Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-14
MUSIC AND The DRAMA.
R0sALIND MAYS COMMENTS ON MET.
R0POLITAN ADJUSTMENTS.
Why People Go to Hear italian Opera
sung in German-The New Swedish
Play-Gensral Stage Notes.

| s~'y SoPAC 0o tO hCaT AthAltu OpeE6
Sung in German-The New Swedish
Play-Gensral Stage Notes.
Rosalind May, the regular New York
correspondent Of the SUNDAY UNION.
writes as follows under date of December
9th:
"With the Inauguration of German Op-
era. the musical season has fairly opened
and the nights of Monday, Wednesday
and Friday find wonted display of dia-
monds and low necks. The two latter, it
is well known, come first; considerations of
melody or harmony, second. The 400
ranged on exhibition in the two semi-cir-
cular rows of boxes, afford spectacles of
| absorbing interest one to the other; in
| their private boudoirs at the rear leach
box has its boudoir attached, sample one
being fitted up at a cost of $4,000 they
can firt, eat candy, and, in appropriate ex-
clusiveness, promenade in lobbies to which
none other are admitted-Ward McAllis-
| ter, a taken-for-g granted factor.
DO THESE PEOPLE
| Care for music? Echo answers, DO they
By the strains of music they may compla-
Gently survey the ignobile vulgus who pay
| S3 per seat and from that-down or up,
| whichever you may put it, since the lower
the price the higher the position-to the
81 so people in the balcony, which is the
ultima thule of anything that may pass.
Rear seats in the same tier for 81 are
| degree better than the family circle, which
holding people who do not go beyond so
cents, are relegated to far away terra in
cognita.
'THE OPENING NIGHT
1t was evident that Trinity's thunders had
proved stimulus rather than an obsta-
| Gle to the dressmakers scissors. De-
| ficiences in fabrics were atoned for,
however, by overplus of precious
stones, and as rule the homelier the
woman the more of them; frights of old
! dowagers fairly blazing with them. Wigs
and false fronts prove special vantage
ground of exhibition, nor are skinny arms
| or necks hindrance, nor seas OF fat, the
accumulated consequences Of a good deal
more than forty years. As rule, the
younger and prettier the woman, the less
jewelry, but in prize competition less
may be understood as just the reverse in
any ordinary sense. From all this it may
| easily be seen that opera attracts. One
goes for one object, another for another,
but the sum total, it must be confessed, is
an advancement of art, and if the hybrid
productions of Italian operas sung in Ger
man are displeasing to the lovers of the
language of song, yet to tolerate the pre-
sentation of an Italian work is compro-
mise on the part of a true Wagnerite.
But yielding here, giving way there. but
always, nevertheless, holding firm rein
and possessing a placid soul, the pre-
eminently handsome manager flor Staun-
ton is a wonderfully good Hooking man of
| fine proportion, classic features and dark
hair, as yet untouched by Time) steers his
bark among conflicting tastes and fills the
house. But minus the element of
FINE DRESSING
Down would go opera with heavy
thump, and, after all, like what
would those brilliantly -illumined boxes
look without their variously clad
occupants? Like forloln pigeon-holes, and
sour cynic would like to call them back.
So far two operas have been given, AS
rael,' by Franchetti, an Italian work sung
in German, and The Huguenots,' peren-
nial standby. The singers are chiefly
new to America and will be reviewed in
detail at an early date, and with more ex-
tended space. This will be in the natural
order of things, since dress and fashion
come first, singers and orchestra last. Is
it desecration to mention
A BANJO CONCERT
In connection with opera? Not at all,
and were room allowed an extended ac-
count would be interesting as tot the weir6ly
musical effects of nearly hundred banios
supplemented by a number of guitars in
unison and led by the noted banjo players,
Brooks and Denton. Taken altogether it
was rare treat, gave enjoyment to a
crowded house last Saturday night at
Chickering Hall, and reflected much credit
on the manager, j. II. Phipps."
THE NEW ANGLo-swEDIsH PLAY.
While "Yon Yonson," the new Anglo
Swedish play written by w. D. Coxey and
Gus j. Heege, for Manager Jacob Lift, is
essentially a comedy, and intended to Gre
ate far greater proportion of smiles than
sentiment, it nevertheless tells story of
strong and unusual dramatic interest. A
poor Swedish machinist, an emigrant to
America, on his death bed intrusts to his
employer, an elderly capitalist, valuable
sawmill invention, receiving a faithful
promise that his orphan children, boy of
6 and a girl of 2 shall receive the benefit
of the fathers life's work. The capitalist
permits the boy to be adopted by family
of Swedes in northern Minnesota, and he
grows up to manhood among these people,
retaining his natural characteristics and
his AngIo-Swedish dialect. The capital
list yields to the wishes of his wife and
adopts the girl himself. The poor Swede's
invention proves enormously profitable, so
much SO that the spirit of avarice masters
the old man, and he refrains not only
from telling the girl the truth, but also
| from discovering the whereabouts of the
boy in order to make an honorable dis
tribution of the profits.
The old mans partner, an unscrupulous
but thoroughly modern and unconven-
tional villain, uses his knowledge of the
old mans one false step to force him into
land swindles, in which the unfortunate
victims-mostly foreigners-are made to
pay enormous sums of money for practi-
| cally worthless mining and timber land.
His most daring scheme eliminates in dis
aster. Urged by the younger man, the
| capitalist endeavors to force a young
| Englishman into buying tract of WORTH
less land. The Englishman discovers the
attempted swindle, and during an angry
| alteration with the old man, the latter
strikes him down with his cane, and leaves
him lying in the snow, apparently dead.
Half crazed by what he has done, he returns
to his partner, who discovers the truth. and
uses his knowledge to further strengthen
| his mastery over the old man. Broken
down in health and spirits, the old man
confesses his wrong-doing to his adopted
daughter. The partner discovers that the
Swede is the son of the poor machinist,
whose invention has proved so profitable
to the capitalist, but when he attempts to
use this knowledge to extend his inf1u-
ence over the old man, he is confronted by
the fact that the secret is already out.
Brother and sister are again united, the
old man is forgiven not only by the young
Swede and his sister, but also by the Eng
lishman, who is fortunately saved from a
| terrible death in the woods. The oppro-
brium falls as it should, on the head of the
designing partner. This is mere outline
4 At H. H.