The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 8, 1905, Page 1

THE WEATHER. 1 Forecast made at San Francisco for thirty hours, ending midnight, April 8: San Francisco and vietnity—Cloudy Saturday; fresh west winds. A G/ MeADIE, S 171 v COLUMBIA— Wite.” GRAND—Grand ALCAZAR—"Old Heidelberg.™ CALIFORNTA—"Zira.” ‘The Other Girl." CENTRAL—"The Confessions of CHUTES—Vaudeville. ORPHEUM—Vaudeville. USHED IN SAN FRANCISCO THE THEATERS. Opera. TIVOLI—Comic Opera. Distriot Forecaster. Matineeg at all theaters to-day. + = o —_— & - AP P —— VOLUME XCVIL 130. FRANCISCO, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1905 —PAGES 1 TO 10. PRIC Parsifal, Richard TNagner’s Great Festival Play, /fi/,’//)r/,/' 7 ~ \/ AS FARSIFFL, <3 oo AND AN WHO SCORED TRIUMPHS IN THE INITIAL PRODUGTION OF C AGE DURING THE REN DITION ON THE €& “PARSIFAL" AT THE GRAND OF ONE OF THE IMPRESEIVE INITIAL SINGING OF “PARSIFAL | | -+ »” CAPTURES GREAT AUDIENCE. Burgstaller's Genius Strong in Deep Sorrow BY BLANCHE PARTINGTOWN. Everyihing comes to him who walits, even if what he waits for is “Parsifal,” end where he waits for the Buhnen- weihfestspiel—I believe that is all of it—ig on Mission street, San Francisco. As far f n its hilltop in Bayfeuth as it will probably ever get, the last and greatest f the Wagnerian music- a s sung here yesterday after- and evening at the Grand Opera- The pilgrimage to Mission | uded perhaps the most cf H representative audience ever gathered together here, and, it is per- haps not too much to claim, one of the deeply musical, after its own pe- r fashion, that has yet greeted the It *s an audience al- | virgin to the appeal of the drama. We have escaped here most of the | dust of Mr. Conried’s triumphant battle ‘ with the Bayreuthers. We have es- caped here all of the false glamor and excitement that preceded the first “Parsifal” production in New York, when every American present was holding the sponge—as Lionel Barry- pletely Festival Play. 1 more’s “kid” would say—for Mr. Con- ried, whatever Mr. Wagner's “Parsi- fal” might turn out to be. We have escaped here, too, all the befuddling, or as you like it, illuminating effect of the “Pars 1" lecture, except for the wonderful “pure foolishness” slopped out this week at Lyric Hall One “Parsifal” influence only has been brought to bear upon us, and that, on the whole, a happy one. Much has been sald and written in ridicule of the Al- cazar's little production of the play. The Conrled production proves it to have been in {ts admired humility and sincere reverence a quite sympathetic if quite lowly forerunner of the great “Parsifal.” Twenty-three years ago—seven months before the death of the com- Iposer—(he work was first performed in the sacred playhouse at Bayreuth. The Christmas eve of 1903, more than twenty years afterward, saw its first performance outside of Bayreuth In the Metropolitan Opera-house, New York. Extraordinarily, we ourselves, at the end of the world, have had to walt only another year for the music- drama. The story of its capture by | Herr Conried from the heights at Bayreuth is an old one, though-the |artistic and ethical righteousness of { the adventure are still debatable. If, |88 Wagner seems to have believed, rightly to hear “Parsifal” it is neces- | sary to steep one's self for a while in the quaint mediaevalism of Bayreuth, then is it manifestly unfair to walk in on the play from Mission street, with its inferno of modern sights and sounds and smells. If, as Herr Con- ried more subtly contends, you take |your Bayreuth with you, then, given the same adequacy of production, your “Parsifal” will triumph even in a Potrero. But rightly or wrongly one is hugely grateful for yesterday's opportunity to hear {he music-drama. Further, the provincial imagination refuses the task of picturing a performance of “Parsi- fal” more loftily-compelling in its spell, more exalted in its splendor, more human in its appeal, than the one giv- en on Mission street yesterday by Herr Conried’s people. It was a performance unique, a per- Continued on Page 8, Column 2. BURGSTALLER (Nagnificently Produced by Conried’s MISS ALTEN WILL MAKE HER DEBUT Talented Star to Sing in “Pagliacci” at the Matinee. Miss Bella Alten will make her San Francisco debut this afternoon as Ned- da in “Pagliacci.” She is said to be a revelation in the part. Mr. Caruso should outdo himself as Canio, a role in which he has thrilled thousands of opera goers. Much curiosity is felt as to the Tome of Mr. Goyitz, which Is said to be remarkable. Another nota- ble feature of the matinee at the Grand Opera-house will doubtless be the San- tuzza of Madame Maria de Macchi, which by many good critics has been proclaimed the most dramatic and real- igtic presentation of the character yet seen upun the American boards. The Lola of Madame Josephine Jacoby should be of distinct interest. Mr. Dip- pel will be the Turridu. A superb cast, including Madame Nordica, Madame Sembrich, Madame Louise Homer, Mr. Dippel, Mr. Scotti and Mr. Journet, is promised for to-night's performance of “Les Hugenots.” —_——— GERONIMO WANTS FREEDOM. 