SUPPLEMENTARY READING

CHAPTERS OF OPERA
By H. E. Krehbiel.

A BOOK OF OPERAS
By H. E. Krehbiel.

Mr. Krehbiel’s books are admirable commentaries, written with authority and in a most readable style.

MEMOIRS OF THE OPERA
By George Hogarth.

A standard work long recognized.

HISTORY OF THE OPERA
By Sutherland Edwards.

A valuable work by an English authority.

THE LYRICAL DRAMA
By H. Sutherland Edwards.

THE OPERA, PAST AND PRESENT
By W. F. Apthorp.

Brilliant writing and critical taste characterize Mr. Apthorp’s work.

SOME FORERUNNERS OF MODERN OPERA
By W. J. Henderson.

A thoughtful, scholarly and well written book.

THE STANDARD OPERA
By George P. Upton.

An excellent book by a well known Chicago critic.

THE MENTOR

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Vol. 1 No. 47

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Editorial

The new year is here and with it the forward look. It is the time for announcements, and the magazines of the day are filled with them. The Mentor Association does not lay down a definite and fixed program for a year ahead, week by week. It is important that our schedule should be elastic. But we want our readers to know the plans of The Mentor for 1914, and so we print herewith a list containing some of the subjects scheduled. The articles may not appear in the exact order of this list. Definite dates will be announced later. We print the list for the purpose of giving our readers an idea of the scope and variety of the year’s program.

TWO EARLY GERMAN PAINTERS, DÜRER AND HOLBEIN. Portrait of Himself, Dürer; Portrait of Young Woman, Dürer; Hieronymus Holzschuher, Dürer; Erasmus, Holbein; The Meier Madonna, Holbein; Queen Jane Seymour, Holbein. By Professor F. J. Mather, Princeton University.

VIENNA, THE QUEEN CITY. Palace from Gardens Schönbrunn, Votive Church, Reichsrats Gebäude, Old Vienna, Maria Theresa Monument, Hoch Brunnen Fountains and Prince’s Palace. By Dwight L. Elmendorf.

ANCIENT ATHENS. Parthenon, The Acropolis, Mars Hill (Areopagus), Theseum, Stadium, Theater of Dionysius. By Professor George Willis Botsford, Columbia University.

THE BARBIZON PAINTERS. Evening, by Daubigny; The Holy Family, Diaz; Meadow Bordered by Trees, Rousseau; Landscape with Sheep, Jacque; The Wild Oak, Dupré; The Gleaners, Millet. By Arthur Hoeber.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln, the Boy, Lincoln as a Rail Splitter or Flatboat Man, the Douglas Debates, President Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Assassination. By Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard University.

MEXICO. Mexico City, The Cathedral, The Palace, Popocatepetl, Chapultepec, Scenic View. By Frederick Palmer, Author and Journalist.

GEORGE WASHINGTON. The Surveyor, Braddock’s Army, Taking Command of American Army, Valley Forge, Farewell Address, Inauguration as President. By Professor Robert McNutt McElroy, Princeton University.

AMERICAN PROSE WRITERS. Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, James Kirke Paulding. By Hamilton W. Mabie.

COURT PAINTERS OF FRANCE. Parnassus, Claude Lorrain; The French Comedy, Watteau; Shepherds in Arcadia, Poussin; Louis XIV, Rigaud; Marie Leczinska (wife of Louis XIV), Van Loo; Music Lesson, Lancret. By W. A. Coffin.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MONTANA. Morning Eagle Falls, Shore Line of Lake St. Mary, Iceberg Lake, Two Medicine Camp on Two Medicine Lake, McDermott Falls, Gunsight Lake and Mount Jackson. By William T. Hornaday.

GRECIAN MASTERPIECES. Venus de Milo, Disk Thrower, The Three Fates, From Parthenon Pediment; Samothracian Victory, Hermes, Pericles.

EARLY ENGLISH POETS. Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, William Cowper. By Hamilton W. Mabie.

FLEMISH MASTERS OF PAINTING. Rubens and Isabella Brandt, Rubens; The Lion Hunt, Rubens; Helene Fourment and Daughter, Rubens; Duke of Buckingham with Horse, by Van Dyck; William II of Orange and His Bride, Van Dyck; Duke of Richmond and Lenox, Van Dyck. By Professor John C. Van Dyke.

HISTORIC AMERICAN HIGHWAYS. Boone’s Wilderness Road, Cumberland Road, Braddock’s Road, Old Natchez Trail, Santa Fé Trail, Oregon Trail. By H. Addington Bruce.

Other subjects for the year are as follows:

BERLIN. By Dwight L. Elmendorf.

MASTERS OF THE PIANO. By Henry T. Finck.

