Music Opera and the Public TuE other evening I journeyed
eastwards past Whitechapel to where from the ruins of Victorian glass and iron a new People's Palace has risen, a square, plain, no-nonsense building with an interior in what may be described as simplified • Gaumont-Plaza taste. There was a performance of Faust by the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and, in the cheaper seats, 'a large, enthusiasiie audience. What impressed me more than the peiformanee was that the man behind me hummed the melodies of the opera from the beginning to—well, the middle of the ballet, which was as late as I could stay.
This additional " voice " might, in other eircumstancepi have been annoying, but it did much more than supplement the singers on the stage. It explained the whole operatic " problem " as it exists in England. If I may take this man as typical of the popular audience for opera, it is evident that what he came to the People's Palace for was to hear tunes that he knew by heart. He probably cared not two pins whether the singing and playing was good or bad, whether the scenery was in holes, the production hoary with ridiculous conventions, and the translation as near nonsense as no matter.
The process, I imagine, is as follows. The Englishman hears a tune that he likes, perhaps the Soldier's Chorus, perhaps, to go a little higher, the Jewel Song. He sees Faust advertised and he goes to hear his favourite melody, for which he waits all agog. After one or two visits it dawns on hint that there are other bits he likes, and so gradually he comes to know the whole opera, although it is doubtful whether he has ever regarded it as a coherent drama, as a work of art. It remains for him a string of pleasing melodies.
It will be obvious that it is extremely difficult to get an audience, composed largely of such persons, into the theatre when a work is given, even though it be by the com- poser of a favourite opera, of which they know little or nothing. Whence it arose that Miss Baylis had to persist in putting on Verdi's Othello for years before she got an audience for it— and then unhappily lost her Othello—while Un" Ballo in Maschera and La Forza del Destino had to be dropped as failures too expensive to propagate. Whence, also, arise the empty houses at Covent Garden.
There have been other reasons for the poor attendance at Covent Garden. First the season opened on Boxing-Day, probably the worst night of the year, since those who want entertainment seek it at the pantomime or the circus--and who shall blame them ? Secondly, the prices of the seats have been too high for the quality of the performances, the cheapest seat below the amphitheatre being priced at twelve shillings. Something, of course, may be laid to the door of influenza, which has no doubt kept many people away— though it does not appear to have affected the audiences at Sadler's Wells. But not least important is the fact that most of the works given have, to the honour of the management, been outside the stock repertory. It is clear that, out of the grand season when opera is fashionable, an audience for works that are not well-known cannot be attracted at such high prices. With the question of whether the operas could have been given economically at cheaper rates I ant not here concerned, though I do not doubt that therein lies the answer to a plea for half-guinea stalls.
Theie have been some fine individual performances during the season, notably Miss Turner's magnificent, open-throated singing as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, and the perfor- mances of M. Armand Crabbe and Miss Willis in Gianni Schicchi, while Die Fledermaus, the least important of the pieces given, was delightfully done. Salome proved an unutterable bore under Herr Knappertsbusch's uninspiring direction, while the Salome herself, though she gave us some fine singing, missed the point of the character and her dance was quite ludicrously unseductive. Un Ballo, the best opera in the repertory, was handicapped by shabby sets (except in Act II) and by a wholly unimaginative presentation. The ball itself was furnished with some very curious oddments from the ward- robe. This is not one of Verdi's greatest works, but with great singing, which Miss Turner alone gave .us, and a careful pro- duction, it can still stir the blood at any rate of those who seek in opera something more than a string of favourite airs.
DYNELEY Hussm.-.
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