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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1908)
a Brilliant Production of "Tristan and Isolde" Gustav Mahler as Conductor and Olive Fremstad as Isolde Make Most Profound Impression--Madame Nazimova and Mrs. Fisk Appear vJftU. ?UU "' y I ' y IS;5 ri($!r 1 holm. She even hints that she must go I . ' . 5j7T7r(ll -J lSSW) o eJ. Mrs. Kosmer, regarding a scanaai &e&?l. .LSJ IvSi5 "-O fi'cCV (f" I In Rnomorholm as the most tfrrlhln thine I rVfej-vOl I ) 1 l 7 3- i i-- nir'i' i i " " i ixvhiii . s i NEW YORK, Jan. 6. (Special Corre spondence.) There has not been much rest for the artists, around holiday time, as this usually brings about greater activity for those who are en trusted with our entertainments, although It Is a fact that special holiday offerings have suffered seriously this season. There have been no concerts,' to speak of, throughout the holidays, and only the Manhattan offered a New Year s eve at . traction. It must be said, however, that they turned people away. The offering of "Tristan und Isolde" New Year's night at the Metropolitan was not given as a holiday attraction, but rep resented one of the greatest events in the musical history of this country. ' The house was completely filled with an audi ence which seemed to hang upon every musical utterance. The feature of extreme importance on "Wednesday night was the first appear ance of Gustav Mahler, the Vienna con ductor, and the tirst appearance this sea son of Olive Fremstad, who sang this role for the first time. In the presentation of "Tristan und Isolde" there was much of more than ordinary importance, because 'Mahler la an influence which opera In this country needs sorely, and the per formance of Wednesday evening was to many jiot only the most satisfying "Tris tan und Isolde" ever heard In New York, but It went far towards being the best operatic production offered within re membrance. Mahler's force does not lie in radical departures from readings that have been given here before, but he has wonderful illuminative powers which per meate subtly and intangibly phrasing, shading and the inner themes. He pro tects wonderfully the melodic lines, while his tempi, at times faster than those to which we have been accustomed, and at times slower, are never robbed of majesty, nor are they leaden weighted. The sense of surpassing authority and absolute purpose was ever present, and one need not be told what Mahler represents as taskmaster, because such a production as the one witnessed on Wednesday Is not the creation of the moment, however strong both artistic ally and psychologically a conductor mav be. There were traces of the rigid, the brutal hand of routine from the setting of the stage to the smallest Instrument In the orchestra. The story of "Tristan und Isolde" is so well known that It hardly needs to be retold. Tristan, a valiant Cornish knight, is bringing Isolde, Princess of Ireland, over as a bride for his uncle. King Mark. He is in love with her, but forces himself to conceal his feel ings. Isolde, in anger at his seeming unkindness, decides to poison herself and. with his consent. Tristan also. Brangaene. her attendant, however, changes the draught for a love potion which Inflames their passion beyond power of restraint. The secorld act, which Is regarded as the most beauti ful music ever written by Wagner, shows Isolde, who has been wedded to King Mark, holding a stolen interview with Tristan, during which the lovers In their protestations are overtaken, Tristan having been betrayed by a Jealous friend. Melot. Touched by King Mark s bitter reproaches, Tristan provokes Melot to fight and allows himself to be mortally wounded. The third act shows Tristan and his faith ful servant, Kurvenal. who has carried his wounded master to his native home in Brittany, where he is attending him carefully. When all else failed Isolde was sent for, but the excitement of her approach only hastened Tristan's death, and he breaths his last sigh in her arms. King Mark has followed Isolde: he has had explanations and is prepared to reunite the lovers, but it Is too late. Isolde utters her lament, the noted "Liebestod," over the body of her lover, and she dies of a broken heart. Tristan and Isolde is said to embody the greatest love music ever written, and this fact was kept strongly in evidence in Mahler's reading. The lo:e element, however, is further reaching than the all-absorbing passion of the ill-fated pair, told in a wonderful and utterly un translatable language woven by Wagner and reflected by Mahler. Other types are shown in the relations between Isolde and her faithful serving woman, Bran gaene. and in the moving, thrilling devo tion of Kurvenal to Tristan. Even the attitude of King Mark, betrayed through the overpowering love between his wife Isolde- and his nephew Tristan, is one in which the strongest element is "Welt- schmeri" infinite pity for the Ills to which mortals are heir. . The Isolde of ilme. Fremstad would lend itself to' long and exhaustive treat ment; at present, however, it can only be aatd that she made a successful leap from contralto to soprano, and in this she must not be regarded as an example for other singers. A voice is known by Its quality and not by its range, and her quality was, almost throughout, that of a contralto. She is a wonderful artist, a marvelous singer and a heroic student, and it