Music: In San Francisco

To do anything for the first time entitles the doer to at least a modicum of notice. Last winter two wealthy young San Franciscans decided that they would become the first U. S. composer and librettist to have an opera which was their joint work produced in Europe. They were aided by “Doc” Leahy, of the old San Francisco Tivoli, in their eventually successful efforts to have their opera, Fay-Yen-Fah, produced by the Monte Carlo Casino Opera Company. Last week these two young men were “showered with real orchids” as their opera had its U. S. premiere in San Francisco.

San Francisco papers dealt at length upon “the awful traffic jam” precipitated by the opera; and exulted over San Francisco’s “blazing diamond horseshoe.”

Fay-Yen-Fah again justified the comment of a Monte Carlo croupier: “Man dieu! One can understand why the Americans do not love opera, if theirs are all like this!” But the “poppy ballet,” and the “lily ballet,” and the “melodies which flow along easily and attach themselves to the memory with pleasurable effects,” were all applauded with “real hand-stinging claps.”