Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-05-07
TheatricaIs - Purient Tales of the
Day.

TheatrIcaIs - Purient Tales of the
Day.
A writer in the Atlantic Monthly for
May, discussing the New Taste for rhe.
atricals," says some exceedingly good
things. He dwells chiefly upon French
opera bouffe and English burlesque, and
his point of observation is Boston. OF
Tostee he says that she has warmer
welcome at the Hub than Ristori had,
and adds:
"It was not for Tostee's singing. which
was but little thing in ITSELF it was not
for her beauty, for that is not scarcely
more than reminiscence, if it was not
always an illusion. Was it because she
rendered the epirit of NJ. Offenbach's
operas so perfectly, that we liked her so
much2 All, that movement, cried an
enthusiast, that swing-that-tha wig
gle.' She is undoubtedly great actress,
full of subtle surprises, and with an
audacious appearance of unconscious
ness in those exigencies where conscious
ness would summon the polioe-or ought
to; she ia so near, yet so far from, the
worst that can be intended in tones, in
gestures in attitudes, she is to the libretto
Just as the music is, now making it ap-
pear insolently and unjustly coarse, now
feebly inadequate in its explicit immod.
esty.
"But it must be owned that our audi
ences seemed not to take much pleasure
in these and other witticisms, though
they obliged Mademoiselle Tostee to sing
| On Mari sage three times, with all those
actions and postures which seem incred-
ible the moment they have ceased. They
possibly understood this song no better
than the strokes of wit, and encored it
merely for the music's sake"
The effect, he says, was to give the
French ladies a bad opinion of Boston
understanding and morals. He thinks
the new taste is, however, like the artists,
imported"
English burlesque the writer regards as
the child of the opera bouffe. There was
the same intention of merriment at the
cost of what may be called the martial
prejudces, though it cannot be claimed
that the wit was the same physical unre-
serve in the ballets as in La Belle Helen
of former season; while in its dramatic
form the burlesque discovered very
marked parental traits.
Referring to the play called the Three
Fast Men, which the writer regards as
the precursor of the characteristic fea-
lures of these burlesques, he says:
"Three ladies being in love with the
three fast men, and resolved to win them
back to regular hours and the paths of
sobriety by every device of the female
heart, dress themselves in mems clothes
such is the subtlety of the female heart
in the bosoms of modern young ladies of
fashion-and follow their lovers about
from one haunt of dissipation to another,
and become themselves examplarily vi
cious--drunkards, gamblers, and the like.
The first lady, who was star in her lowly
orbit, was very great in all her different
roles, appearing now as sailor, with the
hornpipe of his calling, now as an organ
grinder, and now as a dissolute young
gentleman--whatever was the exigeucy
Of good morals.
"The gentlemen are in their morning
coats, and the ladies in display of ho-
siery, which is now no longer surprising,
and which need not have been mentioned
at ell except for the fact that, in the case
of the first lady, it seemed not to have
been freshly put on for that party"
Speaking of another play, the writer
says; .,.. m,o,o
business is not Misunderstanding
exacted that the actresses should appear
in so much stocking, and so little else, that
Il was horror to look upon them. There
was no such exigency of dialogue, situa-
Il al Cd IN ka ~
rum, and the effect upon the unprepared
spectator was all the more supplying
from the fact that most Of the ladies
were not dancers, and had not coun-
tenances that consorted With improperly.
"She was all stocking, as one might say,
being habited to represent prince; she
had a raucous voice, an irsolent twist OF
the mouth, and q terrible trick OF defy
ing her enemies by standing erect, chin
ND, hand on hip, and right foot advanced,
patting the floor.
az may describe these ladies as very
pretty, very blonde, aud very unserupu-
iouslv clever. 1t was also an indispen-
sable condition Of the burlesque's sue
cess, that the charters should be reserved
in their epresentation-that the men s
roles should be played by women, and
that at least one female part should be
done by a man. 1t must be owned that
the fun all came from this character, the
ladies being too much occupied with the
more serious business Of bewitching US
with their pretty figures to be very
amusing; whereas this wholesome man
and brother, with his blonde wig, his
panier, his dainty feminine simperirgs
aud Ian guishings, his falsetto tones, and
his general air of extreme fashion, was
always exceedingly droll."
Ofthe audience, the writer says:
"There was a most fair appearance OF
honest looking, handsomely dressed men
and womeni and Jon could pick out, all
over the parquet, faces, evidently OF but
one decent from the deaconship, which
you wonder we're not afraid to behold one
another there. The truth is, We specta-
tors, like the performers themselves,
lacked that tradition Of error, of trans
gression, which casts its romance about
the people Of. lighter race. We have
not yet set of one corner of the Commons
! for Jardin Msbillei We have not even