New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-11
MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.
SALYINI AS MACBETH.

SALNlNl AS MACbEih.
Last nigbt at Booths Theatre Salvini. for the frs.
time in America. acted Macbeth. The performance
was witnessed by great audience. and its powerful
points and beautiful felicties of treatment were
recognized with iustifiable enthusiasm and merited
plaudts The main excellence of the embodiment
was found to consist in the mechanical treatment.
Salyini is q consummate master OF action; and in
such points as his contemplation of King Duncan, In
Mdcbeths first scene with that monarch his manner
when listening to Banquo remark about allegiance,
bis utterance of the thrilling and terrible speech
Sleep which voices Macbeths remorse after CON-
hitting the murder and his abrupt transition from
derium to courtesy, in tho banquet scene,
he exhibited this mastery with splendid force and
delightful skill. The sleep speech marked the
highest point to which his performance attained.
Viewing the embodiment altogether it was
neither homogeneous nor symmetrical. nor was
it thrilled and saturatedas surely persopation OF
Macbeth ought to be-with the haunting dread of
awful spirituality. The figure Of this Macbeth when
first seen gave forth spiritual intimation OF the
preordaned doom OF horror and ruin which
already marks 1t off from among living men. 1t was
the colossal figure of q long-haired and thick
bearded warrior-made more colossal py
spiked helmet on which were towering
wings. 1t was not the haunted man
of Sbakespeare's poem; and, although suose-
auenty in the scene of the murder, 1t became both
terrible and piteous, it never became, either then
or at any other time the image of awe and dread
and fiend-driyen virtue which is drawn in Shake
speares text.
The intention to be all this was
suf1i ccnty obvious Salvini possesses as keen an
intellect as any man that acted but the primal
strength of his nature has not been shown to be
spiritual Unless Macbeth be permeated with weird,
strange, enticing, awful charm-such as makes him
longed for, when absent from the scene and
watched with teTrOr-stricken compassion
whenever present upon 1.-THE remains a
common character Salvini did not invest him with
this quality, and therefore the observer OF this
representation was left free to remark. with cool
attention. its mechanical peculiarties. In delneanor
toward this Lady Macbeth this Macbeth
was easily colloquia!, aud had that every
day "naturalness" which is entirely in.
harmonious with poetical tragedy. In the
dagger soiloauy he was conventional. The despair
ing outcry " Wake Duncan with thy knocking" he
gave with sharp, sudden note, which may have
meant impotence, or anything else. but certainly
did not mean pathos. The effect on the repetition
of Goes the King hence to-day" was not made at
all At the close Of the talk with the murderers these
villains tried to seize. with fawning obasance, the
hem of his royal robe. and he brushed them away
with something between imperial disdain aud
n momentary shudder. Tue ghost Of BdnqRo was
produced in the Kings chair. and likewise came up
through a trap; and Macbeth raved and gesticulated
toward this begrimed spectre In very much the
usnal manner. Toward the close OF the banquet
scene his enshrouding of his head in his
robe made for moment, dreadful
image of terror At the end Of the Cauldron scene
he fell PROSTATE and insensible, and Recdte
| and the three Wiches In and lowered
| over him with mysterious and grewsome
rites. This latter business, the introduction
of the third assas sln. to kill BaRquO. and the hack
ing of Bapquo with daggers In the presence of the
audience were the principal novel points of embel-
lishment For almost any other actor this portrayal
of Mrcbeh would be excellent; for Savini it was but
hallway good One cannot keep on forever extolling
| the manner i'll which thing IS done. Two ele-
ments at asst. go to make great dramatic mper-
| sonaton--the thing that is done. as we'll as the
| manner of doing il. SalvinTs treatment
NOT convey at all, or only conveyed but family The
| interior spirit of the character-without which
| It is no more than the cory hero or
q melodrama-his Mdcbefh Will not take
rank beside his Saul, MS Otne0, MS conrad, OF even
| his Gladiator -
| The representative OF Lady Macbeth, Miss Mary
Prescott added no charm to this occasion. Most or
her speeches We're whispered Her voice, when heard,
| was found to be q head voice. Her manner lacked
| digaty. Her utterauce of the words conveyed no
sense of either their poetry or their deep. subtle
meanings. Force OF character she evnced: and she
! did thr usual business that custom has appointed
| The Uitches spoiled by persons with neither
voice. memory any sense of the grotesque or the
| horrible.
| The scenery was exceedingly queer. Salvini WAS
repeatedly called before the curtain. and there was
| great enthusiasm for him-partiouarly at the end
of the second act The performance did not end III
| midnight 1t will be repeated on Saturday.