Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-07
THE CINCINNATI FESTIVAL.
Over Six Thousand People Assemble in
the Great Music Hall to Hear ''OtheI-
Cincinnati Special, Sd.

Cincinnati Special, Sd.
The August night in the month of Nav
fell to "Othello." The great hall was
sitting, and 5000 people Sweltered in the
dense atmosphere from 80 to II 80. The
movements of fans was like the whir of
grasshoppers during the four hours, half
of which were taken up in setting the
beautiful scenery of the play. Having
books Of the play in hand, the audience
did not seem to mind the disprOportion-
ate time taken in setting the scenes and
speaking the lines. Everybody knew
what was said, because everybody had
the printed text, and as the 5000 stimuli
taneously reached the end of each page
and turned the leaf, the rustic was like
the stirring Of leaves in an Autumn wood
when a land breeze breaks through.
''OthellO" was substituted for ''Romeo
and Juliet" i'll order that Clara Morris
might have an opportunity to identify her
name and her abilities with the attrac-
tiOns of the fete. She undertook the rather
ungracious lines of Emilia" wife to
''IagO," and she won profuse applause.
Mary Anderson lent her radiant beauty
to the personatiOn of E'Desdemona," and
certainly the lines of the Moer did not eX-
aggerate the SURPRISING lOveliness of the
wife who had half courted the man who
had won her love. Naturally, cast
which included Mccullough, Bar
rett, Miss Morris and Miss An
dersOn melted an immense attendance.
Beyond the efforts of Miss Morris and
Miss Anderson in the unaccustOmed crea-
tiOn of "DesdemOna" and "Emilia," the
nights work demands no particular COM
ment. Mccullough has been often seen in
the part of the Moor, and public opinion
has long since taken shape as to the
merits of that conception. 1t should be
said, as matter of history, however, that
his work tonight was marred by huski-
ness of the voice which impaired the ef-
fects of the best passages. Barrett does
not play "Iago'' often. He is faVOrably
known in the role, but his friends would
be apt to decide it not entirely suited to
his intellectual activities. 1t has none of
the poetic uncertainties that give this
fine actor his best scope, and, therefore, it
barely escapes being repellantin in double
sense.
Miss Morris brought the same great
merits and great defects to the few lines
of her role that she brings to the interpre-
tatiOn of every rOle-incorrigible self
consciousness and deep insight into the
human side of the nature she assumes
and the characters she has to deal with.
Her TRADE to the exposed villain, "Iago,"
was a masterpiece of finely modulated in
dignation, loathing and contempt. Miss
Anderson need not have opened her
mouth, and the audience would have held
her guiltless. To her natural lOveliness
her exquisite costumes lent a rare and
enamOring grace. She did not realize
the voice or soul of ''DesdemOna," but
she read her lines with feeling, and, in
the death scene, with enough of pathos to
strip it Of the common type of conven-
tiOnal stage emotion.
Naturally the managers of the festival
are in a cOmplacent frame of mind. The
scenery, which they are responsible for,
was quite as beautiful as the wonders
that have gone on before. The quay of
FamagOsta, the port of Cyprus, where the
action of the play passes when out of
ramparts of the citadel are seen through
deep grOined Moorish arches, under
which the soldiers of "OthellO" are
massed when the curtain goes up, Here,
too, comes the lovely lady EDesdemona,"
saluted by the sOldiery and accompanied
by a great train of resplendent DANES.
The costumes, too, were on the same
scale of magnificence and accurate care
in detail that has delighted the spectators
thus tar.
Financially, the wonders of the festival
continue, There were over $12, 900 in the
house tonight, and the smallest house
thus far has been over $4,000. The three
remaining performances are expected to
be even more crowded, as ''Hamlet'' ex-
cites considerable attention, owing to
MurdOck's assumption of the role. There
is considerable doubt as to his physical
capacity to work through, and a double
will be prepared to relieve him should he
succumb.