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Musical Courier 1926-07-08: Vol 93 Iss 2, 1926
62 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE 1925-26 OPERA SEASON IN MOSCOW
3MOSCOW.—The musical season is nearly at an end. It is time to give an account of what has been done in our opera houses. First of all we have to mention a rising activity at the State Theater, where opera performances take place. Last year F. Chaliapin named it "Our Grand Father" on the occasion of its one-hundredth Jubilee (1825-1925). The same increase in activities may be noted at the Experimental Theater of the State, which had been established as a private opera by S. Jimin many years ago. At present he is manager in charge at the same theater.
5Much has been done in the way of improvement at both theaters by Michael Ippolitoff-Ivanoff, who is musical director there. This venerable man and eminent composer had been for many years director of the Moscow Conservatoire, but at present he gives up his time and knowledge entirely to the opera department, a duty which requires long and varied observations and the wisdom of long training. The orchestra, consisting of selected musicians, plays with zeal and really artistic skill, especially under the baton of T. Suck, who for many years had done his work with great success, gaining the sympathy of his audience.
7Another conductor, Pazovsky, of a fiery temperament, had been invited to Moscow from a far province, Ekaterinbourg, near the Ural Mountains. He brought fresh life into both theaters. Golovanoff, a valuable young conductor, who has finished his studies at the Moscow Conservatoire, proved himself a richly endowed composer of symphonies. A wonderful orchestra with a great number of executants, a cast of good singers, a well chosen repertory of Western and Russian music—this is a guarantee of successful work at these theaters!
9TWO NEW OPERAS
11This season we had two new operas. The Decembrists and Stenka Razin, both corresponding to the revolutionary spirit of the time in Russia. The Decembrists deals with the revolution in 1825 under the Emperor Nicolas I, which ended mournfully for the aristocratic strivers after freedom. They were expelled to Siberia, where they perished on the frozen fields of snow and ice. The composer of this opera, Zolotareff, did not find the real note for such an exciting subject, which requires great expressive strength; but there are several musical periods of beauty. Moussorgsky created a new kind of opera, which he called "musical folk-drama," in which the folk, the people themselves, were the heroes of the play. The subject for this other newly composed opera was entirely fitted for such a kind of style. Trionin, the composer of Stenka Razin, is under the spell of Moussorgsky. The subject of the opera is as follows: Stenka Razin, a strong figure (in the seventeenth century) of the barbarian race, is a revolted peasant, who, with his retainers, masses of robbers, demolish the rich estates of the Boyards along the Volga, killing them and committing every kind of atrocity. At last he is imprisoned and put to death, but becomes the hero of folk-lore. The song on Stenka Razin resounds even today through the fields and woods in Russia.
13Trionin, the composer, is a beginner in the field of opera composition. He is a physician and has his work to do at hospitals, but his musical endowment leads him to another duty. At present he is working intensely with professional musicians. We hope to hear about him in the future. The scenery and decorative matters for both operas are splendid. The repertory of 1925-26 consisted of western operas and Russian ones as well. There were a great number of very good singers for both theaters. We only note the most remarkable.
15NEW SINGERS
17A beautiful basso is Alexander Piragoff, fitted for the Chaliapin roles. His voice has beauty of quality. The placing of emphasis and phrasing are always in the right place. He is a fitting partner in every way, with a deep musical feeling. The roles of Boris Godounoff, Prince Igor and Trilby are splendidly performed. The baritone Golovin is a good singer, too. At present both are invited as guest-singers to Italy.
19There are also numerous singers to fulfill the demands of a great Opera House. We only name the most remarkable of them: Mme. Djoukovskaya, mezzo-soprano, is a wonderful Brunhilda in acting and singing; Mme. Derginovskaya is a very good artist, too, her tones being clean-cut and melodious. Mme. Borissova is a brilliant coloratura.
21THE BALLET
23Great ballet performances had always been given at the Great Theater in Moscow. The repertory is well chosen. Esmeralda and Tschaikowsky's Lake of Swans were the favorites of the audience. Mme. Bank, a young dancer of an artistic kind, begins to gain great fame. S. Vassilenko, the composer of symphonies and other orchestral works, improvised a ballet named The Beautiful Josef; it is very interesting music, fitted for orchestra and dance.
25Russia never stops giving new things in the art of music and dance. —ELLEN VON TIDEBOHL.
27NEW HISTORICAL OPERA CLOSES COPENHAGEN SEASON
29COPENHAGEN.—At the eleventh hour of the season, only a few weeks before the royal theater closed its doors, the management scored a very definite success with the premiere of a new Danish opera, which is based on the life of one of Denmark's most famous personalities, namely Leonora Christina, the unhappy daughter of King Christian IV, who reigned from 1588 to 1648. Only sixteen years old, the princess, who was the king's daughter by his morganatic marriage with the honorable Lady Kirsten Munk, married one of the courtiers and high officials, Corfitz Ulfeldt, in the castle of Frederiksborg, which the king himself had designed and erected at some distance from Copenhagen.
31After the death of his royal father-in-law Ulfeldt's relations with the son and successor of the latter, Frederic III, became more than strained, and he was soon accused of treachery and exiled with his whole family. He was sentenced to death and beheaded—in effigy—in Copenhagen, where a monument of infamy was erected to him in Black Friars' Square.
