Carnea Walden
THE UNIVERSITY COURIER.
Published weekly at the University of Kansas.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, MAY 3, 1894.
Vol. XII.
The Courier is published every Thursday during collegiate year by the University Courier Publishing Co.
University Courier Publishing Co.
Subscription $1.00 per year in advance, single copies 5 cents.
Address all communications and contributions to the editor-in-chief; all business communications to the business manager, and subscriptions to the circulator,
Lawrence, Kansas.
Entered at the Lawrence postoffice as second-class matter.
F. E. BUCHAN, Editor.
FRANK BOWKER, Local Editor.
E. W. PALMER, Literary and Exchange Editor.
ROLLA MITCHELL, Athletic and Amusement Editor.
No.24.
E. P. LUPFER, Managing Editor.
C. R. TROXEL, Business Manager. L. S. CHAMBERLAIN, Circulator. R. J. HOPKINS, Ass't Business Manager. A. B. BATES, Treasurer.
We publish this week an article by Prof. Kellogg entitled the "Student at the Opera." Mr. Kellogg has but recently returned from Europe where he spent the winter in attendance at the German Universities, and he describes admirably the way in which the Students take advantage of an opportunity to hear some of the greatest operas produced.
MAY Day has passed. And we wish to congratulate the class of '97 on the plucky way in which she defended her flag. And at the same time we think '95 owes her a vote of thanks for keeping her flag floating. With perhaps a few tilts on the side the war was a very friendly one, as the scuffling was done in a good natured way. And with the exception of a black eye or two, recieved by a too sudden contact with mother earth no one was hurt. We are more than pleased to see the class spirit the fight on Tuesday aroused. And our only hope is that something will be done to keep it at its present pitch, for enthusiasm for your class means loyalty for the University.
THE STUDENT AT THE OPERA.
Opera in Leipzig is especially good. Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich are the other places in Germany where it is as good. Dresden and Hamburg have no universities; Berlin has one but the city is too large, and the Munich students are not much inclined to exercise their privileges or rights in respect to the administration of the opera houses. In Leipzig the student assumes that the city builds play houses and maintains opera for him; and as a personage thus recognized he further assumes the right of aiding the opera house management in many of its most delicate administrative affairs. For example, I recall with special distinctness the night that Dresden's great Wagner tenor, George Anthes, was singing Siegfried as guest in the Leipzig opera. A Wagner night in the city where Wagner was born means a packed house; and that part of the house most in evidence is always the parterre-rechts, the students' seats. This night at 6 o'clock when the curtains drew apart after the short orchestral introduction, one Herr H——r was seen sitting as Mime the Nibelung, hammering the sword with praiseworthy vigor, while he sang with distressing inaccuracy Mime's complaint:
"Zwangvolle Plage
Müh'ohne Zweck
Das beste Schwert
Das je ich geschweisst," etc.
This Herr H——r was the pet aversion of the Leipziger students. It appears that when a singer flats in Leipzig he becomes not an
object of pity or a man to be avoided but the object of the personal dislike and wrath of the student, and a man to be met on his every appearance by an enthusiastic, numerous and persistent enemy. Mime was given a fair chance; he sinned, however, glaringly. And for this he was warned, punished and finally routed by the enemy in "parterre-rechts." Not again during the winter was Herr H —r cast by the Leipzig opera.
One Sunday night in January the Master-singers of Nuremburg was sung with Herr T—a, of the ducal court theater in Dessau, as guest in the role of Walther van Stalzing. Herr T—a had a week voice and a silly make-up, and was altogether a sad travesty of Wagner's singing knight. He was tolerated, however, till the prize singing scene, when the restrained wrath burst forth, and the prize song was lost in the shuffling. At the end of the scene the management announced from the stage that Herr T—a was sudddenly indisposed, and could not longer sing. Walther von Stalzing, Knight, spoke for the rest of the evening only through a first violin.
Both of these evenings were unenjoyable, and the manifestations from parterre-rechts smacked of rudeness; but such evenings discourage flatting.
Getting to the opera is an interesting business. In the Sunday morning paper is the week's list of operas and plays for both play houses. (The city of Leipzig owns and manages two opera houses, in which performances occur every night in the week through the season, and the season of the new opera house, at least, lasts the whole year round.) The student decides what he will see and hear in the week, and goes at 8 o'clock Sunday morning to the university janitor, an important functionary, to "sign up" for seats. The earliest signers get the front seats, or ought to. Really the man who leaves the most pfennige in reach of the janitor's wife sits in front. In something especially great, Fidelio or a Wagner opera, the line of students on foot Sunday morning at eight o'clock is a long one, and as many students leave some pfennige, and some students leave many pfennige, the stocking of the janitor's wife jingles very pleasantly of a Sabbath morning. On the day of the opera the student returns to the janitor's office and receives his ticket for the evening; he pays 20 cents for it. He reaches the new opera house, a beautiful building in a large open square, by six o'clock if the opera be a large one, or by seven if it be shorter. He gives up his hat and coat, overcoat, and 5 cents to the garderobe woman, shows his student card and ticket, and joins the interesting crowd in parterre-rechts. If the overture has begun he is restrained outside till it is finished. Is he in and seated before, the orchestra (if so) begins, and does some one whisper or rustle a program during the overture, then does our student inform the disturber by some one or other means that he must keep still. The applause does not, or rarely does, interrupt the music; it is saved up for curtain calls. At the end of the evening the student remembers not only the singers, but he calls out by name the too often overlooked musical directo, the leader of the orchestra; and if the staging of the opera has met his approval he demands a sight of the stage manager, who appears pulling on the sleeve of the dress coat he has had conveniently ready. Between the acts the student refreshes himself and parades the foyer, doing, perhaps, a bit of ogling. When the opera is sung he finds some boon companions and repairs to the favorite restaurant, and after a while he goes home. V. L. K.
FORT SCOTT is to have a free public library. The library received 666 votes and 201 were cast against it; leaving 259 ballots which failed to make any expression on the library question and consequently were counted against it. This would make a total unfavorable vote of 460, and leave an absolute majority of 202 in favor of the library.