is probable that she will not suf fer from what would have cost the voice of nine hundred and ninety-nine singers out of a thousand. There was much beauty in her characterization which lacked, however, on the spiritual side; still, taking into consideration that was her first portrayal of the role, it is not difficult to believe that she will bring it to great heights. Brangaene, in the hands of Mme. Homer, was perhaps the most flawless representation of the even ing. This brilliant singer brings tremend ous intelligence to bear upon her work, and with the unusual quality of her voice and her Inherent temperament, her of ferings have both ease and distinction. Burgstaller, who was to have sung Tris tan, sprained his arm and was thereby compelled to turn the part over to Knote, who left much to be desired in the sec ond act, both vocally and otherwise. Credit, must be given him, however, for ills work at the close of the last act, when he4 lent more support to Mme. Fremstad than he did earlier, although only lasting a few moments. Van Rooy gave a thoroughly satisfactory Kurvenal, and Blass. as King Mark, did excellent and impressive work. Mahler enjoyed a thoroughly spontaneous reception and was forced to respond repeatedly to cur tain calls. Mme. Nazimova opened in a new play on Monday evening, as did Mrs. Ftske. The latter appeared in Ibsen's "Rosmer holm." The former was seen through the medium of a play by Owen Johnson, who shows the Ibsen-Sudermann and Haupt- holm. She even hints that she must go at once if a great scandal is to be avoid ed. Mrs. Rosmer, regarding a scandal in Rosmerholm as the most terrible thing that can happen, and, seeing that it could be averted by the marriage of Rebecca and Rosmer, if she were out of the way, writes a letter secretly to Rosmer's bit terest enemy, the editor of the local rad ical paper, a man who has forfeited his moral reputation by an intrigue which Rosmer has pitilessly denounced. In this letter she implores him not to believe any story that he may hear about Rosmer to the effect that he is any way to blame for anything that may happen to her; then she sets Rosmer free to marry Re becca and realize his Ideals, by going out Into the garden and throwing herself into the millstream. Everybody except Ros mer suspects that Mrs. Rosmer was not mad. and guesses why she committed suicide, but the neighbors close their eyes and condole with the bereaved clergyman and the radical editor holds his tongue, because he hopes with Rebecca's help to get Rosmer bver to his side. ' Meanwhile the unexpected has again happened to Rebecca. Her passion is worn out: but In the long days of mourn ing she has found the higher love and it is now for Rosmer's own sake that she urges him to become a man of action and to grieve no more over the dead. After some time. Rosmer discovers that he really did love Rebecca" and was thereby guilty of his wife's death. His first im pulse is to shake off the specter of the dead woman by marrying Rebecca, but Bhe, knowing that the guilt was hers, puts the temptation behind her and re fuses. Then, a- he thinks it ail over, his dream of ennobling the world slips mann influence: Mme. -Nazimova is -too- away, since such work can only be done firmly established to be harmed even by a play which does not attract the public. Mr. Johnson succeeded, however, in pro viding a vehicle in which to show Mme. Nazimova as. a heartless and ' soulless courtesan who seeks revenge by returning, after 17 years of drifting about as only such women can drift, to the man upon whom she has heaped all her hatred. In stead, she finds his son, who is engaged to her sister, but this means nothing to her and she winds herself around his life until she has won him completely and ac complishes her ends through 'the son, who kills himself on account of her. Mme. Nazimova has never had a role which has offered her finer opportunities, therefore It may last longer than the play itself would warrant. The cast is as follows: Dr. Leopold Ravanel. . .Mr. Dodson Mitchell remand Mr. Brandon Tynan Cecilia Miss Florence Fisher Nanna Mrs. Jacques Martin Kllipo ...Mr. Robert Coleman Lona Mme. Nazimova a Mrs. Flske in the role of Rebecca West, in Ibsen's "Rosmerholm," has found a. play of unusual power and a role in which she has surpassed every achieve ment in which she has already triumphed. Mrs. Fiske has a unique manner, one which for its effects depends upon quiet and restrained power, and she compels conviction by altogether individual means. "Rosmerholm" is the play which followed "The Wild Duck." The story has been exhaustively told by Bernard Shaw and deals with an unpractical country parson, whose family has been for many years a center of social influence. His nature is a fine one, and he looks at the world as something which needs him to ennoble it. He is married to a woman of extremely affectionate nature, very fond of him in her way, but she neither regards him as a second savior of the human race nor does she share any of his dreams, her only mission being to extinguish the sa cred fire of his idealism. Her family formed the select circle into which no out sider may hope to gain much foothold. Into this orbit, however, came a wander er, one Rebecca Gamvik, otherwise Re becca West, an orphan with no ties who has been allowed to read advanced books and is a free thinker and a radical all things that disqualify for admission