Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-03-16
AN ITALIAN HAMLET.
How ROssi Plays the Melancholy
Dane.

How ROssi plays the Melancholy
Dane.
Charles Warren Stoddard's Venice Letter to
the San Francisco Chronicle
\ The Venitian theaters are cheerful and
tastefully decorated, and when you sit
in the cozy boxes, or under the freseoed
dome, in nest of pink and gold and
hanging draperies Of silk with heavy
fringes, it is hard to realize that you are
in the solemn city through which the
sea-waves creep sadly, and where every
thing is more or less musty and d,scayed
Ernesto Rossi has been playing a round
OF his characters at the beautiful little
Apollo Theater, | find in Italy Rossi is
considered the greatest living Italian
actor He stands higher than Sabrini
who has been reaping foreign harvest
in America. Itseemed little queer to
hold a play-bill in my hand whereon
saw announced, "Amleto, by G. Shakes
peare;9 but G. stands for William in thit
country, aud it is, of course, necessary
to soften down Hamlet into Amleto il
brderto makeit acceptable to the effemi
nate Italian ear. Ernesto Rossi il
q fat, good.looking, middle-aged man;
he is little knock-kneed, and has an
indifferent voice--a very nervous man,
who, like NEST Italians, gesticulates to a
remakable extent. He is seldom at rest
on the stage, has little or no magnetism
and is very uneven, being sometimes as
tonishly good, and again drearily poor.
II is said that Rossi studied Hamlet be.
fore mirror for seven long years before
he ventured to assume the part in public.
AS for his rendition OF the Dane, he is
as graceful as woman, and uses his
I hands and arms with more grace than
most women. He dressed the part iu
full, bapgy black trunks, without cloak,
and being rather clumsily built with a
great breadth of shoulder, the effect was
bad He showed little spiritn the first act.
When he met the ghost he ran shrieking
to the footlights and flung himself, like
big, overgrown boy, into the arms Of
Horatio and Marcellus. But he showed
no fear and little awe after the first
shrek. 1t seemed to me that his words
to Horatio, who has been relating his ad-
ventures with the ghost Indeed, in.
deed sirs, but this troubles me, ex.
pressed more perturbation than he
showed evidence Of. The soliloquy was
given with supersbundant gesticulation.
In this respect it was eminently Italian.
Any day, any hour, you will encounter
men, women and children in the most
theatrical manner. They talk so loud
that it seems like a public rehearsal OF
some part which they are presently to
tread the boards in. He was exquisitely
graceful in the fan scene; indeed, he
was fascinating as he reclined at the
feet Of Ophelia, and toyed with her fan
as not one man in ten thousand is capa.
BILE OF doing. In the heat of the climax
be clutched the fan with both hands and
crushed it, while his face was illumi-
mated with a joy that was delirious. A
handsome fiend may crush u lady's fan
unconscously in moment such as that,
but he must be handsome fiend, or it
will look like a cheap stage trick. The
closet scene was indifferently done; the
passion that overpowered him at the
close Of it was effective, though perhaps
unwarrantable; there was no pity in his
eye, or voice, or manner. The grave,
yard scene lacked unity; the second
digger was cut; the first digger sang a
baritone solo six stanzas in length, each
of which concluded with a palpabIe
period in the shape Of human skull
| thrown out Of the grave with shovelful
of earth, Fancy six Of these in heap
and Hamlet looking calmly on at the
wingsl When the musical grave-digger
had concluded his solo-which was ap
plauded as if he had been giving q con
cert-he took these skulls in hand and
| lugged them all off the stage; two grinnec
at the audience from under his elbows, ,anc
the others he held by poking his fingers
into their hollow sockets This is one
kind of Italian comedy and it took we'll
Rossi's fencing is elegant and artistic
and his death-soene in Hamlet highly
picturesque. in the made scenes he wal
always excellsntS Wss tender and charit
able, rather than enrRged With Sophie
| La" and said, Go thy way to q pHn
nery." as if he was imploring her to n
to this resort Of the heart-sick and world
weary, and there she might find rest. b,
was never rude TO her, as some Ham
lets are; there was nothing harsh o.
| ungenerous in his treatment Of her
Speaking. Of Rossi's death.scenes,
lately saw him in King Lear, and viii
much indifferent acting and some fey
points that we're brilliant and startling
he gave the most horribly realistic dealt
scene | have ever witnessed on tn
stage. After Lears madness, followe,
by his imbecility, he seemed to die Of
broken heart; the fountain OF his Ill
was suddenly dried up; for a moment b
struggled to and fro ike one who has re
ceived his desth-stroke; there was an az
onizing struggle for breath, and then th
light went out in the eyes, the lover ial
dropped and hung quivering on th
: breast, the face actually turned pal,
and a shudder ran through the King
. frame that seemed TO communicat
4 sorsthing Ofilb awful reality to the 81