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Musical Courier 1898-10-17: Vol 37 Iss 971, 1898
70 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1and under such circumstances it is hard to judge. On the whole, after I had left the theatre, pleasing as much of the music is, and interesting also, I could not help wondering how it was that the "Goti" ever became as popular as it did in the seventies!
3There have been extensive celebrations at the old city of Brescia this summer, in honor of the unveiling of a monument to the great painter Alessandro Bonvicino, called Il Moretto, of that city, born 1498, died 1554. At the exposition held there, and devoted to the various branches of past and present art, were most interesting collections of musical instruments of the various old makers of Cremona—Lodi, Bugamo, &c.—the most famous violin makers the world has ever known.
5Among the instruments by Brescian makers were a "viola da braccio" of the sixteenth century, an old mandolin, a viola and violoncello "da gamba," by Gasparo, of Salo; two contrabassos, by Maggioni; a violin, by Rondani.
7Of the Cremona school, a violin and violoncello, by Amati; a violin of Stonini; a violin and 'cello, by Ruggeri, called "Il Per"; a violin by Giuseppe Conti, and one by Carlo Testosi, a violin by Guarneri, &c.
9Added to this splendid collection of instruments was an equally interesting one of autographs, comprising letters from the violinists Rolla, Sainton, Paganini, Rovelli, Vieuxtemps, Bottesini (contrabassist and composer), and of the composers Apollini, Auber, Asiola, Beethoven, Bellini, Berlioz, Bizet, Cherubini, Donizetti, Gounod, Franz Liszt, Haydn, Mayer, Massenet, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Offenbach, Pacini, Paisiello, Ricci, Rossini, Rubinstein, R. Schumann, Spontini, Strauss, Verdi, Wagner, Weber, &c.
11Two letters of Verdi, in which he mentions an opera of his own, "Rochester," which is not mentioned by any of his biographers, and a very characteristic and short epistle of Nic. Paganini, are very interesting. I unfortunately have left my copy of them at Florence, but will try and print them entire in my next correspondence.
13Don Lorenzo Perosi was invited to direct a performance of his "Raising of Lazarus," and brought with him from Venice the same orchestra and staff of artists which assisted at the opening performance of the oratorio last July. The performance at Brescia was attended by 4,000 listeners, and the success which followed was a repetition of the one at Venice.
15I will not dwell further on this beautiful work, as I have already given a full description of it and its counterpart, "The Transfiguration of Our Lord," in my letter of last July.
17Don Perosi has been asked to direct several performances of these works at Bologna—and we shall undoubtedly hear them at Milan, Florence and Rome during the coming year.
19The season of opera at the Lirico Theatre, at Milan, opens on October 22 with the first performance of Umberto Giordano's new music drama "Fedora," words by Arturo Colantini, adapted from V. Sardou's play. Many of your readers will remember the success with which the young composer's "Andrea Chenier" met two years ago, and undoubtedly we will have a more mature and polished work in "Fedora," adapted as the subject is to the peculiar bent of the composer's undoubted talent.
21Four more novelties are also down on the list—De Naridis' "Stella" and Giannotti's "Violin Maker of Cremona"; Cilea's "L'Arlesiana" and Anzoletti's "La Fini di Mozart." The title of the last sounds interesting. Bizet's "Fair Maid of Perth" and Leoncavallo's little spoken of setting of "La Bohème" end the list.
23I have never yet heard the last mentioned work, which was given at Venice for the first time last year, but which does not seem to have met with the success expected.
25The staff of singers at the Lirico seems a good strong one, comprising as it does Santarelli, Sorel, Timroth, Rolla and Manfredi among the sopranos; Quiroli and Paroli, tenors; Pignataro, Aristi, Maggolani, Wigley, Schlesinger, Brancaleoni and Frigotti for basses and baritones.
27Several of these names are new to the generality of the public here, while others are well known.
29Giordano's "Fedora" is also promised at the Carlo Felice Theatre, at Genoa, during the winter, and will probably be given at Rome as well.
31The Neapolitan, Nicholas van Westerhout, one of the most gifted composers Italy has possessed of late years, died, at an early age, last month. He is chiefly known to fame through his opera "Cymbeline," based on Shakespeare's play of that name, and the well-known "Ronde d'Amour." His deeper and greater works, such as his symphonies, especially the one dedicated to Brahms, his chamber music, songs and piano pieces are, strange to say, almost unknown to the majority of musicians, though the great merits of many of his compositions have been recognized of late years by the chosen few, and his name had already begun to appear more frequently on concert programs, &c., when he died. The inhabitants of Bari seem to have been his most appreciative admirers, for two years ago a new theatre was built in that flourishing little city, named after the young composer and inaugurated by a performance of his last opera. In his death the modern Italian school of composers loses one of its most gifted and earnest members in the field of instrumental composition.
