Evening Star Newspaper, July 26, 1931, Page 78

ORE than one Washingtonian was present last Tuesday when the first curtain r on the Wagner Festival at Baireuth. After what are sald to have been many miserable days of rain and cold, the sun broke through the fort- night's gloom and blazed merrily on the enor- mous crowd which had assembled to witness the inaugural opera of this season's series. “Tannhauser” was the opera, the conductor Arturo Toscanini, and the crowds as reverent in their attention and as predominately Amer- ican as one has come to expect of such things. From all available reports Toscanini led the newly recruited orchestea with incredible skill, although he was suffering torture from the rheumatic pain which afflicted his right arm. He is said, however, to have suffered in silence, and not to have stinted himself even during the long rehearsal periods. These rehearsals, incidentally, brought with them a “listener- in,” Wilhelm Furtwaengler, the newly ap- pointed general musical director of the festival, who it was rumored was not getting along too well with the maestro. By the frequency of his visits during the Toscanini rehearsals, and by the latter's visiis to Furtwaengler's re- hearsals, however, it would seem as though all battle clouds had disappeared and as though all is quiet now on this particular front. ‘That this first performance was a success was proved by the applause which thundered through the theater for a full 10 minutes after the final curtain. Although tradition forbids the customary metropolitan bowings and curtseyings before the curtain, or the merest word of thanks from the conductor, the audi- ence insisted on giving vent to its feelings and echoed its applause long and loudly. .Thus there is no depression at Baireuth. Apert from the fact that only half the cur- tain would come down at the end of the first act, there was scarcely anything to ruffie the smooth flow of the performance. Lauritz Melchior, replacing Mr. Pilinsky, who last year became suddenly indisposed and very nearly turned the opera upside down, was his cus- tomary capable self (his season this year at the Metropolitan was especially brilliant) and other singers who seem to have covered them- w selves with considerable glory were Maria Mueller (whose Elizabeth is one of the great prides and joys of the German public), Ger- hard Huesch, a splendid Wolfram, and Anna Helm, a familiar Venus to those who know their Berlin. Great excitement prevailed in this town later in the week when Toscanini presented “Parsifal” for the first time, and Furtwaengler “Tristan-and Isolde.” As capable as was probably the p2rformance of the latter one ventures to predict that no larger or more invigorated audience was ever present at this theater than at “Parsifal”—for whatever he does, Toscanini is a showman—like the Pied Piper he draws his crowds with him. His musical “yes men” are limitless. Particularly since his unnecessarily rough treatment at Bolggna his crown has seemed all the more secure and his methods (even with an arm limp from pain) even more polished. Thus, while the town of Baireuth smiles in the hey- day of its sun, and Wagnerian memories are evoked and extoled, there is an infinite impetus given to it all by the mere presence of Tos- canini who is received in apparently any quar- ter of the globe with open arms, and whose first click of the baton is waited for as breath- lessly as if it foreshadowed the beginning of a new era of prosperity. MONG the past wcek's events was the return to Washington of Lillian Evanti (“Lil- liana” to her Italian public) after what seems to have been her “succes fou” on the continent and more recently in England. Miss Evanti, whose recent appearance in Bath, England, previously mentioned in these columns, brought with it praise of flattering dimensions, and whose major successes have been strung up and down the Riviera, Italy and France, has come unexpectedly from England and expects to remain in this country until next Spring. While at the moment Miss Evanti’'s plans are more or less at the command of her manager, rumor has it that one of our foremost cori- ductors has asked her to sing with his or- chestra during the coming season, and that many other honors of singular importance are fn store for her. Singing in five languages, Miss Evanti's repertoire, incidentally, includes such operas as “Lakme” (in which she scored so heavily in Paris at the Trianon Lyrique), “Traviata,” “Lucia,” “Rigoletto,” “Sonnambula,” the “Bar- ber of Seville” and