Scan 5
Musical Courier 1896-12-16: Vol 33 Iss 876, 1896
100 lines. Read by computer on 25 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1showed self-restraint and classic repose; thus in Rameau's A minor gavot and variations and in the tedious Beethoven G major rondo, op. 51. (Yes, I wrote tedious, and I am not afraid to say I mean it, too.) Less I liked the Chopin D flat nocturne, but in the 'Tausig D flat dis-arrangement of Schubert's Military March he roused memories of our glorious Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler.
3The audience went wild over the young Pole, and insisted upon no less than three encores, two of which were by Rubinstein (the G minor Barcarolle and the A flat Waltz Caprice), and then he gave us his own quaint but very charming little minuet in C, which is likely to become as popular as that of Paderewski.
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7On Saturday night the Royal Opera House Intendancy gave us the second of the promised novelties of the season, Hector Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini. It is a rather old novelty, having been composed nearly sixty years ago, and yet it is a work so fresh and interesting that it is all the more to be wondered at that it has not long ago conquered the world. And yet so far, and that only in a limited way, it has conquered only Germany, where Berlioz was much earlier recognized and appreciated to his full value than in France, and is so to this day. It is true his Benvenuto Cellini was brought out first at Paris in the fall of 1838, and lived through two meagre repetitions, only to disappear completely from the repertory of the French National Academy of Music. Still less successful was an effort to produce the work in an Italian version at the London Covent Garden. Liszt was the first to try the effect of the French master's music upon a German audience, for he brought out Benvenuto Cellini at Weimar in 1852, and the work was five times repeated there in the same year, which is a significant fact if you consider the size of the grand ducal capital. In the year 1856 Liszt gave two further Weimar performances of Benvenuto Cellini, but after that the opera went to sleep until it was reawakened at Hanover a quarter of a century later by Hans von Bülow. Even then, and although that production caused a great deal of favorable comment throughout Germany, Benvenuto Cellini was not generally taken up by the German opera houses, and fifteen further years had to elapse before the opera was brought out at Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart and Carlruhe. At the last named place, under Mottl's sympathetic and sympathizing guidance, the work was received more favorably, and has been repeated more frequently than anywhere else. Now at last we have had Berlioz's opera, the first one ever given here at the Berlin Royal Opera House, and in the truly great and unqualified success it achieved here I can without immodesty claim a small share, for it was in part due to my advice and urging that the intendency at last gave us Benvenuto Cellini.
9As regards Berlioz's music, it is of his most felicitous kind, and it is wonderful how he, who could not yet have known of the existence of either Tannhäuser or Lohengrin, instinctively tried for the same means of making the orchestra one of the chief factors and vehicle for the conveyance of his meanings in opera. The difference between him and Wagner in this respect, however, was that it seems to have been with Berlioz an instinctive and never quite realized groping after dramatic expression with the aid of the orchestra, and that he could never quite free himself from the conventional forms of the opera as he found them, going in this respect so far as to retain even the old-fashioned coloratura in his Benvenuto Cellini, while Wagner made the orchestra the mainstay of his operas, and later on of his music dramas, in a master mind's self-conscious, purporting style, which was beyond the horizon of his French forerunner. On the whole I believe, and have often expressed the opinion, that Richard Wagner learned not a little from Hector Berlioz.