0Old Indian Chief to Plead With the President. LAWTON, Okla., April 7.—All ar- rangements for the reception ot Presi- dent Roosevelt at Frederi¢ck have been made and many persons have already started for that point from all direc- tions of the Territory. Geronimo, now a prisoner of war on the Fort Sill milj- tary reservation, left' to-day for Fred- erick to plead with the President to grant him freedom. ZILLIAN worrICA LAT CRITICS HOLD FORTH IN LOBBIES Comment on “Parsi- fal” From Different Viewpoints. Many Wordsof Praise and Quite a Few Less Kindlu. e BY JAMES . CRAWFORD. Lay criticisms of the performance of “Parsifal.” as overheard in the lobbies, seemed to be shaped in accord with the eritic’s pronunciation of the com- poser's surname. The lady who softly gurgled it “Vawgner” had only ap- proval to besow, while the commen- taries of the gentleman who rasped it ‘“Weggoner” were on a plane of harsh- ness with his vocal tone. Modified opinion was rare. Those who did not rave in eestacy over the “show,” either voiced complete dissatisfaction with it or practiced reticence. It would have been unfair to mea- sure the merit of the entertainment by the applav:e it received, because the first spontaneous handpatter was sup- a sibilant and prolonged from the ushers, who evi- dently were under instruction to pre- serve the ‘reverential atmosphere,” rel- ative to which a great deal of twaddle | was exploded. After the second act a longhaired man si-ped beer in the bar- room and deplored as saci::ge the re- | peated recalling of .iordica and Burg- | staller, because of its shattering ef- fect on the “reverential atmosphere.” Those who made the demonstration, he declared, had not the Wagner virus in their blood, else they could no more | have done what they did than they could have hissed. A peculiar effect of the ineculation, he said, is its tendency to repress emotional expression. The more thcroughly one becomes initiated in the Bayreuth cult the less is he or | sShe—mostly she—inclined to indulge in { the hand-clappings and shoutings prac- ticed by the non-elect. In other words, the feelings become too deep for ut- terance. To properly absorb the the- matic music of Wagner one must per- ish the visual sense. To hear is suffi- cient—to see is soul-distracting. The harmeonious blending of the voices and the instruments suffice to instill the de- sired rapture. The acting and the staging are superfluities. So far as he was. concerned “Parsifal,” with those | singers and that orchestra, would be just as’ enthralling if it were inter- preted in a barn with tallow dips for | tootlights. “Then, why, sir,” I ventured, “did | Herr Conrled clothe ‘Parsifal’ with such costly garniture?” “Because,” he kindly explained, “all of us are not possessed of the real spirit of Wagnerism. The tinsel and the glit- Continued on Page 3, bolnm.n 7. PROBLEM AS TO PRO THE HOUSE IS NOT With “Parsifal”—“Parsifal” the big. | ““Parsifal” the grand — crowding. clashing, clanging through my brain | and surging through my soul, I beg to renounce my conviction of yester- night that the joy of grand opera is | 50 per cent “atmosphere.” I beg to eliminate “Parsifal” from anything less sublime than art, and| art that reaches into the souls and the | bodies of men. When men's physical, mental and spiritual entities are suddenly waked | —yes, and thrilled till the tears well | up and queerish lumps gather in the throats, the thing that wrought these things is art, and sublime art. To that category does “Parsifal” be- long—-sans “atmosphere,” sans glitter, 'sans gowns. Methinks there never was in the old opera-house a soberer or more serious audience than sat from | 5 by the town clock until 6:40 and from | 8:45 till 11:30. And during these taut hours the intensity that filled the house like a vapor could be felt with as much | realism as a draught or a sudden pain. Now that “Parsifal” has come—and gone for the nonce—the awful doubt that has hovered over us of the West for weeks has lifted—the problem of | “How shall I dress?” | Now, that is a serious matter—this | thing of dressing for 5 o'clock in the daylight, and then again for the normal | hour of darkness—and without a pre~i cedent to show us, To be sure, there was New York to help out, and the advice of the privi- | leged few of our townsfolk who had | hedrd “Parsifal” at Bayreuth. So we bunched these together and went ahead and made a precedent, and herewith is the precedent for the San Francisco | productions of “Parsifal”— Wear what | you darn please.” Good news Well, last night there were loads of | men who came in their tweeds—and quite properly, it being before 6. Then there were loads more of them who | came in their evenins togs and who seemed mightily pleased that their au- dacity had saved them from a hurry- up dinner and & frantic dash into their clawhammers. But it remained for the women to clinch the “go-as-you-please” decision, for they came in full evening panoply. with fluttering frou-frous and the vagpe