New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-07
SIGNOR ERNESTO ROSSI.
THE GREAT ITALIAN TRAGEpIAN.

RANK AMONG CONTEMPORARIES ON THE STAGE
IN ITALY AND ELsEwnERE-IIIs PERSONAL AP-
PEARANCE AND TRlTs-ms DEVOTION 40
SHAKESPEARE.
I'm Europe il would be unnecessary to address to
the public word of introduction respecting the
Italian tragedian Enesto ROss. His reputation is
continental. He is as well known in France, Ger
many and Spain he is in Italy for he has acted IN
the great cities of all those countries. His name Is
also familiar in England. In South America, 100,
Rossi is known and hOnored. 1t is in the United
States only that his fame is comparatively strange,
In his native Italy with the stag of which he has
been connected for more than twenty-five years.
Rossi is regarded as the peer of Salvn They have
long divided public attention in that country. just
as HoAgkinson and Cooper did in the early days OF
the American theatre, Forrest and Booth and
Booth and Irving have done in more recent period.
Critical judges not wanting who declare that
Rossi is superior to Salyini. To American readers
these statements announce an exceptional fame.
Ernesto Rossi is the son of merchant, and was
born in Leghorn, on April 27, 1929, the same year
which gave us, at Philadelphia. the great American
comedian, Joseph Jefferson. Rossi received his
education at a school in Leghorn and at the Univer
sty of Pisa His father intended that lie should be-
come lawyer; but the boy, who had displayed
talent and inclination Tor theatrical pursuits (by
remarkably good defamation at school, by putting
up little theatre in his fathers warehouse, and by
conserving with dramatic amateurs), thwarted the
fathers INTENTION ran away from Pisa and college,
and joined a company of strolling players This
was in 1916; and then, at the age of seventeen at
the Tuscan village of Fogano, and at q salary OF
about cents day. this actors career may be sand
to have begun. He has been upon the stage ever
since and he has been in almost continual practice
OF his art.
STRUGGLES OF A RISING CAREER.
The early part of Rosss career las is usual in such
cases) was full of hardship. The strolng company
of which he had become member wandered in indi-
gence from place to place, and the ambitious young
actor had liberal experience of neglect, poverty
hunger and unrequited toll At length, though, in
1917, at Genoa, he was seen, approved and engaged
by Modena, aud from that time his star of fortune
rose Modena was formerly great power in Italian
theatrical life. We meet with him in the life of
Ristori and also in the life of Salvini. He was a
great actor and he founded the school of acting,
with Liberty as its keystone and motto, which
survives in these artists. In 1917 he the
ger of the chief theatre of Milan. He took fancy
to RosSi, and rapidly advanced him, giving 10 him
such parts as Ddrld, in Alferi's tragedy of Saul"
Pylades, in the same authors tragedy of OresteS"
and NeR0uvs, in Louis XI. From good the youth
full actor went to better and his choice of
was soon justified by brilliant and mequivocal sue
cess. He became reconciled to his father, aud all
the circumstances of his life grew favorable for
his advancement. There was probation, and there
were vcisstudes, but when at last he came
out at the CarignanO, at Turin, and played a
prosperous Observation-Disclosures the most crti-
cal audiences in Italy-his reputation was estab-
lished and the seal of success set upon his name.
ACHIEVING SUCCESS.
contemporary account of his success at Turin
has been preserved. eve remember it saws, the
debut of Rossi at the Carignano Theatre. The pub
lie then not as It is now, indifferent to Italian
dramatic art, but il was accustomed to scrutinize
with close attention, and almost passionate inter
est each and every new play and new actor. Rossi,
upon the oecasioh of his first appearance, acted tho
Count Hermann, of Dumas, and subsequently, played
OTest6s. The devotees of the old school of acting
very numerous in Turin-were somewhat scandal
lied at the actors audacity, but the public de-
light was ardent, the public applause vocifer
Gus. and Ross was accepted by the people with UNI
qualified admiration. In two nights he won the
golden fleece, and became for that community, what
he has since become for many others, the monarch
of both comedy and tragedy. The stimulative sur
roundings, the popular enthusiasm, and the emula-
ton of his new comrades and competitors seemed
to spur him to passionate exertOn. We saw him as
4lJie7i in La DucheSse alabama :; Henry ~. in
Isabella Andreini; Pdolo. in Francesca di Ri
MIMI and GOidOni, in 'Ferrari.' Each new part
seemed to bring forth some new treasure of his
genius. He spoke, as it never had been spoken be-
fore, the glowing, eloquent, richy-imaged of
Foscarlni. and he made both beautiful and agoniz-
ing the guilty passion of Pdolo. His progress was
wonderfully rapid, and it was progress in the right
path for, while he won the public love- he did not
fail also to grasp the artists laurels"
The inference from this is obvious aud it is doubt
less ustifabe, that Rossi from the first was in so
far innovator, that he discarded the desiccated
classicism and teapot style of the old school, and
breathed the breath of life into whatever he
touched. Under the teachings of Modena, who
never shackied his pupils with tradition and never
exacted even the copying of himself, he had been
trained TO be natural in his way, aud this was
development in the spontaneous direction of his
mind. All the pupils of Modena, who have been
heard of at ALL have exempli6ed the masters wis.,
dom in notable way--they have kept their dis
tinct individuality and advanced in pathways of
their own. Rossi, Salvini, Luigi Bellott-Bon, the
two Vesris. and Fanny Sadowski, are all witnesses
of this. Rossi had been reared in art to be man
and nOta machine, and, accordingly, when he flashed
upon the Turin stage and poured the rich life-bood
of his youthful being into the veins of the classic
DRAMA though he ruhled the pedants, he won the
heart of the people. He did not become great
through being popular, but he became popular
through being great
LAURELS IN PARIS.
1t is Indicative of the reality of Rossis talents and
the charm of his magnetism as also of the rapid rise
of his fame that within less than ten years from the
time of his debut upon the regular stage at Focano
when he tainted with terror at the sight of an act
ual theatrical audience, he made his appearance i'm
Paris and gained the admiration of ACCOMPLISHED
critics in the French capital. This was in 1855,
during the of the first Universal Exposition
and the company with which he travelled was I'M
der the direction of Rstori. This great actress was
then at the height of her powers and her fame and
the rivalry betwixt herself and Rachel had caused
great excitement and was absorbing the attention