Fifth May Festival

Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next week, May 12-14, will be days' fraught with great interest to mdsical people not only in Ann Arbor but all parts of Michigan, they being the dates for the fifih annual May Festival. But few are left of the 2,545 seats in the main floor and gallery of University hall, and before the concerts begin they, too, will be taken up, and the great artista who will be here are assured of a large and appreciative audience. ïhe Festival this year will be a fitting successor to those which have preceded it and will be rich in its store of beautiful music. In arrangingthe program thecharacterof the event bas been kept constantly in view and the attempt has been made to present the variety necessary for the full enjoyment of so extended a series of concerts. Thus the "Requiem" by Verdi, presents a striking contrast to the "Flying Dutchjnan." The oneareligious work strikingly representative of the Italian school, as a whole, and illustrative of the style of the greatest living Italian composer; the other a dramatic work in the modern Germán school, although it is oue of the earliest works of the greatest exponent of the dramatic idea, as expressed in music, Gerinauy has given to the world. Between the Sytnphony Concert and ;he Orchestral Matinee the Samecon;rast exists. The "Symphonie Pathetique" of Tchaikowsky is a most marveious composition and colors the whole Symphony program. ïhe Orchestral Matinee will present a bright sparkling program distinctly popular, yet not includiug anything uuworthy of an intelligent audience. The Friday evening concert will present a happy medium between the two extremes, following out the usual plan of allowing the soloists greater opportunity than in the ordinary program. The choiceof the "Flying Dutchman" is a peculiarly happy oue on account of the tact that the principáis carry the greater share of the burden and are heard to much better advantage than is the case in the ordinary choral work. The superb array of talent embraces Mme. Johanna Gadski and Mrs. Jennie Patrick Walker, sopranos. Miss Gertrude May Stein and Miss Janet Spencer, contraltos, Barron Berthald, William H. Rieger and William H. Lavin, tenors, Signor Guiseppe Del Puente and David Bispham, baritones, William Howland, bass. The conductors will be Emil Mollenhauer and Prof. A. A. Stanley. The changes in the seating arrangements and ,the electric lighting will conduce to the greater physical comfort of the audieuce, and will therefore make possible greater sthetic pleasure. It is desirable that all who attend the concerts should go eariy euough to enable the ushers to seat the audience before the time for the concerts to begin, as it is absolutely necessarj' that all concerts begin at the time anaouBcqd so as,: to close early enough fw strangers tö l'eave the city on the late tratos. Duririg tUe rendering oï all nutaibers the doors will be clo3ed, and nobody allo wed to enter the ball or take a seat. ;?■