MAROUF, THE COBBLER OF CAIRO

"Marouf" was sung for the first time in America at the Metropolitan Opera House, December 19, 1917, with Frances Alda, Kathleen Howard, Léon Rothier, Andrés de Segurola, Thomas Chalmers, and Giuseppe de Luca as the Cobbler, in the cast. Pierre Monteux conducted. Marouf is unhappy at home. His wife, Fatimah , is ugly and has a bad disposition. When she asked for rice cake, sweetened with honey, and thanks to his friend the pastry cook, Marouf brought her cake sweetened with cane sugar instead, she flew into a rage and ran to tell the Cadi that her husband beat her. The credulous Cadi orders the Cobbler thrashed by the police, in spite of protesting neighbours. Marouf , disgusted, decides to disappear. He joins a party of pa ing sailors. A tempest wrecks the ship. He alone is saved. Ali , his friend, whom he has not seen for twenty years and who has become rich in the meantime, picks him up on the shore and takes him to the great city of Khaltan, "somewhere between China and Morocco." Marouf is presented to the townspeople as the richest merchant in the world who has a wonderful caravan on the way. He is accepted everywhere and in spite of the doubting Vizier the Sultan invites him to his palace. Furthermore, he offers him his beautiful daughter as a bride. For forty days Marouf lives in luxury with the prince . He empties the treasury of the Sultan who consoles himself with thoughts of the promised caravan which must soon arrive. At last the Prince questions Marouf who tells the truth. They decide upon flight, and the Prince disguises herself as a boy. At an oasis in the desert they are sheltered by a poor peasant. Marouf seeks to repay his hospitality by a turn at his plow. The implement strikes an iron ring attached to the covering of a subterranean chamber. The ring also has magic power. When the Prince rubs it the poor peasant is transformed into a genii, who offers his services, and discloses a hidden treasure. When the Sultan and his guards, in pursuit of the fugitives, appear upon the scene, the sounds of an approaching caravan are also heard in the distance. The ruler apologizes. Marouf and the Prince triumph. The doubting Vizier is punished with a hundred lashes. Henri Rabaud, composer of "Marouf," is a Paris i an, the son of a profe or of the Conservatoire of which he is also a graduate. His second symphony has been played in New York. He has to his credit a string quartet, other smaller works, and an opera, "La Fille de Roland," which was given some years ago at the Opéra Comique. "Marouf" was produced at that theatre in the spring of 1914. M. Rabaud, for several years conductor at the Grand Opéra and the Opéra Comique, was called to America in 1918 to be the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Karl Muck, and Pierre Monteux who filled the vacancy for a few weeks before M. Rabaud's arrival from France.