11Dramatically Benvenuto Cellini is far inferior to its musical contents, and that is probably also one of the main reasons why the opera did not "catch on" more generally. Not that there is not plenty of dramatic motive or action in it, but the book concocted by Messrs. de Wailly and Barbier is not very skillful, and the language of the common opera plot denomination is so poor that not even Peter Cornelius' artful translation could ennable it to any great extent. And yet the plot is drawn from the autobiography of the great Italian master of the Renaissance, and is so interesting that no less an author than Goethe found it worthy of translation into the German language. Scenes, however, which in Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography cover a period of several years, are drawn together for operatic libretto purposes into the space of a few days, nay hours, and thus some incidents, like the killing of Pompeo, do not affect us dramatically or sympathetically. The first act brings a love scene between Teresa Balducci and Benvenuto Cellini, in which Fieramosca joins as an unseen witness and gives an opportunity for a trio which is among the most clever music ever written by anybody. The first half of the second act gives us Cellini's really beautiful love romanza, and a drinking scene with his followers, which is full of life and truth. Ascanio, Cellini's famulus (an alto part), brings gold from the Pope to the ever hard-up artist on the condition that within twenty-four hours the complete the casting of his long promised Perseus statue. The promise is given under oath, and the money is grabbed by a Jewish barroom keeper, who has a short but characteristic and amusing secondary rôle. The second half of this act shows us the Roman carnival and incidentally the planned elopement of Cellini and Teresa, in which frustrated scheme the Bramarbas Pompeo, a friend of Fieramosca, is killed. Cellini barely escapes from the mob with his life, and in the third act we find him, Teresa and Ascanio (the two ladies sing a very beautiful prayer duet), Cardinal Salviati and Balducci in the artist's house, where he is promised forgiveness for murder and the hand of Teresa if he casts the Perseus statue within one hour. His metal, but not his mettle, gives out, and sacrificing all his costly art treasures, which are thrown into the melting furnace, Benvenuto Cellini, before our eyes, successfully casts Perseus, and the curtain falls on happiness and general rejoicing.
13I have not words strong enough in praise of the performance. Weingartner, who is a great Berlioz admirer, almost a Berlioz crank, had studied the work with particular care, and conducted it with supreme mastery. The effect of this upon all concerned was evident in a flawless ensemble and general inspiration on the stage as well as in the orchestra. Krauss' voice, a naturally good tenor, and his fine stage presence, stood him in good stead in the title rôle. Frau Herzog, who gave some excellent coloratura displays in the first act, was simply superb. So was Frau Goetze, with her glorious, rich alto voice as Ascanio. A finer cast all around has not been heard at the opera. Bulsz as Fieramosca, Stammer as Pompeo, Krolop as Balducci, Lieban as the Jewish hostler, and even Moedlinger as Cardinal Salviati, all were as well cast as the statue of Perseus by Cellini, and therefore a finer performance of Berlioz's work could not well be imagined.
15Tetzlaff, in the mise-en-scène, had outdone and did outshine himself. The life and bustle, the natural grouping and display of the masses around the Trajan column in the carnaval scene could not be surpassed. The new scenery, interior court of a tavern, and the Piazza Colonna, were painted by Quaglio, and Cellini's studio and foundry in the Colosseum by Bukacz. Altogether the Ausstattung is gorgeous, and the whole performance worthy of the high artistic standard of the Berlin Royal Opera House.
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19Last night we had at the Philharmonic a concert by Alexander Petschnikoff, the Russian violin virtuoso. I was sorry that not a larger audience was present, but one single fiasco can do an artist more harm than half a dozen successes will do him good with a fickle public.
21Petschnikoff evidently was bent upon annuling the effect of his Beethoven concerto failure, and if this was his sole object I think he succeeded with the press and the greater portion of his public. He played the Saint-Saëns B minor violin concerto, a not very interesting work, with great finesse and musical as well as technical polish. His greatest success, and a performance in which he stands unrivalled, is his playing of the adagio and fugue of Bach's C major sonata for violin, unaccompanied. Greater plasticity, skill and artistic conception I never heard displayed on the fiddle than does Petschnikoff show in this colossally difficult music.
23Tschaikowsky's tender Sérénade Mélancolique in B flat minor and his captivating C major Valse Scherzo were spoiled by a nerve racking, vile, almost beastly, orchestral accompaniment of the Philharmonic orchestra under Professor Mannstaedt. He and his men are growing more careless and more slovenly in their accompaniments from day to day, and it is time that the Berlin press talked as candidly and severely as I am doing in order to stop this nuisance.
25Petschnikoff was loudly cheered and recalled, giving as an encore one of de Beriot's unaccompanied studies.
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29Miss Amalia B. Rippé, the brilliant young American soprano, may be proud of the ovations which were tendered her at last Sunday night's popular concert at the Philharmonie, especially by the soloists of the orchestra. For the young lady a fine future is predicted by musicians, and no less an authority than Manager Hermann Wolff.
