Music: Monocle Man

A monocle as well known abroad as that worn by Sir Austen Chamberlain or the late Baron Ehrenfried Gtinther von Hunefeld arrived in Manhattan last week on the S.S. Bremen. It came securely fixed in the eye of German Tenor Richard Tauber who, to perfect the scene, carried a pet dachshund under each arm, Fritzi & Mitzi.

Europe knows Richard Tauber as well as the U. S. knows John McCormack. The two have much in common: they are both good showmen, both fat men with infectious smiles. Both started in opera, went in later for lieder. Both frankly cater to the people’s taste to their own tremendous profit. Their phonograph records are bestsellers. They are not above making sound films or capitalizing on the theme songs.

But where Tenor McCormack has coined a great part of his success from Irish ballads of the Mother Machree type, Tenor Tauber’s medium has been in operetta, chiefly in those written by his Viennese friend, Franz Lehar (The Merry Widow, The Count of Luxemburg, Gypsy Love). At his debut recital last week (attended by Tenor McCormack and many another musical notable) Tenor Tauber surprised everyone by not wearing his monocle, but he did display the entire range of his versatility. With conventional operatic zest he sang an aria from Mehul’s almost forgotten Joseph in Egypt. His loud tones were not always smooth but there was none of the nasal bleating common to most German tenors. Lieder by Schumann and Schubert he sang with expert tenderness, using perhaps too often a pianissimo of exquisite softness. The rest of the evening was Lehar, Lehar cheered by an audience which refused to go home until it had heard “Dein ist meinganzes Herz” (“Thine Is My Heart Alone”) from The Land of Smiles which Tauber made the rage last summer in London.