Music and Drama [pp. 348-350]

1874.]
i~USIC AW~ 7711~ r~A3L4.
349
brought out. Italy has shared the enthusiasm,
and St. Petersburg is looking forward to a similar enjoyment early in the spring.
From the superb manner in which Mr.
Stralcosch has brought out "Aids," we may
expect a setting of Wagner's grand musicdrama that will make it a genuine and legitimate musical sensation. In addition to what
~e have yet to expect in opera, including "Ilma di Murska," under the Maretzek management, and Lucca in German opera at the
$tadt Theatre, the four symphony concerts of
the Thomas orchestra, and the Philliarmonics,
guarantee the lovers of music a rich banquet
of sweet sounds. It is to be regretted that the
oratorio societies have been so sluggish and
unfruitful during the winter. There has been
but one performance worthy of the name-that
of the Church Music Asssciation, and this was
far below the level of the excellence which was
to have been expected. It is a misfortune to
the musical world to allow a form of art, in
which so much of our best talent can find a
noble field, denied to it elsewhere, to die out
for lack of encouragement. Wit Ii energy, there
is even yet time to produce one or more works,
which shall redeem the neglect, and we sincerely hope that the opportunity will be iinproved.
We could but feel surprise that Mr. Daly
should offer the New - York public Shake~peare's much-neglected comedy of "Love's
Labor's Lost," for at no period in modern
times has it been a popular acting play. We
were still more surprised to find how much better an acting play it is than we and others have
supposed. The gossamer lightness of its wit
and sentiment seemed too evanescent, too subtile and delicate, for the foot-lights, and hence
the measure of success attained by Mr. Daly's
company ln catching the spirit of the play
and reproducing it, gave unexpected pleasure.
It is a comedy of holiday humor-of tlie lightest fancies, tlie gayest wit, the brightest and
most capricious conceits. It pictures a world
where there are no sorrows, no serious
thoughts, no emotions save those of the lightest and most fantastic character-a poet's Eden
where there is no pain or suffering, but a perpetual feast of intellectual bonbons. Let us
refresh the reader's memory with an extract
or two from this paradise of wits. Hear 13irom,
the sparkling hero of the play, in one of his
humors reasoning against study:
"Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain
Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit paiii:
As, pain folly to pore upon a book
To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:
Light seeking light, doth light of light beguile:
Sn, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Yonr light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Stedy me how to please the eye indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;
Who, dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by."
And again
"When love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never dnrst poet toech a pen to write
Until his ink were tempered with Love's sighs;
Oh, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eye this doctrine I derive:
They8]sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, dontain, and nourish all the world."
These delicate fancies were very happily
delivered by Mr. Geo. Clark, who gave to his
personation of 13iron much of the lightness,
grace, ease, and gay brilliancy, that the part
gave us a humorously broad study of the lovestricken Spaniard. The actors generally caught
the spirit of the comedy with tolerable success,
among the most successful being Mi'. Hardenburg as ~oWet. The young lady who acted
ffot~ was very much enamored of her own
graceful figure, and, while giving the language
with point, liad a radically wrong conception of
the part. She was pretty and arch, instead of
shrewd and roguish. Mr. Daly did his best to
give the comedy a good setting.
requires. Mr. Fisher, as Don Adrieno de Armode, he who
bath a mint of phrases in bis brain
One, whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony'
Tlie concert of the Amateur Philhm'monic
Society on Saturday evening, the 21st, was
another encouraging indication of what pluck
aiid hard work will do for an organization of
enthusiastic young musicians. There liss been
a tendency on the part of some of the musical
critics to sneer at the very creditable efforts of
this society, and measure them solely by the
standard of the older orchestras, which have
had the benefit of in any years' work ~nd experience. This habit of criticism is to be deprecated, for it puoceeds on the niethod which
disregards the environment of an art-fact as
indispensable to its true estimate. Excellence,
at the best, is only relative, not absolute, and
the growth of the "Philharmonic Amateurs,"
viewed in connection with their very recent
organization, is a matter of congratulation.