charm of bared throats; they came in calling gowns, o’ertopped with hats of posies; they came in prim tailor gowns and the stiff Puritan hats that must have been shocked at Kundry's hot pleadings—and there you are! That was the “Parsifal” house, as a duly 1 qualified society editor found it. Then again it was not essentially a “gociety” house. Rather wag it of the fine music-loving middle-class, with the smart set as a sprinkle—nothing to compare with the grand pageantry of “Rigoletto” of the night before. But that audience, filling the house from the black pit to turquoise dome, was there—for the most part—to hear «Parsifal” because it wanted to know it, and not because it's “proper.” True, there are always posers hang- ing over every cult, but the poser who will lend his mind and body to four hours (nearly) of “Parsifal” will either quit posing or become an adept. One of the strengest features of the music-drama was the amazing number of men who came to hear the story of the Holy Grail. There were those of us who were un- holy enough to suspect the men would fight a little shy of 80 solemn a thing as “Parsifal.”” But that wae one time | when “woman intuition” didn't make good. [t often does that trick now- adays, since we've learned to take a few flings at reason. And the men were magnificently in- tent, most of them. Some few—don't cajole me into naming names, now. please—declared . “the thing was' too Jpeastly slow and half of it should be cut out.” But of course these fellows were Philistines. /That comment has set me to wonder- ing what phrases they would lead to the slaughter—not the flower maiden scene, I'll wager! And assuredly not the mad, throbbing, virile, elemental, passionate scene between Parsifal and | comingly gowned SHtars. WAGNER'S SUBLIMEST OF MUSICAL ART HAS GRIP UPON THE SOUL Perhaps More Than Ever in Its History Grand Opera-House Is Crowded to Hear Pride of Bayreuth. PER DRESS IS SOLVED {Men and Women Follow Their Proverbial Western Independence by Doing Ex- actly as Pleased Them. ESSENTIALLY SMART BY SALLY SHARP. Kundry. the act that wrought the house to a superb frenzy of delight—to a madness. Here it was that the Good and the Bad were called to the footlights four, five, a half-dozen times, until the air was vibrant with emotion, and each of us in that house was kin to the other. This is “Parsifal,” the big, the grand, which is 100 per cent art—the “atmos- Pphere” lying within your own soul. BEAUTIFUL GOWNS ADD BRILLIANCY Fashion Throngs the Great Opera-House to Hear “ Parsifal.” Mrs. Edgar Peixotto, smart white silk gown with square decolletage. In her hair she wore a silver glitter crown, matching the trimming of the gown. Mrs. Joseph R. Knowland, wife of Congressman Knowland, looked very fetching In & white crepe de chine frock smartly touched up with Irish point. Mrs. C. R. Krauthoft was most be- in a heavy cream cleth gown on which was let in open work embroidery. Her opera coat was of white cloth with Irish point. Mrs. William Maxwell wore a pink crepe de chine, ruffied and accordion- pleated. Mrs. E. A. Davis. pale blue peau de sole and duchesse lace. Mrs. John D. Spreckels was gowned in an elaborately embroidered cream lace robe over cream taffeta. Opera coat of heavy white cloth, embossed. Mrs. Horatio Stoll. white lace waist and black chiffon skirt Mrs. Winslow Anderson, white lace robe with cpera coat of corn-colored silk. Mrs. Lewis H. Leng, pale yellow silk and Chantilly lace. Mrs. Richard T. Cohen of Sacramento wore a very fetching gown of black lace and chiffon. Mrs. Oscar T. Maurer, gowned pale pink bodice and black skirt point d'esorit. Mrs. Stanley Stillman was stunning In purple velvet and orchids. Mrs. Block, black lace slip heliotrope silk. Mrs. Wallace Wheaton Briggs. biack lace gown. Miss Block wore a very pretty gown of white peau de sofe. Mrs. Charles Charters’ gown of crema crepe de chine and lace bands was a fetching creation. Miss Dunphy wore an old rose silk gown with insertion of embroidery Mrs. Mark Gerstle, white taffeta with green girdle. Mrs. Will Gerstle, transparent clota over silk, decollette. Mrs. Albert Hutchins of Chicago, handsome black lace robe over chiffon. Mrs. Frank Deering, white ruffied peau de sole, elaborately embroidered opera cloak. Mrs. Clement Tobin, black jetted lace over chiffon. Mrs. E. de Noon Lewis, white dotted chiffon. Miss Mabel de Noon, pink satin chif- fon. Mrs. Edward Schmiedell, shirt waist suit. Miss Phyllis Partington, cream net over taffeta. ’ Miss Grace Spreckels. pink chiffon, ruffied and trimmed in accordion pleat- ings. .‘\‘d’rs. Alexander Stewart of Oakland, cream crepe de chine with opera coat of blue cloth. Mrs. Willis Polk, black lace robe over white chiffon. Mrs. M. H. de Young, white lace im- ported robe. Misg Helen de Young, pink chiffon, elaborately ruffied: pearls. Miss Constance de Young, pale blue point d’esprit over blue chiffon. Mrs. P. B. Fraser of Stockton, black and white striped etamine. Miss Charlotte Wilson, delicate green Continued on Page 3, Column 4 n ot over blue silk