Life, 1915-12-23 · page 26 of 40
Life — December 23, 1915 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon shows a progression: a dangerous wild animal (appears to be a panther or similar beast), a man defending himself, and a woman fleeing. The title satirizes keeping exotic pets as foolish and hazardous. Below this, "The Operatic Cook-Book" by Sigmund Spaeth parodies popular operas of the era—*Der Rosenkavalier*, *The Tales of Hoffmann*, *La Tosca*, and *Cyrano*—by presenting them as recipes. The satire ridicules these operas as superficial theatrical confections: combining worn-out plots, formulaic emotion ("love and high prices"), obvious staging tricks, and recycled musical themes patched together by famous composers and conductors (Offenbach, Wagner, Puccini, Damrosch). The implied joke: these celebrated operas, despite critical acclaim, are mere artistic "junk food"—assembling stale ingredients into showy but insubstantial productions. It's mockery of contemporary opera's commercialism and artistic pretension dressed in highbrow language.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE FOLLY OF KEEPING DANGEROUS PETS The Operatic Cook-Book Der Rosenkavalier AKE a worm-eaten kernel of Hoff- mansthal stut, With some crumbs of stale humor and time-worn devices; Add a bald, fat old Baron, and make him the butt Of conventional jokes about love and high prices. Grind the whole through some rickety horse-play_machiner: Spread out in lumps on blue, glittering scenery } Dip in a Viennese waltz imitation, With sugar of Johann, but Rich or- chestration ; Put up in boy handy, And sell as a Straussian April-Fool candy. s, with ads always Louise Some spirits of Paris (plain absinthe will do), One lure of Montmartre, best Char- pentier brew; Mix in a working-man's soup-tureen With three drops of oil de la sewing- machine. Stir with a ladle of carnival rioting, Adding some poetry, not too disquiet- ing; Color with atmosphere of a pale pink— This makes a pleasant, insidious drink. By Sigmund Spaeth The Tales of Hoffmann This layer-cake will appeal to the in- quiring type of mind, For each of its three jelly decks is of a different kind. The first is Spalanzani, with Olympian coloratura, The second is a barcarolle of Juliet bravura; The third one, called Antonia, is full of love and folly, fag A VERY MERKY CHRISTMAS With hypnotism bursting through a tender melancholy, A hatter made of Offenbach supplies the solid parts, Or, if you like, the filling can be used for little tarts. La Tosca Three quarts of best Italian blood, just thick enough to curdle, A lady on a parapet, who takes a des- perate hurdle, A Mario, a Scarpia, a torture-chamber frightful, A corpse decked out with candles lest the murder seem too spiteful. This can be served on crackers, at the dinners of society, Like others of the Limburger and Camembert variety. Cyrano A soup-bone of Rostand’s invention, Boiled down to a Henderson mush, \ score of sincerest intention, Helped out with “ American” gush; A Damrosch of thick orchestration, Some Wagner motifs, rather stale, Puccini's best themes in rotation, A pound of Debussian scale. When garnished with Alda legato, This dish will create quite a stir; It forms, in a sauce of Amato, A glorified hash, as it were. comicbooks.com