The last concert, it is true, indicated some attempts to grapple with musical subjects as yet
above the powers of the society, but there was
so much that was really good as to condone
the comparative failure. The lighter orchestr~I numbers were charmingly given, and the
solos were worthy of any concert. Dr. Leopold
Damrosch, the accomplished leader, gave an
exquisite interpretation of Vicuxtemps's first
concerto in E worthy of any violin virtnoso of
the age. The reputation of Dr. Dsinrosch as
a gifted and scholarly musician, is far short of
his merits, and it is to be hoped that the future
growth of the society, of which he is the head,
will constitute a medium for impressing himself on the musical culture of the time. ~flsa
Henrietta Beebe sang Arditi's " L'Estssi
Waltz" in a delicious style, and Mr. Romeyn
was excellent in liis tenor rendering from Millard's "Deborah," the composer himself having led the accompaniment. There is in this
organization the promise of a noble body of
musicians, with that schooling which comes
of steady devotion and long labor, and, it may
be, one day they will make their older namesakes look to their laurels. At all events, we
cannot have too many attempts at orchestral
organizations. Even though they fail, they
constitute so many landmarks and guide-posts
in musical improvement.
The A~v-York Observer ventures to discuss
the business failure of Edwin Booth, which it
terms "a witness to the troth we have so ofteii proclaimed, that tlie drama in its best estate will not be supported by the public. As
supported, it is low, demoralizing, and, to all
pure minds, disgusting. Even as Booth woold
have it, it is impracticable. As we would love
to have it and enjoy it, it is Utopian and millennial." This is too much! There ought to
be a law to suppress ignorant cant. The Observer is talking about something of which it
absolutely knows notlilo__ Mr. Booth's failure arose quite as much from the fact that he
did not give us tlie "drama in its best estate,"
as from any thing else. He produced a num
her of Shakespearean plays with a very lavish
expenditure open scenery and dresses, but
with actors of recognized inferiority. He
never had a company at his theatre that was
not essentially provincial, never one that was
not the poorest and weakest in the city. ~fi.
Booth erected a splendid dramatic temple, but
at a cost so excessive that no practicable revenue could meet running expenses m~d the
heavy interest on the investment. The expenses of a costly location of a building eonstrueted on liberal but not on econoniical principles were balanced, moat unwisely, by coonomy in salaries - that is, by econonly just
where it would prove most disastrous. And
yet Mn Booth's Shakespearemi revivals were
great successes so far as attendance could
make them so, although there was always a
complaint of bad acting in all the parts below tlie leading ones. Mn Booth as a traveling star can make from three to five Ii ondred dollars a night; but he has become tired
of emptying his earnings into the great sponge
which he calls his theatre. Hence,the bankruptcy. Wallack, with a better company, witl:
better plays, with the drama "in its best estate," has made a fortune. Booth, as an actor
can make his fortune; as a manager he lisa
failed because he is not a good manager -
neither economically nor artistically. As for
the "low, demoralizing drama," of which the
Observer prates, there was never a time in the
history of the stage when the public supported
a purer drama. As we have repeatedly pointed
out, a strictly-pure drama is oi?nost t/~e invention of tkis ~enerotion.
The performance of Dr. Crotch's oratorio
of "Palestine," at Exeter Hall, in London,
has stirred up no little musical interest among
our English cousins, not only on account of
the immediate interest of the work, but as an
evidence of what the old school of English
musicians could d,o. Dr. Crotch was the first
Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, an
Oxford professor, and altogether a remarkable
man. He has always been recognized as the
composer of some of the most remarkable anthems, glees, and other four - part compositions; but, with this reintroduction of lila
more pretentious works to the public, lie is
likely to rise to a higher plane of estimation.
Dr. Crotch in his youth was hailed as the English Mozart, so extraordinary was his precocity, and, though he failed to justify the appellation in after-years, there can be no doubt
that he makes good the dcliii to a marked and
orighial genius, which has passed into mi undeserved neglect.
The choruses of "Palestine" are spoken
of by the Musicot Wortd as models of contrapuntal craftsmanship and exquisite colorshading, even where they lack the massive
aeblimity of the old German masters; and
the solos are said to be replete with the
true Handelian pathos, as well as highly dramatic and picturesque in their style of musical
succession. The instrumentation is approved
by the same authority as masterly. It would
be well for some of our own societies to place
English music lias not been so rich in creative
wealth that we can afford to neglect any of its
genuine masterpieces.
A new Russian opera, "The Maid of Pleakan," by a composer bearing the highly-eu
phonious name of Nicolal Rein sky Rorasakow
was produced on New-Year's eve at tlie Maria
Theatre, St Petersburg. There lias been of
late years a great impulse in the direction of
national opera in the land of the Museovites,
p