the “Magic Flute”—and if you question her closely you will find that her greatest preference at the moment, as fat as concert work is concerned, is Mozart—and that as a beginning and even as an ending means that she likes nothing but the best. What more could you wani—except to hear how she does it? NE of our local composers has been signally : honored in distant lands. It seems that Mr. A. Moszkowitz, local globe-trotter, attended & recital program recently given in Gratz, - Austria, and there found that the artist, Herr Georg Wunscher, had included on his pro- gram two selections by R. Deane Shure, veteran director of music at the Mount Vernon Place M. E. Church. Thege selections were “Spirit Wind” and “Kidron, Book of Sorrow.” Thus fame travels. But it seems to have been just $s much of s surprise to Mr, Shure as it was #o Mr. Moszkowitz who was good enough to @gport promptly on the matter, THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY 26, 193t. Pan-American Concert Tomorrow Features Senorita Garza, Senor Gutierrex and the - United States Army Band. Pictured above is Consuelo Garcia Garza, who will make her debut tomorrow night on a Pan American program, and, lower left, Leopold Gutierrez, Chilean baritone, who will be a featured soloist on the same program. Capt. William J. Stannard, noted leader of the Army Band, is at lower right, and the lady, center oval, is Lillian FEvanti, who has returned to W ashington after achieving much fame in opera on the continent. HE fifty-seventh concert of Latin Ameri- can music, arranged by the. Pan- American Union, will be held tomor- row evening at 9 p.m. on the esplanade of the Union. The soloists will include Consuelo Garcia Garza, Mexican lyric soprano, and Leopoldo Gutierrez, Chilean bari- tone, and William J. Stannard will lead the Army Band during the evening’s program. This will be Senorita Garza's first appearance on a Pan-American program. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, she has sung with great success not only in her native country, but in Italy and the United States as well. Her selections tomorrow night will include the Cancion Bolero “Aquellos Ojos Verdes,” by Nilo Concerts Announced by MERICAN music and American musicians will be featured during the coming season by the Community Institute of Washington in honor of the celebration of the Bicentennial, and at least one outstanding musician of the Capital City will be included among the five events in this music series, opening in October with Walter Damrosch offered as a special attraction in December. The Washington artist will be Sylvia Lent, who will appear in a violin recital on Februa:y 2 at Central Community Center, where all events will take place except the Damrosch concert, which is scheduled for Constitution Hell. The music series will open on October 20, with Louise Homer Stires and Katherine Homer, the accomplished daughters of distinguished parents, Louise Homer, American cont:alto, and Sidney Homer, American composer. A “Program of Songs” by the University Double Quartet will be the attraction December 22, their program including early Italian and Russian folk songs, English madrigals and old chorales, as well as numbers featuring the most modern collegiate singing. John Erskine, musician, writer and lecturer, will appear Tues- day evening, April 12, taking for his subject Menendez; “Mi Chatita,” by Luis A. Delgadillo; “Querida,” by A. Seismit-Doda; “El Dia Que Me Quieras,” by Delgadillo, and “Estrellita,” by Manuel M. Ponce. She will be accompanied by Elizabeth Gardiner Coombs, and by the band during her rendition of “Estrellita.” Senor Gutierrez, who has been heard here before, and who is one of the foremost inter- preters of Latin American music, will sing selections by Maiquez, Percival, Perez-Freire and Gonzalo Roig and a selection from the opera “I1 Buarany,” by Carlos Gomez. Another feature of the program will be a Marimba solo by John Baumann, as well as interesting Latin American compositions played by the Army Band. Community Institute. “Music in Our Daily Lives’ as the closing feature of the music series. All Community Institute events will take place Tuesday evenings at 8:15. In addition to the music course there is to be a literature course, including four events, and a “varied events” course, also of four outstanding artist- speakers. HE National City Christian Church, W. E. Braithwaite, ditector of music, has an- nounced an unusually interesting concert which is to take place this evening beginning