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33Court Conductor Joseph Sucher and his artistic mate, Frau Rosa Sucher, are gaining laurels at Budapest, where, although it is his native city, "Pepi" conducted last week for the first time.
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37At the Royal Opera House Herr Fritz Friedrichs will next week appear as guest in his best part of Beckmesser, in Die Meistersinger. In the second week of December we shall have the model performances of the Nibelungen Ring, of which I made announcement in a previous budget, and in which we shall hear the following out of town artists: Ellen Gulbranson, Brünnhilde; Ernestine Heink, Erda; Wilhelm Gruening, Siegfried; Heinrich Vogl, Loge; Karl Perron, Wotan; Fritz Friedrichs, Alberich and Herm. Bachmann, Donner.
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41Beethoven's third symphony is called Eroica, because sinfonia is a feminine word in Italian. Novacek's piano concerto is called eroico, because concerto is of the masculine gender. To speak of a concerto eroica is just as stupid and nonsensical as it would be to speak of a masculine mare or of a female stallion. Why, therefore, the composer or proof-reader should have corrected (?) me into criticising a concerto eroica is past my guessing abilities.
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45W. L. Blumenschein's Paris quotation, "Don't drink the water of Paris until you get used to it!" strongly reminded me of my poor, dear, dead mother, who, when I was a boy, used to say to me, "I won't let you go to the pond with the other boys until you know how to swim!" The consequence was that I never learned the useful natatory art, and would have made but a poor fourth if Frank Stockton had wanted me to complete or change his trio swimming in the Pacific Ocean into a mixed quartet.
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49Kapellmeister Alfred Hertz scored a great triumph at Elberfeld with the first production there of Tristan und Isolde, a few weeks ago. Antonia Mielke (do you remember her?) was the Isolde, and Gudehus (you surely remember him) the Tristan of the occasion.
51Adrienne Osborn (formerly Miss Eisbein, from Buffalo), a member of the Leipsic opera personnel, recently replaced the indisposed Miss Wedekind in a performance of Mignon, at Dresden, and met with a most flattering reception on the part of the audience, as well as the press of the Saxonian capital.
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55I met Willy Burmester fresh from his recent triumphs in Russia, and I spent a few hours with Nikisch, who was on his way to St. Petersburg, where he will conduct a Tschaikowsky program upon the special invitation of State Councilor Tschaikowsky, a brother of the great Russian composer.
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59Likewise I had the pleasure of the company of the Dresden composer, Reinhold Becker, whose one act
61For Open Dates and Terms of
63MARIE BREMA,
64In America after February, 1897.
66AND
67H. PLUNKET GREENE,
68In America after March 20, 1897.
70ADDRESS
71Mr. MORRIS RENO,
72144 West 74th St., New York.
74Marie Parcello
75CONTRALTO,
76CONCERT and ORATORIO
77"Mlle. Parcello sang magnificently."—GALGANI'S MESSENGER (Paris).
78"A voice of pure, rich, vibrant contralto quality—of unusually wide range; an accomplished artist, and a most attractive young artist."—THE MUSICAL COURIER.
79"A voice of unusual power and sweetness. Her style is distinctly dramatic."—BOSTON TIMES.
80"Mlle. Parcello possesses a rare contralto."—BOSTON TIMES.
81"A contralto of wide range and delightful fulness."—AMERICAN REGISTER (Paris).
82"Mlle. Parcello sang with such fervor and breadth of style that she created a profound impression."—LONDON TIMES.
83Address: Studio 1902
84CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK.
86Photo. by Cameron, London.
88ALBERT MILDENBERG, PIANIST.
89GRAHAM REED, BARITONE.
90Concerts and Recitals of Song and Piano.
91Applicants for Tuition address
92STUDIOS: Steinway Hall, New York,
93196 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn.
95CORINNE MOORE-LAWSON,
96SOPRANO.
97MANAGEMENT
98H. M. HIRSCHBERG MUSICAL BUREAU,
9936 West 15th Street, New York.
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