of the declamation classes in the Conservatoire have passed examinations to be examined to enter the tragedy and comedy classes.
19First representation of Guernica by MM. Vidal, Gailhard and Ghensi this week at the Opéra Comique.
21Van Dyck has been twice obliged to renounce the rôle of Tannhäuser. On the first occasion the audience whistled and expressed much discontent, but Saléza, who replaced the favorite, sang so very well that he was applauded to the roof before the end of the first act. Van Dyck's voice shows evident fatigue that at times is falsehood to the key. No human being can bulge the voice so incessantly and not ruin it. Patti was just right and very sensible to let Wagner alone. I should think singers would see that the music wizard was only laughing at them and wanted to ruin them. He hated singers, and he has done well.
23The début is announced of a young society lady as singer of the old chansons of the eighteenth century. It seems as if these fresh, sweet musical old things might take the place of the café concert stuff.
25In the subscription for the Delibes monument a total of 7,000 francs has been reached. M. Hengel, the music editor, gave 1,000 francs, likewise a civil engineer, M. Landry. I wonder what impulse led an engineer to give a sum to the erection of a monument to a musical composer. Perhaps a sweetheart loved the Sylph Dance.
27M. Hardy-Thé, who was such a success as parlor balladist in London last season, sang at a big concert given here for hospital benefit by the Count Rochard, who by the way is a remarkable flutist.
29Sixteen pupils of the Conservatoire have been chosen to try for Opéra Comique examinations. You notice how they have examinations for examinations all the time.
31The Opéra House direction has already commenced study for the series of ten concerts to be given in November in the interest of young composers. Four composers will be played at each of the concerts, and each concert will be repeated. The cantata which gains the Prix de Rome this year will be among the works. Composers of to-day have less to complain of than the public.
33Among the "Questions and Answers" in the Figaro this week is asked what is the piece of instrumental music most difficult of execution. We look with curiosity for the response.
35One of the most devoted Polish officers of Napoleon was Gen. Paul Jerzmanowski. He was one of the faithful who followed the emperor to Elba and returned with him to France. A nephew of his, educated in the French school of artillery and officer in 1870, writes from New York authorizing a sum for the fund to raise a monument to Chopin at Paris. He writes a beautiful letter, urging the fitness of the testimonial to a musician who in his works so personified the soul of Poland in France.
37Miss Minnie Tracey, the young American singer who has been engaged in the Egyptian opera at Cairo the past season, has closed her season there and is replaced by a Mme. Lematte-Schwayer, who has had success at Toulouse. The tenor Massart has been re-engaged there by demand of the citizens.
39Thamara, an opera by Bourgault-Ducoudray, will be given at the Opéra here this season. Heglon will create the title rôle.
41M. and Mme. Massenet have left Paris for a short trip to Savoy. The students are all leaving for London. Among those already gone are the Misses Della Rogers, Ada Crossley, Emilie Wood and Mr. Byard. Misses Sandmeyer and Mason expect to rest in Switzerland.
43FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
45Singing Renovated by Science.
47At a time when self-styled masters of singing are trying more than ever to display their ignorance to the public; when the exhibition of most fantastical theories has reached its extreme limit; when cupidity or aberration produces books that seem to have been inspired by brains worthy of an inmate of a lunatic asylum, and when the most inept present as lights of teaching those who have been but coarse nullities, it is a great consolation for the mind of an artist to find evidence that goes to show us that common sense has not yet entirely emigrated from the brains of lyric artists. I refer to a pamphlet published, under the title that appears as the heading of this article, from the pen of an eminent artist who has for a long time shown his superiority in the interpretation of the lyric repertory. Although it teaches nothing new to the restricted number who follow step by step the progress of physiological sciences relating to the problem of the singing voice, they contain enough positive doctrine to accord to their author, Victor Maurel, a place of honor among those who are trying to hasten the progress which the vocal art of the future is destined to make.
49No one, perhaps, is better prepared than myself to uphold the doctrine of which Mr. Maurel has become an apostle, for the reason that I have preached and practiced it with success for nearly thirty years. Again, our identity of ideas and principles is such that I should have been inclined to accuse the great artist of plagiarism had he been acquainted with the manuscript I have been preparing for publication for some time past. All these circumstances give me double pleasure in rendering a public tribute of sympathy to the author of the pamphlet, Le Chant Rénové par la Science, he being the only original artist I have found on the operatic stage for forty years, and one whose head is not filled with stupid traditions.
51His undeniable authority is of great value for the future of the modern vocal school, whose foundations consist in the application of the principles of acoustics and physiology to the teaching of the technical part of singing. Those who, without other reason than their obtuse criterion, deny the necessity of the intervention of science in vocal teaching, have only to read Victor Maurel's pamphlet, the success of which would have been far greater had it not been addressed to the most ignorant of all professions and the one which does the least to throw off its inveterate ignorance.
53I know the arguments made by those who, to combat the doctrines defended by the great artist, refer to his own voice; but these arguments only sustain his doctrines, for he was taught by the empirical and routine methods that he condemns and of which he is one of the innumerable and most regrettable victims. It was only when he perceived that he had been misled by a false route from the beginning that he opened his eyes to the light, and this light, although perceived, perhaps, a little late, still permitted him to reach the twenty-third year of his triumphal career. And even if he has not profited by the doctrine that he preaches, does it prove his doctrine false? No, a thousand times no! because it is to this science, through the help of which he tries to renovate singing, that we owe the knowledge of the mechanism of the phenomena and the laws of the singing voice, without which a true method for vocal education, nor consequently the art of singing, cannot exist. The empiricists, the followers of routine and the inventors of special methods, can continue their senseless chattering, smothering themselves with the incense they burn before the altars they raise to the celebrated nullities who have done nothing else than retard the era of vocal regeneration. We, guided by the light of science that illumines our century, will continue our work of renovating singing until we make it a true art.
