Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-08-29
Of Thomas a Kempis IMAM proposes
but God disposes."
ss,y ov THE STAGE.

GOSSIP OF THE STAGE.
Comic opers came to grief in " The
| Maid and the Moonshinsr. IL dis
solved this week. Lillian Russell goes
one way. I hear, and Solomon another.
Mr.. Hoyt, the American iiorettiss' alone
In a few minutes talk with Mr..
John Duff, who undertook to patronize
The American thing, he told me the old
story. The American thing was no
GOOD. The papers could howl as much
as they pleased hereafter, but he would
never again bother with the native pro-
duct. II he wanted operas no would
20 to Europe for them.
Per contra, Mr.. Rudolph Aronson,
who has been doing nothing but foreign
operas at the Casino, told me rot an
hour afterward that he would rather
have one good American comic opera
than the whole foreign repertoire.
The difference is Just here. Mr.. Dun
cannot tell a good opera from a bad
one. lie rushed into print with o
declaration that Messrs. Solomon and
Hoyt had written something equal to
the Mikado." 1t turned out to be
UNEQUAL to :" The Tin Soldier" Then
he will never trust his own Judgment
again. Like all the rest of them, he
thought Lillian Russell's face aud
ankles made an opera.
once went to John McCaull to read
an American opera to him. The COM
poser accompanied me. McCaull treat
ed the whole thing with grandiose in
difference that never forgot, and when
one act was read he offered some musi-
cal advice that might have been given
to a schoolgirl and which betrayed not
only his absolute ignorance Of music
but his complete ignorance of the mat
ter in hand.
The idea Of these small Barnums
ever doing anything for the music of
the country is absurd.
Those two bright young men-lew.
Docstader and Alexander Comstock-
who are fitting out a new opera-house
at 1893 Broadway with Frank Siddall's
money behind them, will do more for the
cause of popular music than all the
comic-opera managers combined. They
are going to break in up there this sea-
son with an entirely new deal, and have
already spent $50, 200 in getting ready.
"Held by the Enemy" has made q
hit at the Madison Square. 1t is the
only theatrical event of the week, barring
Solomon & Hoyt's fiasco.
The next thing, hear, is to be q
Mexican village or Aztec fair, several
capitalists having raked that country
for curioS and people.
Emma Abbott is rehearsing her opera
company quietly at so Union Square.
She is plump and vivacious, and her
voice is as fresh as ever. She is going
to do " Paul and Virginia " this
season.
Another woman has hired the Acade-
my of Music to give Italian opera, aud
Mrs. Thurber is hiring fresh girls for
the American opera. The only mascu'
line opera this year will be German.
AS for plays, there is little promised
that is new. That sturdy American
Miss Dauvray, came back during the
week from Paris. She told me, among
other things, that she found nothing in
Paris that was as good as the Ameri
can product-not even the dresses.
And as for plays, she intends to put
her money-of which she has an abun-
dance-into native dramas this season,
as she did last.
You see that in plays as we'll as in
opera the women are getting monop-
oily of it. Mrs. Bowers starts out with
rev historical drama called "Jo-
sephine," and Miss Emma Abbott has
a new American opera in her repertoire.