Books › Musical Courier 1907-11-20: Vol 55 Iss 21, 1907 › scan 12
Scan 12
Musical Courier 1907-11-20: Vol 55 Iss 21, 1907
25 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 13. See the scan on archive.org.
1Rosa Company would not permit of his accepting any other engagement for the autumn. But when the Carl Rosa company comes to Covent Garden Mr. Wheatley will sing the principal part in a new production of "Esmeralda" that will be given. Last August Mr. Wheatley sang in a new opera that was given at Lugano, Italy, and made such a big success that he has been asked to accept some engagements at La Scala, Milan.
3Madame Kaloola Atherton, an American who formerly resided in Maine and who has sung at some of the Maine Music Festivals, made her first appearance in London on Monday evening. Her program was of great interest and she received much encouragement from her audience, who enjoyed her singing, testifying to their appreciation by loud and prolonged applause. Madame Atherton has a high soprano voice, of pure quality and has been heard in concerts both in America and Germany, her appearance in Berlin having been as successful as those in her own country. Immediately after the recital Madame Atherton was engaged for an appearance in December and will be heard at a number of recitals during the winter. An American composer, William R. Chapman, was represented on her program by his song, "Absence."
5An American who has been living in Paris for some time, and has also appeared in opera on the continent, Alys Lorraine, gave a recital last evening. Included in her program were three songs by Grieg, which the composer specially selected for her during her stay at his residence in Christiania last winter.
7The first concert of the London Symphony Orchestra, with Dr. Richter conducting, was one of the events of the week. Taking place in Queen's Hall, there was an audience which filled that spacious auditorium almost to overflowing. And the audience was one that liked and appreciated the fine program presented. First came the Mozart "Prague" symphony, then the "Siegfried Idyll," followed by Tschaikowsky's overture to "Romeo and Juliet." A short intermission was taken, and then Brahms' symphony in D was played. And it was listened to in absorbed silence by that great audience, with much applause for conductor and players at the end.
9The Duke of Connaught, who is the president of the Strolling Players' Amateur Orchestral Society, has intimated his intention of being present this evening at their first concert this season.
11The Royal Choral Society opened its thirty-seventh season last week, as usual, with a performance of "Elijah." Dalton Baker sang the part of "Elijah," and added another to the many successes he has made in that oratorio. He is a young man with a fine baritone voice which he uses artistically, and it is a pleasure to hear him sing the beautiful music allotted to the part of Elijah.
13The service of the steamboats of the London County Council, that for several summers have run up and down the Thames to Hampton Court and Greenwich, has been discontinued, probably not to be resumed in the future, as there has been much financial loss. In connection with this, Charles Manners, of the Moody-Manners English Opera Company, has written the following letter to the Sunday Times. In further explanation it may be said that Mr. Manners is one of the warmest supporters of the proposition for a national opera house, the performance to be given in English, and the prices to be within the reach of the people.
15Sir—I see in your paper that the L. C. C. fleet end indefinitely (?) today. The first day it was inaugurated I wrote to the Press, and it was extensively printed, prophesying (it was an easy prophesy) that it would be a failure, and that it was a pity that the money was not put to grand opera in English. We can now roughly estimate what good the advice, if taken, would have been. A national opera house in London could have been built for half a million, £10,000 a year placed in the Funds for pensions, and the rest of the capital would have paid for a hundred people every night to see grand opera for nothing. In addition to this there would have been £100,000 a year spent in the highest of all arts, although it is still considered the lowest in this country. I do not suppose you will take the trouble to print this; still, notwithstanding, I feel it my duty to go on hammering at the subject.
17Yours, etc., CHARLES MANNERS.
18Opera House, Middlesbrough, October 31.
20Some other of the concerts were: Joan Kirk, her first vocal recital, assisted by Sigmund Beel; London Choral Society in Berlioz's "Faust"; a violin recital by Oscar Back, an Austrian, who has studied in Brussels with Cesar Thomson. He was assisted by Edith Clegg, and Charlton Keith accompanied; a recital by the young violinist, Joska Szigeti, at which Mrs. Fischer Sobell played numbers by Scarlatti, Mendelssohn and Chopin; the second of the Thursday Twelve O'Clocks, with an interesting program; the Sunday afternoon concert at Albert Hall, Dr. Cowen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, with Julia Culp and Bisoni as soloists; Julia Culp in a farewell recital; the first of the thirteenth series of the Barns-Phillips chamber concerts; Minnie Orr in a vocal recital; Ada Thomas, Thomas F. Morris and Emil Krall in the first of the three chamber concerts they will give before the end of November. Agnes Witting in a fine program of Italian, French, German and English songs, in which she made an immediate success.
22A. T. KING.
24Cosima Wagner continues to claim most energetically the exclusive right to present "Parsifal." The Austrian Society of Authors and Composers had planned, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of its founding, to perform (November 17) the third act of "Parsifal," with the co-operation of two well known artistic associations, the Philharmonic Society and the Vienna Männergesang Verein. The society had to abandon this project, Madame Wagner refusing her consent even for the performance of a fraction of the work which Wagner bequeathed to Bayreuth. The Konzert Verein, of Vienna, which had recently made a similar request to Cosima Wagner, received a like refusal.
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