Places and Persons
ARTICLES
May 7, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 11 Places and Persons THE GOOD BERLINER'S OPERA By REDFERN MASON IN AMERICA opera is considered a luxury; in Europe it is regarded as education. Your...
...but it is not too much to hope that the opera house may in a few years time be as characteristic a feature of the typical American city as the moving picture house is today...
...In some countries the artists are public servants paid by the state and retired on a pension at the end of a certain number of years of service...
...Others, equally gifted perhaps, but lacking in "the trick of singularity," give lessons orally themselves with conservatories between seasons...
...That is the only way you can produce good opera...
...You may ask how can the good Berliner afford it...
...And the quality of the performances is high...
...But the proper training for opera is opera itself...
...For example the city fathers of Long Beach spend an annual $120,000 on the upkeep of a first-class band...
...Few succeed...
...In scores of towns of from 50,000 upward there is an opera house, which may also be a symphony hall...
...In America the instrumentalists have the advantage over the vocalists...
...for $250 is the highest fee any opera star receives in Germany, with the exception of the elect few who are hors concours, singers like Chaliapin, Claudia Muzio, Schipa...
...The members of the chorus have one and all of them had a couple of years' thorough training in music and stage technique...
...And how much do you pay for your Opera in California...
...Then how can the result deserve the name of opera ? We rehearse for weeks, principals and soloists and orchestra together...
...America has serious problems to solve...
...Why, for that sum, in our German cities, we could give opera for ten days at least, a performance every day...
...In some European countries money is raised for music by the taxation of commodities...
...And the minister turned to the writer, knowing that he came from California...
...they "work the wires," trying to get into the gilded circle...
...Your Berlin tradesman goes to the Volksoper once or twice a week, takes his wife and children with him, and listens to Tristan or Freischutz...
...If the Milanese go to a cinema, or visit a racetrack or patronize a ball game, they pay their obolus to the upkeep of La Scala...
...We pay for education in the public schools, and that education includes music...
...25,000 pays for two bands...
...S. Hurck's German opera only costs him $7,000 a night, and that is a traveling company...
...True you can get standing room in the gallery of the Vienna opera for $.19 and hear the world's masterpieces well done...
...its patrons are a society of 40,000 men and women, who for $.40 can hear firstclass performances of the Ring...
...The chorus consists of local singers, who are trained for months before the performance...
...And the chorus and the orchestra...
...This opportunity Europe offers because the people regard music as education and are willing to pay for it out of the public treasury...
...Santa Monica supports its choral societies and children's concerts...
...The spectacular names are about as many as there are fingers on both hands...
...How many rehearsals do you have with the principals...
...The places are chosen by lot...
...With stock companies the cost of production could be reduced from San Francisco's $15,000 a performance to $5,000...
...But you are a young people, you Americans, and so far you have no music which adequately represents the genius of the people...
...But outside of singing in church and for clubs, what work is there for the singer...
...The joint rehearsals rarely are more than two or three...
...In this matter we may well profit by the wisdom which it has taken Europe centuries of experience to acquire...
...But would that be an inducement to the people of New York to put their hands into their pockets to the tune of $750,000...
...This lead was followed by the National Federation in its Boston convention, and further action will be taken at next year's convention in San Francisco...
...If the city of Dresden can expend $400,000 annually on opera out of the public funds, why should not Chicago do the same...
...4,000 is the salary of the municipal chorus master...
...But then we have the soloists who are on your preferred list, your Giglis and your Muzios...
...For example in Riga they tax intoxicants...
...The rank of the artists in Germany, France and Austria would hardly dream of leaving their native land...
...The city of Berlin, though often not far from the state of bankruptcy, kept up its annual grants of $250,000 to each of the great opera houses, determined that the spirit which is embodied in the art of the masters of music and drama should not be suffered to perish...
...It was the writer's pleasant duty to wander all over Europe to find out why people in the old world allow themselves to be taxed for the provision of what, by most Americans, is regarded as a luxury...
...The Berlin Hochschule is not a musical factory, where anyone who can pay the fee can be taught music, even though nature meant him to be a tailor...
...one night you may find yourself in a box, the next occasion in the topmost gallery: if you are a stranger you pay $2.50...
...About $15,000 a performance" was the answer...
...Already the idea has taken root in many minds...
...Why not carry the idea to its logical conclusion and pay for the musical education of grown-ups...
...Fifteen thousand dollars," he echoed...
...There is just the faintest hint of irony in the minister's tone...
...Compare that with poverty-stricken Vienna's annual subsidy to music and drama of $753,109...
...Think for a moment what a help it would be to music if every patron of the National League games or football stadia were taxed 5 percent on the price of admission...
...The answer is not far to seek...
...They make music for a livelihood and so long as they can sing or play satisfactorily, the local opera or symphony will be their workshop...
...If every city of 50,000 had its opera house, where light or grand opera or both were given during the major part of the year, our gifted young people would have their opportunity...
...We Germans have, and that is why our people are willing to be taxed for it...
...The Hochschule receives an annual $150,000 from the city and anyone can study there almost free of charge who can prove that he or she has talent...
...Nor is poverty penalized...
...Her music schools are turning out musicians by the thousand, and, in every part of the land, they are looking, often in vain, for an opportunity to express themselves in their chosen art and, at the same time, make a livelihood by so doing...
...The number of artists who can make a living by recital tours is very limited...
...The writer winces...
...But will the American public submit to be taxed in order to provide what they have grown up to regard as a form of amusement...
...They cost $2,000 or $3,000 a night...
...America will work out her musical destiny in her own way...
...When it is remembered that the Federation has a membership of 500,000 voters, it will be seen that a potential political influence exists and is now being brought into play...
...A forward step has been made in some of the cities of California...
...The spirit that is Beethoven and Wagner is a thing which the German people "will not willingly let die...
...Your San Francisco opera somewhat resembles what in Germany we call the society season with this important difference, of course, that we work up our ensemble by months of rehearsing, and your performances are, as it were, improvisational...
...The annual contribution to the support of music made by the city of New York is about $50,000...
...The Volksoper receives an annual $250,000 a year...
...Or maybe he turns to the drama and listens to Hamlet, for in the fatherland Shakespeare is more frequently played than he is in any English-speaking country...
...In San Francisco last year the supervisors gave $100,000 for music, of which $30,000 was divided between the summer and winter seasons of the symphony...
...symphony "pops" are given to audiences of 9,000...
...They take a workman's view of their art...
...Music is education," said the minister of fine arts of the Prussian state and he told how, when the Allies asked the Germans to forego their operatic and theatrical subventions, in order to pay the indemnity, they flatly refused...
...True the principals do not receive more than $250 a performance and most of them less than that...
...he demanded...
...The orchestra is the San Francisco Symphony and I think it will compare not unfavorably with your best German organizations...
...That ought to appeal to Otto Kahn...
...for there are excellent symphony orchestras and the number is steadily increasing...
...To be sure this money is written down to advertising the city, since the civic charter does not allow money to be given specifically for music...
...The German cities subsidize their opera and drama...
...If only America could tax bootleggers I The people of Gothenberg make visiting artists contribute a portion of the receipts of their recitals to the support of local musical institutions...
...In Europe the situation is different...
...The California State Federation of Music Clubs at its last annual convention voted in favor of state and civic subsidization of music...
...Yet there are optimists who believe that eventually we shall be able to bring the businesslike American to recognize that music pays—pays as advertising, pays as education, pays as a deterrent from crime, pays as a character builder and the provider of a creative hobby...
...The minister gasped...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 1
