National Republican., 1883-09-25
ADJUSTMENTS.
Eord's Opera Company I'm B,ue Benrd.

Ford's Opera Company Ina Bluc Benrd.
Excellence and modiocrity, strength and
weakness are SO strangly iumbled together in
Mr. Ford's opera company and the entertain
ment they offer that the impression they
leave is curious mixture of sat
isfaction and disapproval. There are
several actors of more or less merit.
Two of them, Mr.. Seymour and Mr.. Reed,
are of highly superior sort; and of this
pair one, Mr.. Seymour, has a record of many
and brilliant successes. There is likewise
one actress-Alice May-whoso face is un-
familiar, but whose talents are wider than
the requirements of mere burlesque.
1t would not be an easy matter to partic-
ularze worry much farther without running
off into complaint. Mary Bockell, for in
stance, is a very competent impersonator of
soubrette characters, but her work is better in
conception than in execution. Miss Reynolds
has decided vocation in comedy but there
are considerations of avoirdupois which do not
weigh in her favor. Aside from the voices of
Miss May and Miss Reynolds there is little
the company can offer upon which an au-
dience may rely for pleasurable sound. Miss
May sings very we'll and with sufficient feel
ing, upon occasion, to suggest regret that
she is not engaged in some walk more
worthy and less broad. 1t is not often
that in professedly farcical performance
Que hears anything impassioned and well de-
lived as her dream song, in the second act of
Blue Beard" Miss Reynold has some power
of execution, also, and a voice upon which
to exercise it. If there are any other
voices in tho company, last evenings
I performance failed to bring them out.
OF course there are very passable substitutes
for voices such as may do we'll enough in
works where the eye and the sense of humor
are more directly appealed to than the ear
and the sense of harmony. And it may be
that to condemn the chorus and the orchestra
for discold and poor balance would be
| to attack fault that is referable less to an
inability for better work than to the newness
of each to itself aud to the other. Custom
and the passage of time may establish har-
mony that just now is painfully missed
| The opera is really not an opera, but o
musical extravaganza. 1t is less new than
funny and less funny than it would be
if Mr.. Burnand had chosen to
embroider his humor in another
color of wit, Such as it is and of its kind,
| " IS SOOl, anu was uluVh ouJoycu'
Mr.. Seymour's very felicitous representa-
tion of Petitpois, Miss Mays singing
above mentioned, and a chorus of
very dainty dudes, which occurred in the
second act, will be pleasurably remembered
by oven those who were not pleased with the
evenings work as o whole.
THE NALIoNAL-KATE CLAXToN.
Kate Claxton and company very we'll
adapted to melodrama presented Tho Sea of
Ice" to a moderately large audience in the
National theater last evening. The play has
been out of use for nearly dozen years
long enough to have all tho merit and inter
est of new thing to the generation of play
goers that has grown up while it was sleep.
ing 1t is strong work in its way. and
botter in every regard than any of the
moro recent melodramatic productions
in which scenery is an important
factor. It's representation in this instance
was of d kind to be commended. Miss Clax-
ton is not an actress of very wide range. Her
intutions are sometimes better than her
power to portray. This was almost painfully
manifested for example, in the eliminating
scenes of tho last act, whore voice and
gesture wero strained to the utmost in most
heroic but not quite adequate effort to reach
the tempestuous form of expression best
suited to bring out the value of her lines. 1t
is in such scenes as those in the Arctic seas
that sho excels. Here Miss Claxton is at home,
in n field where mover any rival has
dared dispute her power. There is room for
a suggestion auent them that it may have
been some consideration of its opportunities
for an exhibition of nervousness at low tenn
perature which led to tho selection of "The
Sea of Ice" as q leading feature in the COM
pany's list of plays.
There is not however, any room at all for
doubt that the audience of last evening was
quite thoroughly satisfied with the fare pro-
sented them, Tho taste for melodrama, re-
Gently revived and as yet but sharponed by
tho few pieces thrown to it, will undoubtedly
reward this venture with success.
Tho General Opinion.