AMERICAN POETS OF THE SOIL. By Burges Johnson.

FAMOUS AMERICAN WOMEN PAINTERS. By Arthur Hoeber.

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. By E. H. Forbush.

HOLLAND. By Dwight L. Elmendorf.

THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR. By Henry Woodhouse.

FATHERS OF THE CONSTITUTION. By Professor Albert Bushnell Hart.

THE CELESTIAL WORLD.

INDIA. By Dwight L. Elmendorf.

RUGS AND RUG MAKING. By J. K. Mumford.

FAMOUS EUROPEAN WOMEN PAINTERS.

MASTERS OF THE VIOLIN. By W. J. Henderson.

GREAT RIVERS. Story of the Rhine.

GREAT PULPIT ORATORS.

JAPAN. By Dwight L. Elmendorf.

WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT.

FOUNDERS OF ENGLISH PAINTING. By Arthur Hoeber.

AMERICAN COLONIAL FURNITURE.

HISTORIC AMERICAN HOMES.

CHINA AND CHINA COLLECTING.

These titles are not representative of all the departments in the interesting course that The Mentor is developing. Had we four times the space we could fill it with equally attractive features. What we print, however, will afford some idea of the wealth of material that has been planned for early publication.

GIUSEPPE VERDI

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Giuseppe Verdi

ONE

The last and greatest of the old school of Italian opera composers, and one of the most popular of all opera composers in the world, was Giuseppe Verdi (joo-sep´-pe ver´-dee). He was born of humble parentage in the little Italian village of Roncole on October 10, 1813. His parents kept a tavern, which they combined with a general village store. It was situated in a neighborhood of ignorant laborers. Little chance was there in that spot for a budding genius in music. Verdi’s art instinct had to feed on slim nourishment, like a stray seed blown among rocks; but, like the stray seed, his genius took root even in that arid soil. His love of music was shown by his following an itinerant fiddler round the village. His father, detecting his taste, got him a mediocre piano, on which young Verdi practised vigorously.

When ten years old he played the organ in the village church, and at last a patron provided him with the means to go to Milan. When he applied for admission to the conservatory he was rejected, on the score that he had no aptitude for music. He stayed in Milan, however, as a pupil of Vincenzo La Vigna (vin-chen´-zo la veen´-yah), with whom he remained until 1833. He married in 1832, and in 1838 returned to Milan, where he wrote his first opera, “Oberto.” This did not prove a success; but it was the beginning of a famous career.

Verdi’s first success was achieved in 1843, when he brought out “I Lombardi.” It was followed the next year by “Ernani,” and with that work his reputation was firmly established. A number of operas followed, some successful, others failures. But in 1851 began the period during which “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” and “La Traviata” appeared, and then all Europe rang with his praises.

Verdi was not only the most popular operatic composer of the nineteenth century, but the wonder of the musical world. His art life might be divided into three parts. His first operas were of the old-fashioned “honey-sweet” Italian type, in which the airs were tunefully sentimental, and the orchestra played a “guitar” accompaniment.

The middle period showed quite a definite advance in dramatic vigor, in fullness of musical expression, and in richness of orchestral technic. Of this period “Aïda” is a notable example. Then, in his ripe old age, Verdi revealed an amazing growth in musical power. He had advanced through the years as the art of operatic composition had advanced. His opera “Otello” showed that he had studied and mastered the newer works of his day, and that he held a leading place even with younger composers. “Falstaff,” his last opera, was a revelation of extraordinary fertility and virility in an artist of advanced age. It established Verdi’s reputation for all time as a composer of music drama as his earliest works had shown his skill in tuneful opera. The music score of “Falstaff” is as free and untrammeled as the work of any modern composer, even Richard Wagner himself.

Verdi lived until he was eighty-eight years old, enjoyed a happy home, quiet pleasures, and the admiration not only of his own country but of all the world. He died at Milan in 1901, having left twenty-nine operas, most of which were notably successful.

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JULES E. F. MASSENET

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet

TWO

Massenet, one of the most renowned French composers, was born at Montaud, May 12, 1842. Like nearly all French musicians, he began his study in the French Conservatory. He was so poor in his early days that he had to help pay his living expenses by playing the kettledrum in a café orchestra. He carried off several minor prizes during his student days, and finally in 1863 secured the prize of Rome, and this despite the fact that the head of the conservatory at first tried to exclude him on the ground that he had no musical ability. On returning from Rome in 1867 he produced his first opera, a one-act affair which achieved only moderate success. He served in the Franco-Prussian War, and his impressions received there found musical expression in his study “Alsaciennes” and his one-act opera “Navarraise.” After that time Massenet was industrious in composition, turning out operas every year or so. The wonder of it is that most of them have been successful and are a part of the operatic repertoire today.

