24 o PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE 



requirements of the prima donna and the star tenor, and sufficient opportunity for spec- 

 tacular mounting to make them acceptable to the managers of metropolitan opera houses. 

 If the few attempts made at modern English opera have been negligible, it is no doubt 

 partly due to the difficulties against which English composers have still to contend in 

 getting a hearing for elaborate works; and if the demand for English opera continues to 

 meet with little or no response, it is because the public at large has not really as yet de- 

 veloped a serious taste for opera. 



Many experiments have been made in running a season of opera in English at popu- 

 lar prices, but they are almost always financially unsuccessful, although they meet with 

 enough encouragement from the public to foster the hope that in this respect also the 

 musical sense of England will continue to develop. The most conspicuous experiment 

 in this direction was made by Mr. Oscar Hammerstein, who, at the cost of 200,000 built 

 and equipped the London Opera House, a handsome and luxurious building situated in 

 Kingsway. Here he conducted three seasons of grand opera, but failing tO'secure the 

 necessary support he abandoned the enterprise in the spring of 1912. His failure has 

 been variously explained, but it was chiefly due to his attempt to combine two quite 

 opposite interests, due to his imperfect knowledge of London social conditions. He 

 tried on the one hand to rival Covent Garden and to attract part at least of the fashion- 

 able audience to whom the opera is a social function, and also to attract the musical 

 public which has learnt to demand a high standard of performance and repertoire. The 

 standard of performance in Mr. Hammerstein's house was excellent, but the judgment 

 shown in the selection of the repertoire was hopelessly at fault. Money was poured out 

 on the lavish mounting of old-fashioned and obsolete operas which had never been 

 really alive, and are more than dead to-day. Mr. Hammerstein was artistically in this 

 respect some half a century behind the time. The fashionable world failed to support 

 him; as a result, his project was abandoned and his opera house converted into a Cinemato- 

 graph theatre. The enterprise of Mr. Thomas Beecham met with far more artistic, 

 but no greater financial success, although by his seasons of modern opera (and his pro- 

 ductions included the works of Richard Strauss) he proved that there was a steady 

 popular support for opera in English at popular prices. 



A quite new development in the presentation of opera is worth mentioning, as it may 

 indicate a certain movement of popular taste. It is the performance of short operas in 

 full on the music-hall stage. Mascagni conducted his Cavalleria Rusticana nightly at 

 the London Hippodrome for a long season, and other short works adequately performed 

 with a full chorus and orchestra have also found a place in recent variety programmes. 

 But none of these conditions are at all likely to help in the development for which all 

 musicians are eagerly looking, a truly modern art of opera. The works of Strauss, of 

 which much was expected, have not succeeded in filling this want. It is just possible 

 that with the development of spectacular dancing and the great impulse given to the 

 new conception of scenic decoration by Gordon Craig and Prof. Reinhardt, the new 

 opera may emerge, as did the old, from the dance and the ballet. (FILSON YOUNG.) 



PAINTING 1 SCULPTURE 2 AND ARCHITECTURE 3 



Painting. On November 8, 1910 there was opened at the Grafton Galleries 

 in London an exhibition which has exercised the most far-reaching influence upon 



every phase of artistic activity in England. The movement illustrated 

 s/on//mf res " by that exhibition has been an active force in France, and indeed all 



over Europe, for some years, although it had only sent a faint echo across 

 the Channel, where it was given the somewhat vague and meaningless name of "Post- 

 Impressionism" in preference to " Synthesism " and other terms suggested for it. 

 This Post -Impressionism is a revolt against the tyranny exercised by realistic repre- 

 sentation over the art of the later nineteenth century, just as earlier in the century 



J See E. B. xx, 459 et seq. and allied articles enumerated in Index Volume p. 886. 

 8 See E. B. xxiv, 488 et seq. and allied articles enumerated in Index Volume p. 887. 

 2 See E. B. ii, 369 et seq. and allied articles enumerated in Index Volume p. 884. 



