Opera

Aristocracy has always permitted itself a rather cautious association with the Arts. The tonsorial standards of elegance may be prohibitive to the abundant locks of genius. But the works of genius, the children of the opulently thatched brain of creative art, have never been questioned as the appurtenance of polite splendor. The hallmarks of Society must be conspicuous. Therein is the serene excellence of music. All the world--all the world that is a world--is there to see you listen to symphony or opera and to be seen by you.

Smooth gliding Hispano-Suizas, Minervas, gracefully imperious Renaults, the more conventional Rolls-Royces have begun again to deposit their precious burdens at the sacrosanct portals of the Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan, of the Auditorium, Chicago. Venerable gentlemen in the prosperous-seeming splendor of Prince Alberts and silk hats unlock doors and let down chains. First an excited jabbering line, clutching the arduously saved dollars of their admission, a shoving and a scurrying, and the standees find their places between the red plush rail an 1 the red plaster wall. They are admitted with a discreet promptitude to make way for the diamond-studded throng of sagaciously tardy Society-- diplomats, titled foreigners, valuably accoutred dowagers, stiffly-starched magnates.

The opera has opened again, before the most brilliant and enthusiastic audiences since the War. The Season has begun.

It had been supposed that the Metropolitan would choose for its opening Fedora, Maria Jeritza's latest triumphant impersonation. But Signer Gatti-Casazza, shrewd impressario, had planned otherwise. Verdi, well-tried veteran, was called into service and Aida was the safe and sane choice, with a familiar safe and sane cast. There was no Caruso, no Farrar, no Jeritza. There was instead a new conductor, one Tullio Serafin, carefully discriminating and strangely energetic after the somnolent Mr. Moranzoni.

Mr. Serafin is a conductor of European fame. He was at one time assistant conductor with Toscanini at La Scala. He has conducted in Ferrera; Buenos Ayres; Madrid; Covent Garden, London; the Champs Elysees, Paris. He has taught at the Milan Conservatory, Montemezzi one of his pupils. Aged 46, he looks younger--a serious thick-set Italian, dominating, vital.

Jeritza's triumph came later in the first week. Wagner's Tannhaueser was her medium. Never more beautiful to the eye, she succeeded in making the too-good-to-be-true Elisabeth almost pathetically human. Herr Laubenthal in the title role saved himself no effort, and therein lay his defeat.

Chaliapin's first Boris of the season met with a conflicting reception. Greeted enthusiastically by the audience and most critics, Ernest Newman, brilliant guest critic of The New York Evening Post (TiME, Oct. 13), was disappointed. He had not heard the Russian basso in this role since 1914. He found the great voice gone, the acting selfconscious.

In Chicago, too, a conductor was the hero of the premiere. The presentation of La Gioconda, Ponchielli's opera, was a triumph not alone for the ever-popular Rosa Raisa in the title role, but chiefly for Giorgio Polacco, orchestral alchemist, who turned the good showmanship and occasionally melodiously inspirational score of Ponchielli's ponderous work into the semblance of a piece of true art. His genius not only led him to underscore the dramatic situations which are the opera's chief virtue, but to give rare opportunity to the singers themselves, chorus and principals, to make the most of the vocal tone which is so important in Italian opera, where the singer is more than anywhere else the thing.

The opening of the second week at the Metropolitan was no less a triumph for Maria Jeritza, Lohenarin her medium. Other features of the second lap of the season in that temple of patrician appreciation were Andrea Chenier and The Tales of Hoffmann (revival)--well-tried pieces both.

Features, of the week at Chicago's auditorium were Lucia, presenting for the first time Toti dal Monte, soprano; Tannhaueser, with another new conductor, Mr. Weber; Samson and Delilah. The ever-popular Rosa Raisa's second appearance of the season was in Aida, last Saturday night.