at 7:45 - o'clock. The public is cordially invitad. The soloists for this occasion will be Mrs. H. C. Grimes, who will open the program with an evening bells concert on the tower chimes; Marguerite Allen Ross, organist, and Herbert Sokolov. Mr. Sokolov, who has just completed two years at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, where he served as concert master for the Institute Orchestra in addition to his studies, will play Handel's “Largo” and the Kreisler “Liebeslied,” and Marguerite Allen Ross will play “Grand Choeur,” by Rogers; Schumann's “Evening Song”; “Vision,” by Bibl; “Pastoral From the First Sonata,” by Guilmant, and the Lesedure-Wely “Offertoire im F.” \ Musigraphs ANNIE SHREVE HEARTSILL has returned to this city from a singing engagement in Nova Scotia. Katharyn Bowers, contralto soloist of the Immaculate Conception _Church. returns to this city today from the Oscar Seagle Music Colony at Schroon Lake, where she recently attained considerable success as soloist at the July 17 concert of the Seagle Colony. An interesting concert was given last Tuesday at the Woman's Club House, Rehoboth Beach, Del,, by Minnie Volkmann, soprano; Sue Kerr, contralto, and C. Irving Carpenter of New York. Florence King Salin was the accompanist. The members of the Zonta Club were enter- tained at dinner on Wednesday evening at the American University by Mrs. Sarah Sumner. Following the dinner a brief meeting was held to welcome two new members into the club, Ethel Hess and Cora Larimore Keeley. A short program of piano selections was then given by Honore Stephens McAllister, 6-year-old pupil of Frances Gutelius. Warren F. Johnson will give an organ recital at the Church of the Pilgrims at 7:30 o'clock this evening. He will play “Prelude,” by Florence Schmitt, and the finale from the “Fifth Symphony,” by Louis Vierne. Dorothy Hobley, talented member of the Washington Pilanists’ Club, is studying this Summer with Ernest Hutcheson at Lake Chautauqua, N. Y, and Arline Gilbert, former Washington giil, is studying with Gordon Stanley, Mr. Hutcheson's assistant, at the same colony. Band Concerts. THR U. 8. Navy Band, Lieut. Charles Benter, leader, will play at the Capitol Monday night. Prominent numbers on the program will be the overture to Wagner's “Rienzi,” operatic scenes from “Cavalleria Rustfeana,” by Mas- cagni, and the “Sextette From Lucia,” by Donizetti. Musicians Birley Gardner, cornet, and Louis Goucher, xylophone, will be heard in solos. Tuesday night the band will play at Judiciary Park, Fifth and F stieets northwest. The program for Wednesday night, at the Navy Yard, will include the overture to Luders’ musi- cal play, “Woodland,” “Bits of Hits of Other Days,” by Benter-Alford; excerpts from “Flora- dora,” and other favorites of long standing. Other engagements by the Navy Band this week will be Thursday, 3 p.m., at Naval Hos- pital, and Friday, 6:30 p.m., at Veterans’ Hos- pital, Mount Alto. HE following is a list of concerts scheduled for the Army Band during the week begin- ning Monday, July 27: Monday, July 27—Concert of Latin American music in the esplanade of the Pan-American Union at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 28-—Army Medical Center, Walter Reed General Hospital, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29—Sylvan Theater, Monu- ment Grounds, 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 31—United States Capitol, 7:30 p.m. HE following concerts are scheduled for the United States Marine Band during the coming week: Monday, July 27, at 8 p.m.—Marine Barracks. Tuesday, July 28, at 6:30 p.m.—Tuberculosis Hospital, Fourteenth and Upshur streets. Wednesday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m.—United States Capitol. Thursday, July 30, at 7:30 p.m.—Sylvan Theater. Friday, July 31, at 3 p.m.—Naval Hospital. Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration® and the scherzo “L’Apprenti Sorcier,” by Paul Dukas, will be included in the programs. The soloists to be featured are Robert E. Clark, trombonist. and Frank Wiblitzhouser, saxo- phonist. Mr. Clark has chosen for his solo number Arthur Pryor’s “Air Varie,” and Mr. Wiblitzhouser will play “Fantasie Original,” by Demerssemann. —___MUSICAL STUDIOS. BESSIE N. WILD Voice Culture, Piano and Harmeny Studie. 6821 5th st.. Takoma Park, D. C. PHONE_GEORGIA 3233, "~ Karl Holer COMPOSER 3803 13th ST. COL. 7556. ® Armando Jannuzzi Grand Opera, Dramatic Tenor Voice Specialist Italian Method From La Scala. Milan, Italy Col. 4608 3403 14th St. N.W.