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Show MUSIC AND MUSICIANS m There are said by some conscientious statistic- H ians to be 1,700 vocalists of various ages em- B ployed in the opera houses of Italy. There are ' 430 sopranos, 150 mezzo sopranos and contraltos, H 350 tenors, 240 baritones and 180 basses. These H are the singers of important parts. There are H, also 200 conductors, whose task is to keep these ' singers in tune and time. H' During the last operatic year in 2,220 cliff er- H1 ent towns and in 283 opera houses there were 379 H seasons of opera, "Rigoletto" was sung in thirty- m nine of these towns, while "Pagliacci" and "II R Barbiere di Seviglia" also stood high In popular- H' ily. Of the 133 operas sung 38 were novelties. P The season at Covent Garden will be opened H this year with "Tristan und Isolde," "Habanera," m of which so much has been heard here, will be H sung and so will "Louise" and "Pelleas et Melis- H ande" until the London public learns to like the H1 two latter works. There are to be three Russian H. singers among the artists. H ; Giordano's 'fFedora,"' Salint-Saens's "Proser- Hi pine," Massenet's "Therese' and Dargomiuski's H' "Roussalka" are to be sung and "Don Quichotte" H. will be the principal novelty. "Louise" has re- Hi cently been revived at the Theatre dela Mon- H H i No recent French work has met with the H' ' same success that "has fallen to Jean Nougues's H "Quo Vadis." It has been neard in Lyons, Bord- H eaux, Rouen, Nice, and Marseilles. It had thirty m. i representations at Orleans to sold out houses. It H was the only performance that continued to at- H tract large audiences during the Paris floods. H Dupont's promised "La Glu," which was heard H a't Nice, has a text drawn from Jean Richepin's H' novel by Henri Cain. It has also been accepted H foi the Berlin Opera House, where the present H diplomacy seems to play a considerable share H in settling the repertoire. Gabriel Dupont is H the composer. w The story deals with a young woman from H Paris, who for a flirtation makes love to a young H Breton fisherman. She finds it impossible to H rid herself of him and whan he learns how faith- H less she is he tries to kill himself. His mother H prevents this and keeps up the good work by H murdering the faithless heroine. Emma Calve is H to sing" the role of the mother when the work 1 reaches Paris. The opera was accepted for Ber- M Hi on the recommendation of the Kasier's sis- H ter, the Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, who said it H was all right. That ought to settle it. H , The Opera Comiciue is to revive Xavier Le- H, I roux's "La Reine Fiamette," which Xavier Le- H roux wrote for Mary Garden. Marcel Rousseau is H now rehearsing there his father's "Leone." Mar- H guerlte Can-e is to sing the title role in Leroux's H opera. "Salome" is to be sung first at the Opera H in May. Mary Garden and Hector Dufranne of H J the Manhattan Opera House will be in the cast. H L In a recent program book of the Bosiun aym- H j J phony Orchestra Mr. Philip Hall ivrites a blo- Ii graphical note of a soloist soon to be heard in the West for the first time: "Miss Tilly Koenen was born on the Island of Java. IieXr father, a cavalry general, -was governor of the province. She studied the pianoforte, but, when she was sixteen, j she began to take singing lessons at the Con- H'P servatory of Music in Amsterdam, and with Cor- H nelle Van Zanten, now a teacher in Berlin. It H has been said that she made her first appearance H In public about seven years ago, but she was one H of the singers in the concert of Frederlch Del- H ius's compositions given in London, May 30, 1899. |