55Our task is a laborious one, we know it well, but having faith, courage and reason on our side, we are sure of our victory. Then we can cry: Down with charlatans and mystifiers; give place to truth; honor to science!
57EMILIO BELARI.
59NEW YORK, June, 1895.
61Mayerhofer Retires.—The well-known basso Mayerhofer, the oldest member of the Vienna Opera House, recently sang at his "farewell" after a career of over forty years. During all this time Mayerhofer proved himself a valuable member, having a voice of rare beauty and great dramatic talent. He sang in his youth at London.
63Madame Stella Brazzi.
65It is a pleasure to record the immediate and genuine success of Mme. Stella Brazzi in her début at Covent Garden in the part of Siebel recently, and since that favorable introduction to the London public, which is said to be among the most critical in the world, she has continued to grow in popularity, having appeared in this part some three times since. On the last occasion the recognition of her work was very marked; both in her principal solo and in her part of the duet with Mme. Melba she won most hearty applause, and in the former a recall.
67Mme. Brazzi's voice, which is a rich contralto, with a full, high register, filled the opera house perfectly. This, added to her excellent method of production and fine stage presence, impressed her hearers from the beginning with the fact that she is an artist of the first rank, and we may look forward to Mme. Brazzi's taking a high position among contemporary vocalists of to-day. The earnestness and certainty of purpose that characterize her work speak well for her future prospects.
69It was these qualities which won for her such pronounced success in the opera season at Nice during the past winter, referred to several times in these columns. Many persons are anxious to hear her in some of the more important rôles in which she won fame on the sunny shores of France, where she sang in Lohengrin, Samson and Dalila, Herodiade, Sigurd, Le Prophète, Il Trovatore and Hamlet. So great was her success in Nice that Sir Augustus Harris, hearing of it, journeyed thither, and made Mme. Brazzi a proposition to sing at Covent Garden on her own terms. Several impresarii likewise tried to induce her to sing in other parts of the Continent; for instance, a handsome offer was made her to go to St. Petersburg, but Mme. Brazzi fulfilled her engagement at Nice to the manifest satisfaction of the management there, and very wisely came to the great centre of the world to further establish herself as an operatic favorite. Mme. Brazzi did not make her début in opera until she was fully prepared for it, and thus her success was assured. Her French was highly commented upon in Nice, and certainly it is very fine, thus enabling her to give distinction to the French versions of the works which she interprets. The public is looking forward with much anticipation to her appearance here in Bruneau's L'Attaque du Moulin, more about which will be seen in these columns later on.
71Mme. Brazzi was Miss Harriet Brazor, of Brattleboro, Vt. Before coming abroad she married Mr. E. R. Pratt, of her native town, and during their three years' residence in Paris, besides perfecting herself in French diction, she learned the contralto rôles of some twenty-five operas, and is thus well equipped for her career. Here are a few remarks which appeared in the press in connection with her début, when she was associated with such operatic stars as Mme. Melba, M. Alvarez and M. Plançon.
73The début of Mme. Stella Brazzi in the rôle of Siebel was crowned with a real success; the talent of this charming artist, her voice, her method and her carriage on the stage were very quickly appreciated by the subscribers of Covent Garden.—Le Monde Artisté (Paris) London Correspondent.
75Mme. Brazzi comes to us with a reputation legitimately gained in several large theatres on the Continent. She made a very happy début in the rôle of Siebel, which classed her at once as an artist destined to take an important place at Covent Garden. She possesses a very rich mezzo soprano voice that she controls and uses with great facility, and is, besides, an excellent artist; but it is necessary to see her in a more important rôle in order to fully appreciate all her qualities.—L'Europe Artisté (Paris) London Correspondent.
77A very interesting Siebel is Mme. Brazzi, a new and welcome acquisition of Sir Augustus Harris'; at last we have in this charming American lady—yet another!—a typical Siebel, borish, young, graceful and brulant les planches; not that there was any exuberance of business in Mlle. Brazzi, on the contrary, but the lady seems perfectly at home on the stage, wears her costume with singular elegance, and last, not least, she has a fine voice which she uses very well. Could not Mme. Brazzi sing Fides and Azucena just to give Orfeo the chance of seeing Eurydice?—Sporting and Dramatic News.
79Mme. Brazzi raised the part of Siebel from its usually uninteresting level by singing sweetly and acting with no little effect.—The People.
81The part of Siebel served to introduce Mme. Stella Brazzi, whose Italian stage name must not, for the honor of the States, obscure her American origin. Merely remarking that the newcomer made a creditable début we await the further development of her art.—Daily Telegraph.
83An interesting début was made by Mme. Brazzi in the part of Siebel. This lady, who is of American nationality, has an effective mezzo soprano voice, a good method and also acts with intelligence and charm.—Morning Advertiser.
85A newcomer, Mme. Brazzi, made her début as Siebel, but her unquestionably good voice will be heard to greater advantage in more dramatic rôles.—The Star.
87Rome.—The city authorities of Rome have granted a yearly subsidy to the Teatro Argentine of 70,000 lire, on condition that it will present sixteen operas during September and October, and during the carnival and Lenten season forty-eight operas. The royal private treasury adds to this subsidy 30,000 lire.
89Weingartner.—The Prince Regent of Bavaria has consented to cancel the engagement with the Prussian Court Kapellmeister Felix Weingartner, which had been made for the Munich Court Theatre. This settles a much discussed question, and Berlin will now be assured of Weingartner's activity in musical matters.
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