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Musical Courier 1928-08-09: Vol 97 Iss 6, 1928
60 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1Richard Crooks Goes Abroad and Sings Himself Into Fame
3To Sing in Europe Until January, When He Returns to Fill Engagements Here
5Reversing the usual order of things, Richard Crooks made his success in America before he went abroad and conquered Europe. It was only last summer that this young American tenor made his European debut, and it was seven years ago that he was first introduced to American concert audiences.
7When young artists are warned that art is long and time is fleeting it is usually the exception that proves the rule, and Richard Crooks seems to be that exception. However, this artist, who is known from coast to coast, has been singing more years than would seem possible, and music has been his daily fare since he was eight years old. That was twenty years ago.
9In spite of his great success, and it has been great, for the past two or three years his date books show over seventy concerts each season, there had been little in print about Richard Crooks. Romantic foreigners of both sexes reach our shores, are greeted with a fanfare of trumpets, and the public prints are full of stories of their successes and life histories. Yet often we are prone to accept our American singers, enjoy their art, and say little about them in print.
11Richard Crooks' career reads like a page from the well known dime novels that he loved to read as a small boy when he had time, but he really had very little time, because when he was eight years old he began to sing in public and has been singing ever since.
13"It never occurred to me that there was any other way of earning a living but singing," he told the writer the other day. "I made money singing from the time I was a small chap, and when shortly after I was married (and worrying a little, I must confess, how two could live as cheaply as one on my salary from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church which had seemed princely before) I was offered a fairly lucrative post with a business house, I never thought of accepting. I realize now that I had tremendous nerve to turn it down, but I could not think of myself doing anything but singing."
15It was shortly after this that Walter Damrosch heard the young tenor, and in the course of that first season as a concert artist Richard Crooks sang nine times as soloist with the New York Symphony. That stamped him immediately, and although the dates were slow in coming, and the fees comparatively small, it was not long before the older tenors began watching the youngster of six-feet-two who was rapidly forging ahead.
17That was in 1922, and since then Crooks has advanced steadily. In 1923 he made his first tour of the far West and was heard with many of the most important musical organizations and symphony orchestras of the country.
19But he was not content, and the summer of 1925 found the young American in Europe where he made his recital debuts in London, Vienna, Munich and Berlin. The Berlin Bord Preussische Kreuzzzeitung wrote at that time that he had "One of the most brilliant tenor voices of our time," while the Vienna Deutsches Volksblatt said: "Richard Crooks, like but few, certainly merits universal recognition."
21American success came the next season, and still more the following, and during the summer of 1927 Crooks returned to Europe to make his operatic debut. In eight days he learned the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca and made his appearance in Hamburg, the first time he had ever acted or set foot upon an opera house stage. A week later he sang the role in Berlin, and of this performance Adolf Weissmann wrote in the Zeitung am Mittag: "I remember
23voice is smooth, flawless in the evenness of its values, the perfection of breathing, and the taste and imagination of his phrasing make every word that issues from his lips supremely satisfying.
25All of which is rather embarrassing to this very modern American.
27"Singers are like other people," he replied to a question; "we have to be more careful perhaps of our health than other people because a cold can put us out of commission much more completely than other professional men and women, and that may make us seem 'queer' to the public. But the average singer today takes his work just as any other person does. It is a job, and so many hours each day go into perfecting and performing it. I am constantly studying songs and roles, and this winter I got half a dozen opera roles under my belt; Faust, Boheme, Butterfly and Magic Flute, all of which I expect to sing in Europe this year, in addition to Tosca in which I made my operatic debut last summer. I have never been self conscious on a concert platform in my life, but the minute I hit the stage in make-up and costume I became aware that I was doing something out of the ordinary, and felt all hands and feet. The theatrical trappings of opera make the singer less arresting, I believe, than the concert stage, where he sinks or swims solely by means of his voice and what he does with it."
29Mr. Crooks' success in opera and concert abroad last summer has resulted in a number of guest performances in opera this season, among them being five scheduled at the National Opera House at Riga.
31Mr. Crooks sailed for Europe on July 31, and will not return to America until after Christmas, according to present plans, for his final recital is now scheduled for December 22 in Amsterdam, and the previous day he will sing a recital in The Hague, following two appearances as guest soloist with the orchestra in each of these cities. Ten concerts dates are listed in Scandinavia, two in Prague, one in Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, five in Holland, and many others, making a total of forty.
33On his return to America, the tenor will make his first appearance of the season in New York on January 3, followed by a recital on February 7 and two performances as soloist with The Society of the Friends of Music on February 10 and 17. During the course of the season the tenor will sing with most of the major symphony orchestras in their home cities, with over fifty other concert and recital appearances definitely scheduled.
35MORE PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHIES
37The Pictorial Biographies of famous musicians published in the MUSICAL COURIER during the past fifteen months were received with great favor.
39The lives and the life works of Beethoven, Brahms, Tschaikowsky, Johann Strauss, Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert have been chronicled by means of rare and interesting pictures, documents and facsimiles, supplemented by brief texts and articles by well-known musical writers.
41There are more to come. Much valuable material has been collected bearing on the lives of Paganini, Richard Wagner, Gluck and others, and is now in process of compilation, with a view of publication in the near future. The exact dates will be announced
43SOON
45Cincinnati Zoo Opera
47(Continued from page 9)
49between the Cardinal and Eleasar was powerful and Sample's rendition of the aria, When First the Heavenly Grace, was one of the beautiful musical gems of the production.
51Die Walküre
53Die Walküre opened with a splendid cast: Forrest Lamont as Siegmund, Vera Curtis as Sieglinde, Herbert Gould as Hunding, Marta Witkowska as Brunhilde, Fred Patton as Wotan, Constance Eberhart as Fricka. The first act, a long drawn out scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, interrupted only by Hunding's entrance after the hunt, was excellently sung by Lamont and Curtis, who scored personal triumphs in this endurance test. The Spring Song was one of Lamont's finest bits of singing this season. Gould as Hunding sang with his accustomed artistry. The dramatic intensity of the rest of the opera is more appreciated by the audience, and Witkowska does nothing so splendidly as Brunhilde, in which the unusual range of her voice comes into full play. Patton was a magnificent Wotan, singing with assurance and in superb voice. Constance Eberhart as Fricka had a role in which her rich voice and imposing appearance came into full play. It is not easy to put on an opera which demands such staging, but in Louis Raybaut, Van Grove has an able assistant. The Valkyries were sung by a group of local talent, most of them pupils of John A. Hoffmann: Idella Banker, Mary Alice Cheney, Violet Summer, Norma Hetsch, Helen Nugent and Lydia Dozier. Constance Eberhart was Waltraute, and Kathryn Sutherlin was Siegrune.
55Kaltenborn Conducts Memorial Concert
57The third of the Central Park concerts in memory of Elkan Naumburg, donator of the band stand in the Mall, was held on the evening of July 31, under the leadership of Franz Kaltenborn, who conducted an orchestra of sixty. The program was appropriately serious in character, containing among other numbers the Funeral March from the Götterdämmerung, the andante from Beethoven's fifth symphony and Schubert's Ave Maria.
59A large assemblage gathered to pay tribute to the deceased music benefactor, and to enjoy the excellent music offered. The popular offerings on the program included a Strauss waltz, led by Mr. Kaltenborn with his violin; as usual in such case, the waltz was enthusiastically received, necessitating an encore. The popular conductor has been engaged to conduct eight concerts in the Mall, beginning August 20 and terminating September 2. Dependent on the weather, the number of concerts will probably be increased.
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