St. Louis Post-Dispatch
January 8, 1911

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Page 1

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en :

AY j “with her queer, weird, strained poses. She al- Ways says everything on the bias.” ; Mary Garden does not say things on the bias. It Lam getting ahead of my story it is due tothe impetus assimilated from contact with this high~- irited creature so full of vitality. But I am eeping. you from meeting her. And Mary Gar- den wouldn’t do that. ee ‘ Promptly atthe moment appointed for my visit in a note signed characteristically just “Gar- den,” the foremost leader of the new increasingly dramatic trend of grand opera. appeared and shattered- with her punctuality all precedent in my previous records of the prima donna tem: perament. WE) Ghe was wearing meteor, crepe in shades of taupe. Yes, it was decidedly hobbled, short: t? waisted and all that. You are still in the mode, u ° ; Miss Wintergirl. Her hat was ‘lined with black a wreath of ‘dull blue plumes en- be 5 ye j d 7 > a Serer ss : eG : 4 ae te tite se Pie ithe a shelled | | NSS MARY GARDEN ee “LIFE IS WHAT WE.’ WRYNCT IN OPERATIC THEMES. : FROM SPENDING HOURS ‘To SEF. LUCIA WHATS-ER-NaMmeE, /

“When I Peeped Out at That Monday Night Audience: /DIE., HEAVEN DEFEND ME.”

I Had to Drink a Couple of Bottles. Of Beer to Regain My Poise.” “I Shall: Never. Bring My Newest oe Opera to St. Louis Until You Have an Opera ‘House---the G Smells Horsey” “I Can't Act Unless ‘There’s Music---I Depend Altogether Upon it f rt

| “Salome Was Pure— As Pure as Moonlight; She Is Life Itself

Lill ititn

LOS OO Ty ty ini i

VIVA -

and that I do a bareback act. The place actually smelled horsey.” 7 “Tetrazzini was pleased to death with it,” I remarked. : “And it is just the place for her pyrotechnics. It affords her-an opportunity to show what she can do in vocal gymnastics. No doubt’her ‘voice climbed up and did acrobatic feats in the rafters. “But we. of the new French school of opera are done with those technical, mechanical exhibitions of vocal skill. Operas with the dramatic ele- ment with delicate shading in the development of the story demand to be performed within a certain range of the eye. “All this is not to underestimate the splendid spirit and taste demonstrated by that magnifi- cent audience of 6000.people. But to think of trying to impress those wee little peanuts away up there! Oh, la! Ja! la! : “Your people are deserving of better things, I shall never bring my newest and best opera : to St. Louis until you have an opera. house.” HAT this threat may have the proper chast- _ _ ening effect upon those who withhold \_ their enthusiasm for a new opera house, So ‘I made sure that there is no other means, of avoid: icourt. ‘You are, pure as. the moon is pure,’ . Spiration.” o sad a “ : ” +. = — Hate and the Primal Elements, Are All We Want in Opera.” “My talent has been most prized by composers who desire me fo create the acting version of their works. I illustrate their meaning, they say. And as for my acting, the music suggests such worlds of ideas to one. WBspecially is this true of the Strauss composition. “In the Salome orchestration I listen for those wild beasts hollerin’ in the jungle down there and the white peacocks shrieking and I am in a world peopled and characterized with ideas. Yes, I really need the music,” “Many people are in doubt as to the raison d’etre of Salome and why you choose the role,” ] suggested. ion On pe ; ‘Because Salome is my favorite of all. the operatic roles I have yet essayed,” she replied instantly, ‘taking the last question out of my mouth. “It gives me such opportun- ity. As for its moral effect—people won't let themselves understand Saléme. Salome was a virgin and unsophisticated. She did not compre- hend her new emotions, Is it any wonder? Love ig ever more mysterious than death. We some- times know why people die, but why we love one individual over another we know not. MEN ARE SLOW, WOMEN QUICK. 66 NE of the papers remarked this morning O that it was impossible to believe love could have come over her so quickly It was a man wrote that, I know. Stupid! Mer are always slow while women aré quick, like electricity, at arriving at conclusions. Jokanaan appealed to Salome as something different from any man she had known at Herod’s depraved she sings to him. Salome likewise was pure.

artificialities of civilization for .a moment, it would have to be admitted that Salome strikes a responsive chord in all of us. It is this respon- sive chord we recognize and are so ashamed of. If people could look at it impersonally they wotlld find Salome an artistic creation to be heard many times and always full of revelations. “Salome is life and that is what we want in operatic themes. From all that sentimental drivel of [1 Trovatore, Licia what’s-er-name, where you spend two or three hours to watch a woman die, heaven defend me from it! It is life and real people we want in our operas. . Not complicated plots—the simpler the better. Love, hate, self-preservation, the primal elements are all that are necessary.” Apropos’ of police interference, Miss Garden’s sympathies were expressed for the London an- archists whose fate was a feature of the day’s} news. , ‘“T- am just lately become acquainted with Emma Goldman’s doctrine, and it wouldn’t look ‘well in print.to say that I recognized her as a kindred spirit,” said Mary Garden. “And indeed I have no reason for wanting all the kings ex terminated,” she added laughing. - : “But my sympathies go out to thinking people such as I believe Emma Goldman to be when I/ HE talk veered around to politics and as take it for the key of her singularly free from many of’ t 1e . bl tributed to femininity. NOt ative, when a woman rep imagination, breathed s Miss Garden, that an. from beginning’ to end?’~ at her, refuséd to even: pucker up her bro it, never did answer but turned gaily to interrogator.. Bees ae. SP ¢ =. ; bs b & ee ae si a ee Sethe os a ee ae! See ee ey ‘ramets ata aie Biieas A ep TASS Sistas spa RES te Seale hy Ans js Bae) Pen ‘eee :