Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-07
MUSIC AND DRAMA.
GLIMPSES OF LIFE BEFORE AND RE-
HIND THE CURTAIN.
Brief Mention of Plays and Players-
Things that VIII Interest the
People This Season.


next season.
Tommy Russelrs rer play, written for
him by Ramsay Morris, is TO be called " A
Little American"
g Lost in Africa" new spectacular
melo-drama, is booked for production in
New York City on September ID.
Now that John Gilbert is dead, Edwin
Narrey will return to his old roles in the
plays to be presented by the Jefferson.
Florence combination.
Mrs. Charles Doremus play, "The Lit.
tie General" will be sent on the road next
season with a company, Of which Miss
Jessie Bonstelle will be the chief artistic
Adelaide Goundre, Anna Vislaire, PhvI,
lis Coventry, Edward Brown and Charles
Jehlinger have been engaged rs members
OF Charles BowSer's Check Company
J. W. Hague, who played the part OF
Scroogs in My Partner with Aldrich
and ParSloe for many years. will be the
bank cashier in \ Midnight Bell next
season.
Frank \. Taunehill, Jr., has invented a
flying machine, which he intends to intro
duce in the performance of Bric-a- Brac."
his new farce comedy. He thinks he has
solved the problem Of aerial navigation,
for stage purposes, at all events.
Clara Morris, the actress, besides being
an accomplished needle woman and a
clever sketcher in oils and water colors. is
now adding wood-carving TO the list of her
accomplishments. She takes daily lessons
of an experienced Instructress, and has al
ready attained considerable skill.
Manager Frank l.. Goodwin has con-
cluded to put his new play, "The White
Elephant" to a very severe test, that of
production in New York in midsummer.
1t will be presented at the Biiou Theater
on July 10Th. If it proves to be success
ful piece, the production will place him in
good condition to send it on the road next
season.
Henry f. Abbey is said to have guaran-
teed Tamagno, the tenor, 100000 for
forty-eight performances in the United
States and Mexico. He is to sing on alter
nate nights with Patti. The figures may
be exaggerated, but Tamagno is undoubt-
edly the highest priced tenor of the day.
He is at present the foremost Italian singer
in the heroic roles.
Lewis Morrison and his company, which
includes Stella Rees, Russ Whylate, Flor
ence Roberts and Samuel Edwards, have
been playing "a Celebrated Case" at the
BUou Theater in San Francisco, and have
done a very successful business. They in
tend to produce " Partners" as their next
venture. San Francisco is now one of the
banner theatrical cities in summer.
1t is said that whoever buys the right
to produce Gilbert & Sullivan's new opera
in America must engage Geraldine Ulmar
as the prima donna. This condition is in
sisted upon by DOyley Carte. Rudolph
Aronson is negotiating for the opera, but
he will not take it until he reads the
libretto and listens to the music Ameri-
can managers do not care to "go it blind "
on Gilbert & Sullivan now
Nine. Etelka Gerster still cherishes the
hope, in which she is encouraged by ex-
perts, that she will recover the full use of
her voice, and works and practices as meth
odically as in the stirring days when she
used to star in the United States. Her
famous baby has grown into a chubby lit
tie girl, who has already shown signs of
possessing a voice worth training. The
whole family are living in village near
Bologna.
" "Helene's Heritage" by Lucy Hooper
and Richard Davy, has been produced, at
the Amateur Theater, Paris, with Miss
Hooper as the heroine. The play is in
four acts and is verv sad and somber. The
heritage of Helene is madness. Her
father leaves letter telling her not to
marry, because of the hereditary insanity:
but her lover over-persuades her and she
goes mad after the birth of child. She
poisons the child and herself. Such a
play can hardly succeed anywhere. Of
Miss Hooper's acting the French critics
say that, although she is inexperienced
she certainly has the dramatic talent and
makes her effects artistically.
The four-act comedy which Messrs.
Brander Matthews and George II. Jessop
have written for w. H. Crane, and which
will be produced next fall in Chicago, has
been named son Probation" 1t is said
that the title describes the peculiar condi-
tion of the hero of the piece, part to be
assumed by Mr.. Crane. The character is
that Of middle-aged American man of
business who, with his sister and some
American girls of varying types, goes to
Paris to see the Exposition While there
and in other parts of Europe he succeeds
in getting into all sorts of amusing en-
tanglements. The play may be called cos
mopolitan, for apart from the Americans
there are a Russian Prince, Brazilian
an Irish Baronet, and a waiter who belongs
to all nations at one and at the same time
The play belongs to the class of farce
comedies.
The $4k0O0-a-night tenor, Tamagno,
made his first appearance before an En-
glish-speaking audience tonight at the
Lyceum Theater, says London dispatch
Of the 9th inst. 1t was the first perform
once of "Othello' in England, and drew
out brilliant audience. If the verdict of
London on his first night be any criterion
for America, the famous tenor is worth
the big price paid for him. 1t is idle to
compare him with Ma1coni or Campanini
who have attempted the same role in
America. He has bigger voice than any
robust tenor heard in America, and is
withal finer actor. Abbey, who was
present tonight, never heard him sing be-
fore. He made the contract simply on
his reputation. Maurel, as Iago, is the
best baritone ever heard here, and made
as big hit as Tamagno, but Maurel is
not engaged for America. Both the
Bereske brothers and La Sale were in the
audience to hear Tamagno. The produc-
ton is the event of the season. All the
artists, Conductor Faccio and the sixty
nine persons in the orchestra were brought
from the La Scala.
"The Governess," the new play which
Effie Ellsler successfully rehearsed, at the
Tabor Opera House, Denver, and which
she will produce in New York, next sea-
son, is an emotional drama, in four acts.
The name of the author Is not given; prob
ably "The Governess" is adapted from the
French. Zorah Walden Is wife and
mother, and soon after the birth of her
child discovers that her husband, George
Griffith, is professional thief. She leaves
him; places the child at the door of Mrs.
Hamilton, wealthy widow; sees it taken
in and cared for, and then goes to the
North river, intending to drown herself
and her sorrows. There she finds men,
orandum book, dropped by Jarvis Coulter,
young lawyer, who has sailed for Europe.
Learning from the hook that he will never
return, she forges his name to letter of
recommendation to Mrs. Hamilton, so that
she may be employed as the governess of
her own child. The first act, which tells