The Portland daily press., 1880-05-13
MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.
HAvERLY's coLoREp M1NsrRELs

HAVERLY'S COLORED MINsTRELs
Haverlys Colored Minstrels gave an excel
lent entertainment at Portland Theatre last
evening. Their street parade in the morning,
with their gorgeous drum-major their skill
full military maneuvres and their music had
preiudiced the public in their favor land there
fore they were greeted by fine audience
The performance opened with fine olio OF
songs by the company, and the funny sayings
of the end men, notably Mcintosh and Devon
ear, elected shouts of laughter. There were
six end men altogether, who dribbled out un.
ceasing fun, and the ballads were rendered
with good deal of feeling. The songs of
Dick Little, Geo. Bohee, Devonear, Morris,
Mack and King were all encored. Recruits
for Gilmore" laughable sketch, where the
inimitable Mcintosh figured as a solo base
drummer, was greeted with roars of laughter.
The Bohee brothers in their graceful songs and
dances were excellent. Bob Mack in his barn
yard echoes, when he is dressed as hen and
takes the biddy off to perfection, is first-class,
and the Hamtown and Blackville quartettes,
composed of those funniest of funny end men,
besides being full of funny eccentricities. were
not devoid of musical qualities The two
pickanininnies, Sykes and Woodson, 1.-TWO
boys) We're wonderfully clever in their songs
and dances, and the sextette banjo orchastrs
composed of j. Bohee Little, Devonear, Homes
G; Bohee and Boyer, made one imagine him
self at a constructing frolic in cole Vir-
ginny." The performance, which was too
lengthy and varied to mention as it deserves.
wound up with laughable sketch called '.The
Charleston Toodles.'
The charming and vivacious Lolita will
crowd Portland Theatre Saturday night
About thirty tickets are left.
THE IDEAL UNCLE TOM
The Hyers Sisters with the Ideal Uncle
Tom combination will appear at City Hall
next Saturday, afternoon and evening. The
tickets will be found at Stockbridge's. The
Norwich Bulletin says:
The Ideal Uncle Toms Cabin COMPANY
drew an unprecedentedly large crowd at Breed
Hall last night. Before eight o'clock the
Messrs Andrews & Harris, under whose aus
pices the troupe played, were obliged to post
the sign standing Room Only" and some
two hundred people were obliged to give MP
the entertainment because the accommodations
were exhausted. The novel combination of
white and colored people in the cast of CHAR
acters is happy hit. No cork-smutted actors
ever began to compare with the realistic i'm
personation of "Topsy, the gal dat nebber was
poIH, ny MISS Louisa II. Flyers. Sam Lucas
gave the character of Uncle Tom q natural
and interesting Interpretation, and the Eliza
Harris of Madah A HyerS wanted nothing to
make her complete. Little Lottie Burke as
Eva, the angel child" did her part wonder
fully, acting gracefully and enunciating her
words SO that they could be clearly understood
all over the hall The voices of the Hyers
Sisters in the plantation melodies were beyond
comparison and Miss Madah A. Hyers sang
the solo ''Old Kentucky Home charmingy.
The leading characters were splendidly sup
ported, and the whole entertainment was of a
very superior order.
Suppe's opera of Boccaccio captured Boston
completely Monday night. Thirteen numbers
were imperatively redemanded. The Adyer-
tiser says:
While it is more pretentious work than
"FanitiZa," it is also much more common
place. There is not number in its three acts
worthy to compare in humorous expressiveness
or in melodic brilliancy with three or four
pieces that could be named in the latter pro-
duction. The composer often repeats himself,
and not unfrequently he permits his pen to
slip into trivialities SO excessively trivial and
wlthal so conventional that Offenbach might
blush to call the music his own. On the other
hand, it is to be said that "The Prince of
Palermo" is very gracefully as we'll as taste
fully written. 1t displays fine skill and
learning in its combination, an exceptional
power of working up elaborate concerted eff
fects, and Won Suppe's own happy knack of
producing bright, flowing, tuneful melodies
Even when these are commonplace they are
pleasant to the ear and restful to the mind :
and the man who has Toasted on the royal
viands of the triennial might do much worse
than to supplement them with the sweet cakes
and CONNECTIONS now proffered by 'sThe Prince
of Palermo" Sometimes, too, the music of
the new work rises above the level we have
indicated, and, as in Beatrice's first air to her
father, becomes absolutely charming; or, as in
the duo and chorus Of the fencing scene, the
trio serenade and the finale of the first and
second acts, CLOVIS with real brilliancy. But
whether at the best or worst the music is sure
to be generally pleasing, and the opera is sure
to be popular.