Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-01-15

Mikado, reminds me of the abominable
practice Of introducing females into the
tenor parts. The same fraudulent substi-
tuition was done with Jennie Winston in
the Queens Lace Handkerchief. I pre-
sumo that it is done partly because
soprano is much cheaper than tenor.
but chiefly with reference to the fine fig
ures of the ladies cast for those parts. OF
the taste OF the change 1 have nothing to
say. I am no prude, and I see no more
immodesty in an artistic in tights than do
in belle of ball room in very low
dress. have known young women of the
purest lives and minds wear both cos
tumes-wOmen who thought no evil, what
ever the coarse minded of both sexes wnO
eyed them might have thought. But DO
OBJECT to putting tenor parts in feminine
hands, or rather mouths. The music is not
written for them and they cannot sing IT,
and the attempt is fraud for which no
exhibition of finely moulded limbs Can
atone to u lover of music. In the last
thirty years there has been but one wo-
man-Georgina Hodson, of the Durand
troupe, who could sing tenor parts. for
since her day no successor has appeared.
| One RAY put up with pdssee voice ike
Jennie WlnsLun's y, or That Of the young
woman who sung Nan-kipo if they were
Exercised in soprano parts, but to have
Them put up to sing really pretty music
written for tenor, and the fate of when
! in concerted pieces depends on its being
sung by a tenor, is q little more than a
patient public ought 10 be called on to
| bear.
Watching the comicalitles and the rank
singing of the California Minstrels the
other night, the difference between the
negro minstrelsy of the present and that OF
other days was forclbly called to my mind.
When first remember Ethiopian" min
strels, as they we're then called. thirty
years ago, a troupe-at the most had twelve
men, and oftener ten. One bones and tam
BORNE man at each end, an interlocu-
tor, a female and jig dancer, a boy prodigy
singer, two vlolins, flute, cello and cor
net was about the stock. The charge
was twenty five cents. There were two
companies that used to come South of
Washington, Sanford g troupe from Phil
adelphia and Kunkel's troupe from Mary
land. The overture Was gen orally few
bars from the overture to an opera. and
from that on there was nothing but bal
lads and comic songs. By 10 O'Clock
everybody was at home. One Of these
managers, George Kunkel, who was famed
in that day for his singing of the ''Old
Sexton" afterwards became manager OF
the Richmond theatre and made lots OF
money. Poor fellow, his last appearance
was made in Stanton four years ago. He
had broken down i'll his theatrical career
and as a last effort got together min
strel troupe, in 1882, think. It played IN
Norfolk and then here. 1t was failure.
A friend here helped the poor old fellow
out of his trouble. paid the troupe's bills
and sent it on its way to Lynchburg. but
it got no further. He got home to
Baltimore. and year or two after died.
Stanton has stranded many troupes,
but don't know Of any that ended so
pitifully as poor Georges. AS l saw him
10 the buggy at the head of his procession
of MINISTRIES, dressed in a cheap but
snowy suit and without dollar in his
pocket, parading the street to secure an
audience that night, I could not help
thinking of the old days of the Rlc hmond
theatre, when his lavish hand and gen
erous heart used to throw away thou
sanos. Time had overtaken and passed
him in his profession, and he had to make
way for younger men. But was speaking
of the difference in the minstrel troupes of
this day Now, twenty is the least num-
Der, and they run as nigh as thirty, with
six to eight end men. eight to ten Jig dan
GERS, half dozen song-and-dance men,
and carry whole brass band. The ole
tenor and one basso to sing ballads, of
the old trOupes, are replaced now by
enough good voices to furnish an opera
company with; indeed, some of the
chorus singing at the California Ministries
the other night was not only equal but
superior to that of two-thirds of the opera
troupes we see. Whereas the old troupes
used to be free and easy organizations,
those of to-day are managed with military
discipline, and the rehearsal hour called,
carries as heavy fine for missing it as
any opera company. A negro minstrel of
the old time on his drinking bouts could
break a French-plate-glas window and
get off with less fine than one can get
off IN this day for appearing at night
drunk when he Is called to ego o." An
other change is more noticeable to the
pubic-instead Of the old quarter of a
dollar it is dollar, or three quarters. In
fact, when show says popular prices"
nowadays, it means from two to three
quarters. But if we look at the difference
in the troupes of this day and that, l am
notsure that the public Of the present isn't
better off than that Of thirty years ago.
The old quarter of dollar is gone, but
with it went some wretched music and a
Cioaoo VI Cuboi cdiu uIoubo Vuat app o0iou ouIy
to that sort of public taste that is willing
90 be amused by-anything.
I cannot, even though it tire you, close
without saying word about Couldock.
1t is now twenty-five years since l saw
him in Willow Copse. but he so present.
ed it then that have never forgotten it.
saw him Friday night; they will never
forget it. The garden scene and the home
scene with his daughter are the very
of actinr nd thara il hut