From 1878 to 1896 he was a professor of composition at the Paris conservatory, and had under his tuition a number of pupils who have since become famous; Charpentier, the composer of “Louise,” was one of them. His activities may be gathered from the fact that he has written more than twenty operas and five oratorios, together with incidental music to four dramas.

In 1878 he was elected a member of the Academy of Beaux Arts, an honor that he won over Saint-Saëns, who is reckoned a superior musician.

He died in Paris August 13, 1912.

Massenet has been called a puzzling personality in modern musical history. His subjects are chosen to suit a Parisian public, and yet they have been successful in foreign fields. His style has been called “weak and sugary,” and his music “superficially clever.” But in spite of that Massenet’s music has lasted for years, and, however he may be criticized, his poetic sentiment and richly colored orchestration are emphatically suitable to the public taste.

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GIACOMO PUCCINI

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Giacomo Puccini

THREE

Giacomo Puccini (jah-ko´-mo poot-chee´-nee) was named by the great Verdi as his probable successor. That meant much from the lips of the venerable master, and the years are beginning to verify it. Puccini was born at Lucca, Italy, in June, 1858. He came from a long line of musicians, reaching as far back as his great-great-grandfather. In his own immediate family of six all were devoted to music, and Giacomo took to the art from his earliest years. He breathed it as he breathed the air of life. His precocity attracted the attention of the queen of Italy, who granted him a pension that enabled him to enter the Conservatory of Music at Milan.

His mind turned toward composition from earliest years, his dominating thought always being opera,—not old-fashioned opera of melody and empty orchestration, but opera of the modern sort, vibrant with life, vigorous in dramatic expression, and enriched with all the resources of modern orchestration. Ponchielli (pon-kee-el´-lee) was his chief instructor,—Ponchielli, the composer of “Gioconda” (jo-kon´-dah), who has been credited with inspiring the modern Italian school of composers.

Puccini’s first opera, “Le Ville” (le veel), was produced in 1884. It created a favorable impression—that was all. In 1889 his opera “Edgar” appeared; but it was not popular. Four years later, however, “Manon Lescaut” (mah-nong´ les-ko´) was produced. This established his success. It required courage to go to the opera house with a new work on Manon. Massenet’s “Manon” was known throughout the operatic world, where it had been made successful by the brilliant performances of Jean de Reszke and Sibyl Sanderson. But Puccini’s “Manon” is of stronger stuff, and it holds its place today against the other.

It was the production of “La Bohème” (bo-hame´) in Turin in 1896 that made Puccini famous. “Tosca” followed in 1900, and in 1904 came the charming “Madame Butterfly.” This beautiful opera was hissed by the Italians when it was first produced; a fact hard to understand today, when it has become a rival of “La Bohème” in the public’s esteem. In 1910 Puccini produced his operatic setting of the American play, “The Girl of the Golden West.” It was brought out in New York with a cast of great artists, including Caruso, Destinn and Amato. It has been produced a number of times, and holds an important place in the operatic repertoire. It is not, however, generally reckoned in popularity with “La Bohème” and “Madame Butterfly.” These two charming works are masterpieces of art and sentiment.

Puccini has a rare gift of melody, strong imagination, skill in technic, and an unusual sense of orchestral color. He is considered the most gifted of the present representatives of Italian operatic art.

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RICHARD STRAUSS

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Richard Strauss

FOUR

No composer since Wagner’s time has been the subject of more discussion than Richard Strauss. He has been called the champion of the “forward movement.” Strauss came by his musical instincts naturally: he was the son of a horn player. His birth occurred in 1864, and he showed himself a prodigy from an early age. He played the piano proficiently at four years, and produced a number of compositions when only six. He followed his musical studies with avidity and at the same time was attending public school. In 1885 he began to study music regularly under the tuition of the eminent pianist and conductor, Hans von Bülow (bue´-low), whom he succeeded later as head of the Meiningen orchestra.

It was Alexander Ritter that set Richard Strauss on the path of advanced music. Strauss resigned his conductorship after a few months, and in 1885 went to Italy. Before the year was over he was appointed third chapel master in Munich. Four years after that he took the position of director at Weimar. He held this post, however, for only a brief time; for in 1894 he married Pauline de Ahna, an eminent singer, who has accompanied him in concerts and has rendered great service to him by her interpretations of his songs.

For two years Strauss and his wife made tours throughout Europe. They came to the United States, where he gave concerts made up of his own compositions. In song and in opera composition he is regarded by some as a high priest of future art, and by others as merely a shock to the nerves.