to the Rosmer world. However, since this is the only circle in which an ambitious and cultivated woman can find powerful al lies and educated companions, Rebecca, being both ambitious and cultivated, makes herself agreeable to the Rosmer circle with such success that the affec- tionate and impulsive, but unintelligent Mrs. Rosmer, becomes wildly infatuated with her. and is not content until she has persuaded her to come and live witn them. Rebecca, then a mere adventures?, fighting for a foothold in polite society, accepts the offer all the more readily be cause she has taken the measure of Par son Rosmer and formed the idea of play ing upon his aspirations and making her. self a leader in politics and society by using him as a figurehead. Two difficulties now arise, first, there is Mrs. Rosmer's extinguishing effect up on her husband, an effect which convinces Rebecca that nothing can be done with him while his wife, is in the way: sec ond, a contingency quite unallowed for in her provident calculations, she finds herself passionately enamored of him. The poor parson, too, falls in love with her; but he does not know it. He turns to the woman who understands him and makes -her his real friend and compan ion. The wife feels this soon enough; and he, quite unconscious of it, begins to think that her mind must . be affected, since she has become so intensely mis erable about nothing nothing that he can see. The truth is. that she has come under the curse of the ideal, too. She sees herself standing a useless obstacle between her husband and the woman he really loves, the woman who can help to a glorious career.. Then comes Rebecca with A finely reasoned theory that Ros mer's future is staked against his wife's life and says that it is better for all their sakes that she should quit Rosmer- by a man conscious of his own inno- cence. Rebecca makes a great sacrifice and confesses how she drove his. wife to kill herself, and as the confession is made in the presence of another, she ascribes the whole plot to her ambition and says not a word of her passion. Then Rosmer is seized with the .old fatal ideal of expiation by sacrifice. He sees that when Rebecca goes into the millstream he must go, too. The woman has the higher light: she goes to her death out of fellowship with the man who Is driven thither by the superstition which has destroyed his will. The story ends with his taking her solemnly as his wife and casting himself with her into the millstream. The cast is as follows: John Rosmer ;.. Bruce McRae Rebecca West ' Mr. Flske Rector Kroll .Fuller Mellish I'lrlc Brendel George Arllss Peter Mortensgard Albert Brunlng Mme. . Helseth Florence Montgomery Rosmer, confounded as he realizes what helpless puppets they have all been in the hands of this clever woman, for the moment misses the point that unscrupu lous ambition, though It explains her crime, does not account for her confes sion which was made to save him from despair and to "give him back his inno cence." He turns his back on her and leaves the house with Kroll, his brother-in-law. She is packing her trunk and is about to leave, when Rosmer comes back alone to ask why she con fessed. She tells him why, offering him her self-sacrifice as a proof that his power of ennobling others was no vain dream, since it is -his companionship which has changed her from the selfish adventuress she was . to the devoted woman she had Just proved herself to be. But he has lost faith in himself and can- W2-TO S not believe her. The proof is too subtle, too artful; he cannot forget that she duped him by flattering this very weak ness of his before. Besides, he knows now' that it is not true that people are ennobled from without. She has no more to say, for she can think of no further proof. But he has thought of an unan swerable one. Dare she make all doubt impossible by doing for his sake what the wife did? She asks what would hap pen if she had the heart and the will to do it. He replies: "Then I should have to believe in you. I should recover my faith in my mission, faith in my power to ennoble souls, faith In the human soul's power to attain nobility." "You shall have your faith again." she answers. BURN THROUGH BIG SAFE Burglars Get $20,000 Because They Work Scientifically.' PARIS. Jan. 11. Burglars broke into the premises of Martin & Baume, colonial traders, at Marseilles, and stole money and goods to the value of 520.DOO. Most of their booty they, took from a safe, the door of which they burnt through with an apparatus giving an acetylene flame of sufficient heat to melt the metaL The case recalls one at Antwerp re cently, when the thieves melted a safe with . a combined oxygen and acetylene flame. The police here believe that the Mnr- THE FAME of the ST-ElHWAl (The Piano by which all others re measured and judgedy IS NOT MERELY A LOCAL OR NATIONAL ONE ' Iii is international, universal, world-wide, and is the recogni tion in the strongest possible manner of a work of art that is in its line without an equal, without a rival. From its inception it has always been recognized a'i an art product of the highest genius of its kind, and this recognition as the flower of its art has been and is without qualification and without limitation. Sherman Way & Co. Exclusive Pacific Coast Dealers and Largest Steinway Piano and Victor Talking Machine Dealers in the World. 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