Sixth festival concert

              191?

MYRNA SHARLOW


BERNARD FERGUSON

SIXTH FESTIVAL CONCERT
Saturday Evening, May 18, 8:00 o'clock
Louisville


Carmen, an Opera in Four Acts
Bizet




CAST:


Don Jose, Corporal of Dragoons
Giovanni Martinelli


Escamillo, Toreador
Giuseppe deLuca


Zuniga, Captain of Dragoons;




Arthur Middleton


Morales, Officer,



Carmen, a gypsy girl
Margarete Matzenauer


Micaela, a village maiden
Myrna Sharlow


Frasquita, Mercedes, companions of Carmen,
Lois Marjorie Johnston, Ada Grace Johnston


El Dancairo, El Remendado, smugglers,
Odra Ottis Patton, James Hamilton


Dragoons, Gypsies, Smugglers, Cigarette-girls, Streetboys, etc.
University Choral Union



Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Albert A. Stanley, Conductor.

According to Tschaikowsky, Carmen represents the high water mark in French operatic composition.  That its popularity shows no diminution and that it does not suffer by contrast with the works of ultra-modern composers is clearly evident to any unprejudiced observer.  As is usual the leading roles will be taken by singers whom the public delight to honor, for they can be sung only by really great operatic artists.  That it would be impossible to improve the selection of artists offered can be fearlessly stated.

It is expected that this concert will brilliantly signalize the completion of the first quarter of a century of festivals, and the fact that most of us will not be present on a similar occasion twenty-five years hence need not be considered.





Walter J. Watson LOIS MARJORIE JOHNSTON



J. D. Toloff JAMES HAMILTON



CLAUDIA MUZIO, whose triumphal introduction to American audiences was made at the Metropolitan Opera House, possesses so many distinctions and points of unusual interest in connection with her career that it truly justifies the term fairy-like.  Regarding her first appearance the following is appended:
Even the great Caruso himself had to yield the singing glories of last night's performance to Claudia Muzio, who again made a superb 'Aida' in a lyric as well as a dramatic way.  She was in fine voice and her audience was charmed by the freshness and feeling of her tones.—

New York Evening Sun, Nov. 13, 1917.

MYRNA SHARLOW is a young American singer who has again demonstrated the fact that we have in our midst the material from which great artists are made.  She has made several distinct successes in her connection with the Chicago Opera Company, especially in Micaela in Carmen, a role she will assume in Saturday evening's performance of Bizet's masterpiece.  The part contains one very beautiful and extended aria, and it is certain that all will regret that there are not many more.

Of MARGARETE MATZENAUER'S greatness as an operatic artist, the world-wide reputation she enjoys is abundant proof.  She has already so demonstrated her dramatic power and consummate vocal resources in Samson and Delilah and Aida that of her work in Carmen it is only necessary to state that she is the greatest Carmen on the stage today, for her finished acting is not a shield for defective singing, as is sometimes the case.

EMMA ROBERTS is a Southerner by birth and her name must be added to the constantly increasing list of American singers who, by their accomplishments, have proven that, so far as vocal study goes, this country offers advantages equal to the best to be found abroad.  Miss Roberts has benefited by operatic training gained in some of the leading European opera houses, but is, above all, an oratorio singer.