The productions of his new operas have usually been the occasions of sensational interest. “Salomé” and “Elektra” both created a loud stir in the musical world. Many resent the bold and radical spirit of Richard Strauss. Perhaps we are all too near him. His enemies, or rather his severest critics, would say that anywhere within hearing of his operas would be too near. Many music students, however, find much to interest them in his work, and declare that Richard Strauss will come into his own in future years. His operas, for other reasons than their music, are not likely to be set in the regular repertoire of an opera season. His songs and tone poems, however, are already an accepted part of concert programs. In richness of orchestration, tremendous climaxes, vivid flashes of color, and frequent outbursts of dramatic power, there is nothing in modern music to place beside the tone poems of Richard Strauss.

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CHARLES FRANCOIS GOUNOD

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Charles François Gounod

FIVE

Charles François Gounod, the best known and by many the most liked of modern French composers, was born in Paris, June 17, 1818. His father having died when Gounod was yet very young, he was brought up by his mother, who was an excellent pianist. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836, and studied there under masters, one of them, Halévy, composer of “The Jewess,” a successful opera in its day. Gounod won the grand prize of Rome in 1839. That gave him the privilege of studying in Rome, and while there he devoted much of his time to the study of sacred music, especially to the works of the old masters Palestrina and Bach.

Gounod had a strong religious tendency from the first, which brought him at times near to a resolution to join holy orders. His earliest compositions were masses, and on returning to Paris he played the organ for sacred services in one of the leading churches. He was turned from a serious and religious contemplation to worldly matters by receiving a commission to compose an opera. This, his first operatic composition, was “Sapho,” which was produced in 1851. It was not very successful, and is seldom produced; though selections from its score are sometimes played and sung.

After some indifferent success and several failures Gounod brought out his opera “Faust” in 1859. In spite of the fact that he had chosen a subject that had been drawn on liberally by other composers, “Faust” was a success from the beginning, and it is now without doubt the most popular French work in the operatic repertoire. It was liked at the start; but its enormous success was not predicted then. It has grown in the affections of the opera-going public year by year, until today it is one of the most prominent features of an operatic season.

“Philémon et Baucis,” “The Queen of Sheba,” “Roméo et Juliette,” and other operas followed. Of these the last named is the only one that remains a favorite with the public. Among Gounod’s notable compositions are two grand oratorios, “The Redemption” and “Mors et Vita” (Death and Life), and a number of distinguished songs.

According to the celebrated composer Saint-Saëns, it is in these two oratorios that Gounod’s genius rose highest. Gounod’s life was spent for the most part in or near Paris, and it was in that city that most of his great works were first produced. He was a man of great energy, a constant worker, both in musical composition and in writing. He died at St. Cloud, October 18, 1893, leaving an influence on French music that will probably never be dimmed.

Personally he was one of the most interesting figures in the musical world,—a man of the world, and at the same time a student, a dreamer, and a mystic devoted to religious exaltations.

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ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Engelbert Humperdinck

SIX

Few composers have so suddenly sprung into fame and favor as Engelbert Humperdinck. He was born at Sigburg, Germany, in September, 1854. His musical education began in Cologne Conservatory under Hiller, and was continued in Munich under Lachner. The prizes that he won at the conservatory enabled him to go to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner at Naples, who recognized his ability and showed him many favors. Wagner took Humperdinck with him to Bayreuth and made an assistant of him. Humperdinck’s services were most valuable in the production of Wagner’s “Parsifal” in 1882. Subsequently he visited France and Spain, remaining two years in the latter country, teaching at Barcelona.

In 1887 he returned to Cologne, and shortly afterward taught music at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In 1896 the emperor secured for him an appointment as professor in Berlin, and Humperdinck moved there in 1900.

The compositions of Humperdinck are not numerous. His reputation, as far as the world at large is concerned, rests entirely on his masterpiece, “Hänsel und Gretel.” Besides this opera, he wrote incidental music for “The Children of the King,” a charming play of allegorical character, and the “Moorish Rhapsody,” an orchestral piece. These two and a few other compositions are known chiefly to music lovers, and they uphold the reputation that Humperdinck obtained by his “Hänsel und Gretel.”

The fairy opera, “Hänsel und Gretel,” is known the world over, and well beloved wherever it is heard. Its success was phenomenal from the start, the story of the opera being captivating, and the music likewise. It came at a time when the attention of the operatic world was absorbed with some of the successors of the well known Italian school, prominently Mascagni and Leoncavallo. But the little opera struck a note much higher, and so much more beautiful that before the first season was over the Italian composers found their admirers listening to and singing the music of “Hänsel und Gretel,” and leaving their intermezzi to the street organs. The eminent critic, Streatfeild, pronounced Humperdinck “the first German composer of distinct individuality since Wagner.” The close association with Wagner that Humperdinck enjoyed has shown its influence on the latter’s music; but there is a spirit and a quality in it all his own.

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