vocal part of his comedy on orchestral waltzes. Evidently it was
his notion that at the time of Maria Theresa (in whose early reign the
opera is supposed to take place) the Viennese world was given over to
the dance. It was so given over a generation later, so completely,
indeed, that at the meetings in the ridotto, for which Mozart, Haydn,
Gyrowetz, Beethoven, and others wrote music, retiring rooms had to be
provided for ladies who were as unprepared for possible accidents as
was one of those described by Pepys as figuring in a court ball in his
time; but to put scarcely anything but waltz tunes under the dialogue
of "Der Rosenkavalier" is an anachronism which is just as disturbing to
the judicious as the fact that Herr Strauss, though he starts his
half-dozen or more of waltzes most insinuatingly, never lets them run
the natural course which Lanner and the Viennese Strauss, who suggested
their tunes, would have made them do. Always, the path which sets out
so prettily becomes a byway beset with dissonant thorns and thistles
and clogged with rocks.

All of this is by way of saying that "Der Rosenkavalier" reached New
York on December 9, 1913, after having endured two years or so in
Europe, under the management of Mr. Gatti-Casazza, and was treated with
the distinction which Mr. Conried gave "Parsifal" and had planned for
"Salome." It was set apart for a performance outside the subscription,
special prices were demanded, and the novelty dressed as sumptuously
and prepared with as lavish an expenditure of money and care as if it
were a work of the very highest importance. Is it that? The question is
not answered by the fact that its music was composed by Richard
Strauss, even though one be willing to admit that Strauss is the
greatest living master of technique in musical composition, the one
concerning whose doings the greatest curiosity is felt and certainly
the one whose doings are the best advertised. "Der Rosenkavalier," in
spite of all these things, must stand on its merits--as a comedy with
music. The author of its book has invited a comparison which has
already been suggested by making it a comedy of intrigue merely and
placing its time of action in Vienna and the middle of the eighteenth
century. He has gone further; he has invoked the spirit of Beaumarchais
to animate his people and his incidents. The one thing which he could
not do, or did not do, was to supply the satirical scourge which
justified the Figaro