An Ill-Bred Devil?

Having received the idolatrous praise of Chicago, Feodor Chaliapin, Russian giant, bestrode the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan, last week--first in the opera, Boris Godunov, made famous by him, and then as a ruffianly and ill-behaved Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust.

As Mephistopheles, he was not the suave fiend intended by the composer. He had not the pretty wit and mocking contempt for silly humanity. He was simply Chaliapin -- boisterous, funny, romping. But the Metropolitan resounded with cheers and the Russian baritone broke the strictest rule of the house when he gave an encore to the Golden Calf song in the first act.

Newlyweds

The Swedish Ballet, trumpet-tongued, arrived. Paris had been talking about them--especially about the second of their four pieces, entitled The Newlyweds on the Eiffel Tower by Jean Cocteau.

A bridal party enters upon the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. They want to be photographed, but the photographer's "birdie," who happens to be an ostrich, has escaped. However, he lines up the bridal party and says: "Watch for the little birdie." Pop goes the camera and out jumps a bathing girl, picture postcard style. The photographer tries again. Out comes the future son of the blushing bridal couple. Once again and out pops a lion who eats up the best man (a General). Finally the ostrich reappears, is induced to reenter the camera and all is happy.

Man and His Desire is a nuptial scenario by Paul Claudel with music by the unbalanced Darius Milhaud. Its climax comes when a woman unwinds herself from some chiffon.

Altogether the Swedish ballet was poorly done. It was not very beautiful and it was quite ridiculous.

In Japan

Prince Tokugawa, descendant of the Shoguns* first aristocrat of the Empire, now takes his place near the top of the musical world as Japan's greatest music patron.

It is now public knowledge that most of the great musicians who have gone to Japan from Europe and America have gone under the auspices of the Prince. He it was who organized Japan's first symphony concert. He has given and sponsored free public concerts, has caused concerts to be broadcasted from the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. Altogether, the advancement of music in Japan in recent years is ascribed largely to his enthusiasm.

The Prince had planned a great musical festival for next Spring, one that was to become an annual event. When the earthquake was rocking Tokyo, the Prince was on an express train thither-bound. But it was 19 days before he arrived to find the Imperial Theatre in ruins and his own concert hall partly demolished. Nevertheless, the Prince does not despair of his festival and is at present endeavoring to engage American artists.

In Chicago

The Chicago Opera Company advertising Gounod's Faust:

COME ONE! COME ALL!

The music delights and

the drama points a moral.

"Turmoil, Bickerings"

Amelita Galli-Curci continues to issue aphorisms in protesting her determination (TIME, Nov. 26) to abandon the Chicago Civic Opera. Her last : "An artist cannot give of her best if there are turmoil, bickering, quarreling. Even a street sweeper is shown consideration if he sweeps well. I have been shown none."

$ $ $

Heugel, music publishing house, of Paris, offers 75,000 franc ($4,125) for the music and 25,000 francs for the words of an opera in four acts. Its duration must be not less than 21 1/4 hours nor more than 2 3/4 hours. Competition closes Oct. 31, 1925.

In Atlanta

Geraldine Farrar's manager had made a contract with the pastor of the Wesley Memorial Church, Atlanta, for the use of his church's auditorium for Miss Farrar's concert on Nov. 30. Shortly before the concert one Dr. W. H. Laprade, presiding officer of the Methodist Church of that district, removed the pastor and refused to allow Miss Farrar to sing in the church auditorium. He gave as his reason, Miss Farrar's sensational interpretation of the title role in Zaza* which she sang when the Metropolitan Opera Company visited Atlanta in 1920. Nothing could persuade Dr. Laprade to change his mind.

Geraldine Farrar calmly stated that she would sing in Atlanta even if her concert had to be given at Five Points (the busiest street intersection in the city).

Finally a high school minstrel show which had engaged the City Auditorium made way for the diva. The concert was given without further molestation.

Lilli vs. Lovers

Lilli Lehmann is living in Grunewald, near Berlin. She has just celebrated her 75th birthday. In good health, but no longer able to sing, she devotes herself to teaching girls to become stars.

There is a bit of strangeness in her rules. For years she was the perfect lover in mimic life, the Brunhilde, the Isolde, the Norma. But now she refuses to give lessons to young women who are in love. When a girl falls in love she is ousted from Lilli Lehmann's school.

The name of Lehmann is inseparable from the history of the Metropolitan Opera House in the 80's when German opera predominated under Frank Damrosch and Anton Seidl; and when the singers of fame in that Age of Innocence were Frau Brandt, contralto, Stritt and Alvary, tenors, and Fischer, basso.

"She has always had inspiration and she sang in the grand manner," say the Fathers.

On her birthday she received a cable from her favorite pupil, Geraldine Farrar. "Dear Gerry never forgets me," said Lehmann.

*Shogun--a title of military governors of Japan, monopolized by various noble families in turn. By usurpation the Shoguns became the virtual rulers, until in the revolution of 1867-1868 the office was abolished and the power of tho Emperor restored.

*Zaza Is a music-hall actress but quite respectable. "When she makes a wager that she will make Milio Dufresne declare his love for her she does not know that he has a wife and an angel child, Toto. When she follows him to Paris she meets the wife and Toto. There Is a lachrymose interview, but Zaza goes home again without having made a scene.

Of course, when Zaza and Dufresne meet later in her dressing-room she can give way to her artistic temperament. She strokes the hero's tousled hair before she tries to scratch his eyes out. It is quite likely that Miss Farrar looked disheveled when she retired from the stage of the Atlanta theatre on the night she scandalized the Georgia minister above-named.