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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1903)
The American Invasion of Grand Opera - .TT.:"..,"ir. ' ' ' " T'- ' -' ' -rr T1 1T.TT...1 1. .' TTTT j . , ...... X . ! rty : - attdrtyL . :' V : X, Vft' "X.X: ; A j . ,S'' . .: vl ; W!' 0 "' V:-; . r v, XV viO llL. t J Um OLIVkJ FnEMSTAD. A MINNEAPOLIS GIRL. WHO SINGS CONTRALTO. t MISS EDITH WALKER,' LEADING MEZZO-SOPRANO AND AN AMERICAN. V n I.. W TIolnHxh Pnnr ,4 A marl,.ora U elnifprs are coming to their own," I ilflMlmml a. wttll knnofn miiHliul critic, on reading the Hut of the "utara" who will appear during the forthcoming grand opera season, which opens at the New York Metropolitan Opera bouse In November, and will be continued In several of the other large American Cities. The critic was right. Never before, in the lil.story of grand opera in this country, have American artists had as large a representation. TIiIh Is especially true of the meizo-popranoR and contraltos whom Mr. Ponried hns engaged. There are seven, of them, ond six are American women. Rdllh Wulkcr was born In Long Island, Olive FrcniHtud Is n Minneapolis girl of American and Scandinavian parentage, Iwibello Ilouton is a Brooklyn woman with a great musical reputation In her native city, and LouUo Homer and Fanehon Thompson are well known American Binders. . Of the six pupils In the new school of opera which Mr. Conried has started as the flrst step toward the formation of a permanent conservatory two are American girls. Josephine Jacoby la a popular oratorio singer In Manhattan, and Marcia Van Prcsser la well known In many Ameri can cltiea through her successes In light pera. Of all these artists, the most Interesting to opera-goers and the American public will undoubtedly be Miss Edith Walker, who has been engaged to sing the leading metio-soprano roles. Her story Is a romance of real life. When she was a little Long- Island girl her father was a nureeryman who went around the island selling plants and flowers. She was brought up among "practical" people, who knew little about music and cared less. Old Long Inlanders remember her as a dreamy girl, who had a passion for studying music and going to such concerts ond oratorios as came within her reach. But none of them ever suspected that she would become famous. "As a little girl," pays one who knows nor, "she was full of dreams of music and aniMllon, but she had positively no musical atmosphere or pull.1 Yet somehow she managed to work and hope, Treating her awn atmosphere as she went along. No one knew her or encouraged her, but she etrugKled with all her mlsht and main to k'tp the hope from dying." Finding no change of developing her tal ent and gaining a reputation In her own country, Edith Walker went to Europe while still a young girl, and studied earnestly In the best centers of miiHlcal education on the continent. After a hard struggle, during which she was often al- r ' v X ; P J FELIX UOVIX, aawslCAX. DIRECTOR. most en the verge of destitution, she be came known In London and Paris. But her real success was not made until she sang In Vienna. Old Emperor Frans Josef heard her there and waa delighted with her voice. Calling the director of the Vienna Imperial Opera hou.-e, a state Institution, he asked him to enguge the youog American woman at once. Since then Miss Walker has been for several years one of the leading singers at the Impoital opera house and a prime fa vorite with tho aged emperor. When he is wearied by the cares of state and his ceate l'sa struggle to hold his country together nnd preserve the peace of Europe, he often summons her to his palace to sing to him In the evening, and declares that that Is the tKBt relaxation he can obtain. . - - i The emperor's consent was necessary to the engagement cf Miss Walker by Mr. Conried. It Is on open secret that he did net wivh to give it. but felt It would be hard to deny her the opportunity of mak ing a reputation In her native land. Thua It la that the Edith Walker who U rw- . - - -.a FRAN NAVAL, T2,X0H. memkered by Long Islanders as a little girl ef no particular account Is returning to her heme, for the fltst time In many years, a prima donna of European fame. . . Interest will also be felt In the appear ance of Miss Olive Fremstad, the Minne apolis contralto. Some years ago, when Seidl was giving Bunday , evening concerts In the Lenox Lyceum, New York, Sofia Schalchl, the "cello-voiced contralto," failed to appear at no et the concerts for which 'she had been engaged. Her place was taken by a young girl, and that was the first time New . Yorkers heard Olive Fremstad In concert.". . Like all the musical geniuses of America, Miss Fremstad had to go abroad to study and become famous before she could hope to attain honor in her own country. She studied under Mme. Lllll Lehmann, firt appeared In opera with Colomiue, the French conductor, and made a hit last season at the .Covent Garden opera, London. Mlii Fremstad la a teaullful woman. She works hard, reads deeply, has a wide range ef Interests, la an expert swimmer, la very fond of animals and keeps a great number of pets. "She la on original," says one of her friends. "Unlike most operatic stars, she is a trifle careless as to her personal ap pearance, even on the stage. ' She walks) with 'a lay grace, which Is effective on the boards because of her beautiful figure." - Mme.' Emma' Calve, who is to reappear after two years' absence, has been leading: truly rural life at her chateau In the south of France, tending her sheep, chat ting with the peasants and climbing the hills. ....... As Calve wanders i'.ut she listens to the folk songs of the peasants. A year or two ago she began to write down her favor ite airs, until at length she had enough to weave Into a one-act opera, which she sang recently In London. In return for the songs which the peas ants give I.cr she sings to them the grand opera airs which Americans eagerly pay thousands of dollars to hoar. Often she stops at a cottage and sings song after song to please a peasant woman or a child, asking no payment save a glass ef milk. ' - Emma Calve Is a many-sided, eccentrlo woman. She Is deeply interested In all kinds of mystical, occult and splrltuallstlo lore, . and '. she even ' became engaged to be married to Mr. Jules Bols, ' a writer of mystical stories, on the strength of advice which Bhe supposed the spirits gave her. She broke this engagement, pre sumably because her phantom counsellor changed their advice. But she is a woman with a keen sense of humor, a facile pen, and a fondness for caricaturing her friends. She Is also a very clever dancer, and can do the lively serio-comic "song-and-danc act" with any goubrette of the Bowery stage. A new soprano Is coming from Finland In the person of Madame Alno Ackte. To quote one of the officials of the Metropoli tan opera house she will be "the Eames of the colectlon." She Is not only a fine ' artist, but . also a beautiful woman, a society belle In Europe, and an exquisite dresser. She la said to resemble the lovely Christine Nllson of other days, being a richly colored blonde, tall, stately and graceful. Madame Ackte did not have to struggle for fame, like Miss Walker and most of her kind. She was "born to the purple." Ehe is the daughter of the director of a musical academy, and her mother was a ' singer well known throughout ' Norway, Sweden and Germany. ' The daughter, when only 17 years old, sang at a concert given by her mother, and after that waa often heard in her own country. She began (Continued on Page Flfttwvj