33Through all these calamities Leonora Christina clung to her husband with the most devoted, faithful love, and accompanied him during his flight through Europe. At last she went to England to seek help and protection from the English king, Charles II, whom Ulfeldt had previously assisted with a loan of money. But the King of England basely deserted his former friends, imprisoned the Danish princess and sent her back to Denmark, where she was confined in the Blue Tower. Here the unhappy woman remained for twenty-two long years.
35Not until after the death of the queen, Sophia Amalie, who hated her sister-in-law, did the king take pity on his half-sister, whose only crime had been loyalty to her consort, and allowed her to spend the remainder of her days in the convent of Marilo on the island of Lolland, one of the southerly and most fertile islands of Denmark. Here Leonora Christina spent thirteen peaceful years and died at a good old age, after having finished her prison diary, entitled Jammersmintet (The Memoir of Misery), which she wrote for her children, and which is one of the most significant human and historical documents of Danish history.
37On the initiative of the composer, Siegfried Salomon, the Danish poet Aage Barfoed used this unusual subject for the libretto of a four-act opera. Of course, an ideal dramatic subject cannot be contained in the events of a life, twenty-two years of which are lived within the dismal walls of a prison. Dr. Barfoed, who is generally recognized as a poet of distinction, shows Leonora Christina on the last evening of her imprisonment, when in a dream she reviews the chief events of her past life. Siegfried Salomon has consciously chosen a primitive mode of musical expression for this work and especially in the first and last acts it is very appropriate. It paints convincingly Leonora Christina's strong fear of God and trust in help from above. But when other moods and situations have to be interpreted, Salomon's simple means are sometimes inadequate.
39The mise-en-scène was rather uneven. The second act, dramatically the Achilles heel of the opera, but musically the most inspired, was decidedly unsuccessful. On the other hand the interior of the Blue Tower in the first and last acts was thoroughly satisfactory. The costuming, after paintings by Zahrtmann, was most effective.
41But what, above all, gave this opera its value was the great prima donna, Tenna Frederiksen. Her illusion both of the young and the old woman was perfect. Her wanton youth in the second act was just as real to us as her purified soul's nobility and quiet resignation in the prison. The whole figure was translucent with inner life and upheld by a dramatic instinct and an intellect equally rare. Tenna Frederiksen's Leonora Christina will for ever remain a landmark in Danish operatic history.
43The part of Corfitz Ulfeldt was equally well played by Albert Hoeberg, with strong and clear lines which never exceeded the bounds of human probability even where the rôle called for the greatest violence. That both the eminent actors vocally mastered their tasks to perfection need hardly be said. More ideal interpretations have not been seen in the royal theater within the memory of man. The smaller parts were in the hands of Ingeborg Steffensen, Max Müller, Paul Wiedemann, Lilly Lamprecht and Aage Fonss, who all filled them in the best possible manner. Georg Hoeberg mastered the score with the superiority expected of such a practised and reliable musician.
45TENNA FREDERIKSEN AND ALBERT HOEBERG in the second act of Leonora Christina. It is a curious fact that both in features and figure, Tenna Frederiksen bears a striking likeness to all the best known portraits of the famous princess.
47A SUCCESSOR TO CHALIAPIN?
49Chaliapin's absence of several years from his native land has led to a search there for a worthy successor. A promising young artist is A. Pirogoff of the Moscow State Theater, who has attained notable success in Chaliapin roles. He is shown persona propia and as (left to right) the Mad Miller in Dargomishsky's Roussalka, as John the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakoff's The Czar's Bride, and as Stenka Razin in Trionin's new opera of that name.
51New Building for Eastman School
53The Eastman School of Music in Rochester is adding a twelve-story building to its premises. The site is on Swan Street, which is in the rear of the main building of the School, and is at present occupied by the power plant of the Eastman School. The new structure will be erected on the foundation of the power plant which was designed originally to support such a building as will be built. The new building will be connected across Swan Street to the main building by bridges on the third and fourth floors, but will have a separate entrance of its own on Swan Street and two elevators giving service to all floors. This building will be of pressed brick with stone trimmings, corresponding to the Eastman School main building. The new building will furnish quarters for the Opera Department of the Eastman School and practice rooms for all students of the school. The twelfth floor will be a gymnasium, equipped in the most modern manner.
55For months the Eastman School's maintenance department has been conducting experiments to determine the best sound-proof construction to be used for the practice rooms of the new building. It is believed that the result of these experiments will insure remarkable convenience for student practicing. The Opera Department will have quarters designed and equipped to meet the needs of its work. The gymnasium will serve for the physical instruction given in connection with the school's curriculum as well as for recreational activities of the students. Gordon & Kaelber of Rochester are the architects and A. W. Hope-man & Sons the contractors; these firms built the Eastman School of Music and Eastman Theater. Also the Eastman School dormitories for women, to which an addition is in the process of erection, will be completed for use in September.
57This new building will greatly facilitate the conduct of the school, which, despite its seeming roominess in 1922, when it was opened, has been taxed the past year in furnishing practice opportunity to its 1800 students.
59Concert in Memory of Elkan Naumburg
61A delightful concert was given on July 4 in Central Park, New York, by an orchestra under the direction of Maximilian Pilzer. This was one of a series of concerts being given during the summer in memory of Elkan Naumburg.
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