The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-04-08
VIEWED FROM THE REAR.
Popping 1T the Opera Through q Hole
In the sceuerv-The Conductor

Popping 1T the Opera Through = Hole
In the scenery-The Conductor
have lust had q sight of a per-
Torrance of Patience" from the
rear. It did not seem to me that the
time-worn opera could afford any
entertainment to a person in the
auditorium, but I was mistaken as 10
that. for the Casino-full of people
were almost as demonstrative as
though they had never seen the piece
before. It was their f~aclalaspect that
first struck me, on peep:ng at
them through q hole in the scenery
Somebody ought to photograph an
audience by an instantaneous process
in the midst of general laughter. The
picture would be immensely funny.
If a mirror could be flashed III front
of you at the instant the comedian of
q farce does something to make you
roar, it isn't likely that you would
recognize yourself in the horribly
grimacing reflection.
Imagine q thousand persons with
| similarly distorted faces. That was
| what BunthOrne and I saw. when he
was singing some new tropical verses
interloped into Gllbert's work, and
l was squirting through the peep
hole. Still more astounding
to US was the spectacle when
the love sick maidens trooped up
on the scene. TO me they pre-
sented merely a good variety of back
hair and artistic outlines as they lop-
ped in the poses of exaggerated
aesthetlcism; but to the spectator in
front, upon whom their pretty faces
beamed, I inferred that they were
enhancing. This conclusion was
based upon row after row OF cOun-
tenances which were idlotically rapt
if they belonged to men and calmly
critical If they belonged to women.
The dudes in the nearest chairs were
very Romeos for their facial express
sion of fond, yearning, callow admi-
ration.
The strangers, face, however. was
one which could be seen only from
the stage, for it was that of the con-
ductor. The waving baton and the
agitated back of this official may be
familiar to you as a pare of comic OPP
era's figures, but you ought really to
see his countenance. 1t is a mistake
to suppose that he employs his arms
only in keeping his singers in harmo-
ny, if this particular specimen was
fairly illustrative of his GLASS;. He
beat all the disciples of Valentine
Vox for mobility and meaning of
cOuntenance. His features wers like
the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope for
forming, at every shake, q new COM
bination. He winked with his left
eye at Patience as a signal to begin,
and simultaneously with his right at
Grosvenor to stop. He frowned
with one side of his face
at the chorus girls, because they were
out oftime, and smiled with the other
side at the chorus fellows as an ap-
prevail of their better vocalism. He
sang bars of the music himself. He
dropped from the exaltation of de-
light to the depths of acute torture
with a suddenness which threatened
to break him into bits, and then ROSE
again with sky-rocket celebrity.
Every twitch of a nerve or jerk of a
muscle apparently meant some
thing to the performers,
but to me the display was a marvel,
and I wondered whether, after years
of that sort of thing, the man could
let his face settle down into a state
of rest without the aid of a portrait
taken at the outset of his wry career.