Felix Cherniavsky - News Clippings 1910s 1

Added 18th Mar 2022 by Beth Dobson (Archives and Programming Assistant, DCD) / Last update 18th Mar 2022

Maud Allan 471 51 2008-1-30.jpg
Maud Allan 471 51 2008-1-30.jpg
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Felix Cherniavsky - News Clippings 1910s 1

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Maud Allan Research Collection
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April , 3 MAUD ALLAN'S VISION OF SALOME..The human mind is surely at times a most peculiar little machine . Ever since Maud Allan has made a most unexpectedly powerful Impres sion upon the public of San Francisco there has been an in sistant demand that she should give her version of the no torious dance of Salome as embodied in Richard Strauss ' now famous opera . Every one who finally saw the announcements tha Miss Allan , after considerable resistance , had consented rpret this bit of gruesome history simply rushed to the * office and could not wait until he or she had secured the tickets . No one had any excuse to say that they did not know what the dance of Salome represented and no one had pany right to expect anything else except that scene which has been so well described in the daily papers . For this reason we have a right to assume that the Valencia Theatre was sold out for Saturday and Monday , a whole week in ad vance , because of the fact that the management of Maud Allan had announced this very " Vision of Salome . " It was exactly the character of this conception which attracted the crowds and to complain now that Miss Allan's version of this degenerate poetic idea was according to program seems to me to be the most inexcusable exhibition of hypocrisy that I ever came across . People who knowingly go to an exhibition of a questionable character and would feel offended if the management were to announce at the last moment that the program had been changed and then feel called upon to com plain of the very thing that they expected , must make any man or woman of intelligence sick and tired , And here I want to include Ralph E. Renaud of the Chronicle . Mr. Renaud , if he attends to his duty as critic , must have known beforehand what the dance of Salome represented and it is rather late in the day to complain after the event has taken place . Manager Johnston only cares for the money . He does not give a rap for Miss Allan's reputation as a woman . * 1910 exuberance of happiness , her dance requires that she spring into the air such springing motion is done so gracefully and so unexpectedly feathery in lightness that it reminds one of a deer or rabbit in the enjoyment of its freedom . It seemed to me impossible to realize how much music there may be associated with dancing and no one has any idea how realistic these dances are unless he or she witnesses them in person . There is nothing whatever of any vulgui ualare about this exhibition , and no one need fear any impropriety in attending these events . My introductory remarks were not intended as reflecting upon Miss Allan's dancing . They were merely written for the purpose of pointing out a danger that may arise from these classic dances and which danger may be thrust upon the publie by unscruplous theatrical man agers to whom money may mean more than propriety . Classic , dances , such as I have witnessed at the Garrick Theater on Tuesday evening , can only be danced by Maud Allan or some one like her and by no one else . This fact must be thoroughly impressed upon the public mind , if classic dancing is not to degenerate into a vulgar exhibition . Much of the credit of the success of Maud Allan's San Francisco appearance is due to Paul Steindorff and the orches tra under his direction . What the accompanist is to the singer or the violinist at a concert , Mr. Steindorff and his orchestra are to Miss Allan . Unless the numbers are poetically interpreted and are played in a manner that matches the emotionalism of the dance , the entire atmosphere of artistic effort would be destroyed . Some of the music played on these occasions is not at all easy and demands considerable musi cianly skill to create from it a background upon which Miss Allan may draw her remarkable terpsychorean paintings , Taking into consideration the limited time Mr. Steindorff had to rehease these programs and also considering the difficulties under which a conductor labors here when he endeavors to select a competent orchestra for an evening's engagement , I do not hesitate to assert that Mr. Steindorff has done wonders in this instance and that his efforts should be recognized in all their merit . The enthusiastic applause that greeted the conclusion of the various orchestral selections , even when unaccompanied by Miss Allan's dance , testified to the enjoy . ment of the audience and to the high regard in which Mr. Steindorff is held . From musical point of view the program did not contain very much that is new to us and consequently a detailed criticism is not necessary . I can only add that Mr. Steindorff showed himself at his very best and certainly was entitled to the words of gratitude that Miss Allan was gracious to bestow upon him at the conclusion of the per formance . * SO † *** ** The objectionable points of the Salome scene are that Miss Allan is clothed in still scantier attire than usual and thus exceeds the borders of propriety beyond artistic license , that the bloody head is altogether too gruesome a spectable for any association with art and that the subject of the story is altogether unfit to be set in music or poetry or dancing . But here our objections must end . To say that Miss Allan's interpretations of the story in dance form are too vivid to be moral is inexcusably exaggeration . Mr. Renaud certainly must have a vivid imagination to see any objectionable parts of the story exemplified in Miss Allan's terpsychorian evolu On the contrary I believe that Miss Allan intention ried to soften the coarseness of the idea and did not at any time resort to vulgarity as far as her dance was con cerned . In her dancing Miss Allan has always been artistic and she is this even in the " Vision of Salome . " But the subject is one unfit for public performance whether it is in the form of an opera or of a dance . I will take advantage of this opportunity to correct a wrong impression which certain critics and certain people seem to have received in respect to the music . The composition to which Miss Allan danced was not written by Richard Strauss as may easily be learned by examining the score of Salome to be had at any leading music house , but that the music must have been especially written for Miss Allan . It is good music and evidently in tended for a small orchestra as well as a large one . The Strauss music requires over one hundred musicians in the orchestra and I am sure permission cannot be obtained to give it separate from the opera . I agree with most people that it would have been better if Miss Allan had not given the " Vision of Salome , " but I went there well knowing what it was going to be and I have no right to complain now because I could have stayed away if I had wanted to . I saw exactly what I expected to see ( except that Miss Allan's dancing was far more artistic than the subject called for ) and I have no desire to see it again . ALFRED METZGER . These concluding remarks of Miss Allan's were so well chosen and so appropriate in this instance that they may even be regarded as a part of the event . I refer to them here not because of their underlying pathos in reference to Miss Allan's childhood days in this city , but because her expres sions find a ready echo in the breast of every young student who leaves his native city in order to return and reveal the conquered muses . How many a student leaves San Fran cisco with a fixed determination to show to his fellowmen some day what he or she may accomplish ! How few of those who set themselves such purpose really succeed in attaining it ! Miss Allan said that throughout the years of her absence from her home city and of her remark able triumphs abroad and in the East , she had always one particular object before her eyes , namely , to please in par ticular her fellow citizens who have lived with her in her native city during the period of early days . There was the moment which she longed for and that was the moment that arrived last Tuesday evening and made Miss Allan inexpressi . bly happy because she succeeded in enthusing her audience and that made her audience inexpressibly happy because it had an opprotunity to decide without prejudice or hypocrisy that another daughter of the city had won fame and honors which have been justly earned . ALFRED METZGER .