33Verdi's latest church compositions, which were given a first hearing at Paris last spring, are to be given at Rome during the course of the winter, and there are some slight possibilities of the composer's presence in that city as well. It is rumored that the grand old master is still working over a music drama on Shakespeare's "King Lear." Although these notices are not positively confirmed, there is undoubtedly an underlying current of truth in them, especially as Verdi's health has rather improved during the last few months, and he seems to have, in a way, recovered from the low physical state in which the shock of his wife's death left him for so long a while. He has regularly adopted Milan as the home of his old age.
35It is quite probable that he will be decorated with the Collar of the Annunziata during this winter. This decoration is one of the highest distinctions that can be conferred in Italy, and, had it not been for certain official difficulties, it would probably have been Verdi's long ago. Italy will have to look very far to find one more worthy to wear it.
37Here at Luna, Puccini's "La Bohème" has scored still another triumph. It was given for the first time in this city last month, at the famous old Teatro dei Rozzi, and, needless to say, had a long run and a great success.
39Everyone in Italy, at least every musician in Italy, is anxiously waiting for the first performance of Maestro Puccini's "La Tosca," and, if I err not in my prophesies, they will not be disappointed. As yet, it is not definitely decided as to which city will witness the first performance of the work. Very probably Rome.
41If the promises held out by the various operatic managers hold good, the Eternal City will have almost a surfeit of opera during the coming season.
43On the 20th of October the Teatro Quirino opens with a good list of operas; then comes that usually interesting and well-given series at the Costanzi, by far the finest theatre in Rome, during November, December and January; then the regular season of grand opera at the Argentina. This last really promises to be a season that will bring back the old glories of the Apollo Theatre, in the sixties and seventies. Besides several novelties, Goldmark's "Queen of Sheba" and Wagner's splendid "Meistersinger" are down on the prospectus. This speaks well for the love of German music in Italy.
45In addition to this abundance of dramatic music, there is the season of opera at the Nazionale and at the new and spacious Politeama Adriana, and to end with the spring performances at the Costanzi. It is to be sincerely hoped that the quality will be equal to the quantity this year.
47The indignation of the public at some of the failures of last year at the Argentina seems to have had some effect at last on the impresariat of that theatre, who have evidently decided to make an effort to regain the honors that have been lost during the last few seasons.
49As to instrumental music, no programs have as yet been issued by the various societies, but there is no reason to believe but that the standard of the last three years will be kept up to its mark.
51F. M. P.
53"Apathetic Louisville."
55Louisville, Ky., October 1, 1898.
57YES, if you please, this is poor, old, "apathetic Louisville," the home of "fine whiskey, pretty women and a few stubborn 'musical' egotists." It is that dear old place where "baseball and braying brass bands are sublime," and where bad beer and salty pretzels would shape the musical destiny of an "apathetic" people.
59We are not slow in anything but music. If, however, we had a better representation in Lakeland Asylum there would at least gleam a faint ray of hope that we could soon catch up with the procession and occupy a respectable position among other cities of our size and importance. It pains us to make such a frank acknowledgment, but the responsibility must and shall rest where it justly belongs. It is not the lack of talent—far from it—that such a condition exists—as to our musical affairs, but it is the variety that we possess—that class with the brand of self-importance blown in the bottle to show its superiority (?) of manufacture.
61Bah! When we think of it we feel like throwing up our hands in holy horror and asking a poor suffering "ignorant" public for a contribution for the purpose of exporting an overstock of our spurious incapables to a climate more congenial to their nature, where they could indulge in the construction of long Spanish sentences from superfluous adjectives and meaningless phrases to the delight of their own imagination, without inflicting them upon an "apathetic" people whose "ideals are not so lofty" as to interpret their meaning.
63There are a few people here who know the difference between good music and music that is not good; but how to adopt the "lofty ideals" of some of our recently acquired citizenship is yet a mystery unsolved.
65The readers of The Musical Courier here well know that our position in the musical world cannot, and should not, be attributed to any lack of interest on the part of our enterprising citizens, as has been charged by some. The writer is a part of that business element, and not a musician in any sense of the term; but, if facts are facts, he does not hesitate to express them. The fact is that every musical feature of any prominence gotten up by local talent in the past fifteen years has emanated from the "counter-hoppers," "dilettantes," "axe grinders" and "frauds," as some have seen fit, or unfit, to term them.
67So successful have their efforts been, even in the face of hostile opposition on the part of some selfish representatives of the "sacredly" professional element, that they now command the confidence and support of the public in any musical enterprise they undertake. They have been so earnest and persistent in their efforts that they have enlisted the assistance of a few of our most successful members of the profession.
69That this class—even though their work has been im-
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