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Musical Courier 1897-09-15: Vol 35 Iss 915, 1897
85 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1career, hers could not fail to be a path of roses. Our sincere and best wishes to her. (Translated from Stafile, Dramatic and Art Journal, Florence, Italy.)
3Miss Anna Metcalf, a charming American, who has been here studying the art of singing under Maestro Vannini, showed ample proof of her advantages, revealing skillfully a voice at once beautiful and robust. Her method, style and expression were admirable in Forza del Destino, of Verdi; Chant Hindoo, of Bemberg, and Non ti Ricordi, of Vannini, written expressly for her; all winning the liveliest expressions of applause on the part of the numerous and select audience.—The Fieramosca, of Florence.
5Miss Anna Metcalf, an American (no one, however, would say so from her beautiful diction, purely Italian), delighted the audience with various numbers, among which was a romanza, Non ti Ricordi, of Maestro Vannini, of whom she is a pupil. She has acquired a beautiful method of singing, which won her great applause and many flowers.—The Conte Verdi, journal of the aristocracy, Florence.
7Miss Anna V. Metcalf, a handsome brunette, of splendid figure, delighted the audience with the air Pace mio Die, of Verdi. Incessant applause greeted the finish of the clever artist, who to a full sympathetic voice unites an excellent method. Miss Metcalf is a pupil of Vinnini, well known in Italy and abroad.—The Fanfulla Journal, Rome, Italy.
9Miss Anna Metcalf proved herself a graceful and artistic singer; the several soprano recitatives were rendered by her magnificently, evoking great applause. She also p'ased greatly in the air Jerusalem, Thou That Killest the Prophets, and the ariso I Will Sing of Thy Great Mercies, for both of which a flattering acknowledgment of approval was made.—London Echo.
11Miss Metcalf sang most effectively her renderings of the air, Jerusalem, Thou That Killest the Prophets, I Will Sing of Thy Great Mercies, and the various recitatives with which the work abounds, calling forth loud applause.—Tottenham (London) Herald.
13Miss Anna Metcalf sang with sweetness and good expression, her efforts gaining for her golden opinions. Among her more noteworthy items were the airs Jerusalem, Thou that Killest the Prophets and I Will Sing of Thy Great Mercies.—London Chronicle.
15The soloists (in a performance of Mendelssohn's Athalie) included Miss Anna Metcalf as first soprano. She sang well and greatly pleased her audience. She especially distinguished herself in the first part with a really beautiful and highly finished rendering of Gounod's Tell Me, Beautiful Maiden.—London Standard.
17Miss Anna Metcalf in the first part enchanted her hearers with Gounod's barcarolle Tell Me, Beautiful Maiden, and sang with much charm throughout the excellent performance of Athalie.—Westminster Times.
19New York College of Music.—The present season at the New York College of Music makes the tenth year of its existence under the direction of Alexander Lambert. As evidence of the work being done, a large orchestral concert will be given in October in Carnegie Music Hall, at which only pupils of the college will appear as soloists.
21Music at Richfield Springs.—The successful concerts which were such a feature of the life at the Spring House earlier in the season have been continued at the Hotel Erlington.
23During the last two weeks the artists appearing have been Mrs. Grenville Snelling, Mr. Purdon Robinson and the Park Sisters, assisted by the admirable orchestra of the house. Mr. Robinson has been the principal organizer of these concerts, and to his enterprise and ability is largely due their success. Mrs. Snelling, particularly, made a decided hit with her French and German songs, to say nothing of her numerous English ballads, which were charmingly presented. A long residence abroad as a child in both France and Germany has given Mrs. Snelling a thorough command of not only the language of these two countries, but also of esprit of their music. This makes it a genuine pleasure to hear her interpretation of these chansons and lieder.
25JULIUS KLAUSER,
26Berlin, Germany.
27SEASON 1897-98.
28Care THE MUSICAL COURIER, Link Str. 17, W.
30SOUSA
31AND HIS BAND,
32after touring 21,000 miles, now
33At Home: MANHATTAN BEACH.
34PITTSBURG EXPOSITION:
35… Week of October 11.
36BOSTON FOOD FAIR:
37… Week of October 26.
39Miss Emma Mueller,
40CONTRALTO.
41Oratorio, Concert, Recitals and Musicales.
42For Terms and Dates address
43155 West 49th Street, New York City, or Leading Musical Agents.
45CARL
46IN EUROPE.
47Returns September 23.
48Tour now being arranged.
49ADDRESS:
50MANAGER, 9 West 22d Street, New York.
52Lewis Williams
53BARITONE.
54R. E. Johnston & Co., Managers,
55Fourth Avenue and 18th Street, or
56205 West 102d Street, New York.
58VIENNA OFFICE THE MUSICAL COURIER,
59Vöslau, Flora Strasse 141, Villa Belvedere.
60August 25, 1897.
62AS I was in Vienna yesterday I came back with quite a budget of live news for THE MUSICAL COURIER.
