1897 - Music

Music

Opera: Fervaal 3/12 at the Théâtre de la Monnai, Brussels, with music by Vincent d'Indy. Viennese soprano Fritzi Scheff, 18, makes her debut at the Munich Royal Opera singing the role of Maria in the 1840 Donizetti opera La Figlia del Reggimento.

Librettist Henri Meilhac dies at his native Paris July 6 at age 66; soprano Giuseppina Stropponi at Sant'Agata, near Busseto, November 14 at age 82.

First performances: Istar Symphonic Variations by Vincent d'Indy 1/10 at both Brussels and Amsterdam; Symphony No. 1 in D minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff 3/15 at St. Petersburg; The Sorcerer's Apprentice (L'Apprenti sorcier, Scherzo d'après une ballade de Goethe) by French composer Paul Dukas, 31, 5/18 at Paris; "Thanksgiving and Forefathers Day for Orchestra and Chorus" by Yale undergraduate Charles (Edward) Ives, 23, 11/25 at New Haven's Centre Church on the Green. The congregation is not receptive.

Composer Johannes Brahms dies of liver cancer at Vienna April 3 at age 63.

Broadway musicals: The Good Mr. Best 8/3 at the Garrick Theatre, with book by John J. McNally and a demonstration in the third act of the new cinematograph (see 1895); The Belle of New York 9/18 at the Casino Theater, with Edna May, 17, as the Salvation Army girl Violet Gray, Harry Davenport, music by Gustave A. Kecker, book and lyrics by Hugh Martin, songs that include "The Anti-Cigarette Society," "You and I," 56 perfs.

Congress broadens U.S. copyright laws to give copyright owners exclusive rights to public performances of their works, but the new law will be widely flouted (see 1909; ASCAP, 1914; Victor Herbert, 1917).

March: "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa, who quit the Marine Corps in 1892. He has been touring the world with his own band and wrote the new march last year while returning from England.

Popular songs: "Take Back Your Gold" by U.S. composer Monroe H. Rosenfeld, lyrics by Louis W. Pritzkow; "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away" by Indiana-born songwriter Paul Dresser (originally Dreiser), 40; "Asleep in the Deep" by U.S. minstrel composer Henry W. Petrie, 40, lyrics by English-born writer Arthur J. Lamb, 27.