64The opera season began here early in August, and since then Wagner and the Niebelungen Ring have been in full sway at the Court Opera House, for you must understand that our new director is a man of fiery zeal, and the Wagner cult seems to prosper and multiply in the hands of the scholarly Mahler. Last night the trilogy was opened with The Rheingold. The play was given a new study and preparation and with every attention to the musical details. For the first time here I understand the Bayreuth precedent was followed and The Rheingold was given without entr'acte.
66Director Mahler showed his ability at once in the first scene of the rolling, flowing Rhine and the song of the Rhinedaughters, when, for the first time in my life, I heard the song without any over-pouring of the subaqueous accompaniment. For the first time in Vienna I really enjoyed the song of the Rhinedaughters, so finely modulated, so "klingend," and so exactly and perfectly given, showing the result of much unwearied effort and unsparring diligence and zeal.
68No matter what climaxes of passion or elemental forces Mahler summons in his orchestra, he knows how at the right moment to dismiss them, so to speak, and to give the full right of the floor to the singers; and in accord with the great poet-composer, he keeps his Niebelung orchestra in the mystic background. Never was a more thrilling effect produced than by the modulation to A flat and the remarkably strong sostenuto of the pedal point, the long tone sounding more prolonged and sonorous than ever before.
70But I could consume volumes in expatiating upon the qualities of Mahler as a Wagnerian director—a pity that such a man cannot have better support, but we are thankful that such a performance has been given in Vienna, the "only musical German city," as Wagner then spoke of it in his talks with Frau Wille.
72Your Raconteur's account of King Ludwig and the Duchess Sophie recalls many a story here of the romantic young prince whose life "so beautiful, intellectual, sympathetic and delightful" Wagner feared "must fade away like a dream in this common world," and of whom I must always think, whenever I attend a Wagner performance, as of the great debt we owe to the ardent first love of the young king, and who so unexpectedly fulfilled this prophetic utterance of Wagner's, as all must who are at all like him. There is no place in the common world of to-day for lofty idealism, romantic attachments and noble intellectuality. It may, I grant you, have once existed in Greece, but the folk of to-day are of coarser fibre, formed in a coarser mold and live on commoner soil. Little wonder, thy spirit, O lovely Ludwig! could not brook its surroundings, broke away and fled!
74Excepting Ritter, Grengg and Fri. Pahluer, there was no adequate support in The Rheingold—no Wagnerian voices, nor but little Wagner material in the Vienna Hofopera, now that Sedlmair is guesting, to stand at the right hand of a man like Mahler and be an Aarons Huss to him, so to speak. Great is the discontent generally expressed in Vienna, and many are the conjectures afloat as to what will happen next in the direction of the Court Opera.
76They appear to be determined to retain all their poor material and dismiss or allow to depart the best voices among woman artists. l'aradoxical as it seems, though, Vienna is not contented with her own Austrian artists—Germany, i.e., the people—will have no others but Christians, at least until now. The protest and petition made by German leaders in the musical world looks as if the discontent in Vienna was spreading and German patriotism being aroused, so that soon Austrian artists will be ousted from their foreign positions and will have to look homeward for new ones. I have spoken before of the dearth of large voices in our Vienna Court Theatre. Mark is reported to have failed entirely, twice having to leave her position to recruit her broken forces in Abbazia. Renard is charming only in roles of special genre. Schlager has been dismissed.
78Emma Telepza has resigned. Director Jahn found her in Dresden—a truly brilliant acquisition she appeared to me, and I was delighted with her art and acting, her brilliant coloratura and her great personal beauty. But the report is that she did not find here the musical circle she had hoped for. Besides that, I fear there is much jealousy and intrigue going on behind the scenes, if all I hear can be trusted. Report has it that "protection" is all powerful in the Court Opera direction; then Jahn is very objectionable to many on some accounts. I know a fine singer who will not accept a position so long as Jahn is director. So much for gossip, and, on dit, I do not vouch for the truth of any of it.
80But I do dare to say that things have come to a bad pass indeed when an artist cannot retain her respectability and become a singer at the same time in an opera, however much she may wish to. It is not told in Gath, nor whispered even in Askalon, but all the world knows that the state of things long since existing in France has spread through Germany and other countries, and the very name of opera singers, divas, prima donna, star, carries a taint and a scandal along with it.
82One of the first requisites in Vienna for the success of an operatic singer is a liaison with some count or baron or prince and then it is assured. An opera house is Turkey en miniature; and it is a well-known fact that no young girl can make her way on the operatic or theatrical stage and carry out her natural wishes to be an honest, respectable girl without incurring the hostility and intrigue of those whom she rejects, and her final dismissal from the opera house where she is engaged, as well as the probable failure of her career at its very outstart.
84Thus is art, which is divine in itself, degraded, and the whole world sits still, looks on approvingly and no one lifts a voice against this debasement. O Art, how long! how
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