Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-24
COMIC OPERA AT SEA.
Murray Takes a Sail Down the Coast
and Strikes 1t Real Rich.
HAS A WHOLE SHIP-LOAD OF FUN.
A Made-Up Company for Southern Season
Whipped Into Shape.
MISHLPS WHEN THE BOAT LURCHEs

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE pIsPATCH.1
CHARLESTON, S. c., April 2L-Did you
ever witness comic opera at sea? A floating
theater-a stanch Clyde coaster rolls
gently in the illimitable blue from New
York toward the Southern sun; from
ulsters and scurrying snow clouds under
clear skies bound for the land of oranges
and flowers. Why should not happy faces
and smiles and music and laughter rule the
passing hours?
But no such human freight ever before
left the port of New York, and no such
spectacle was probably ever witnessed from
dav to day at sea; for the Iroquois has a
comic opera on board and in course of train
ing. There are young men and pretty
maids galore. From the stately and re-
served prima donna soprano to the vivacious
little man who plays the flute in the orchestra
-tenors, bassos, baritones, sopranos, con-
traltos, chorus girls, musicians-the entire
gamut of the operatic trade are here, pick ed
crowd from Bohemia, picturesque and en-
tertaining
Such rustling and singing, and pacing up
and down the decks, and coming of parts,
and hourly rehearsals of music and recita-
tive between decks by day!-and such twit-
tering and flirting and purring in the shad-
ows and under the brilliant moon by night!
Training Under Difficulties.
'First scene, ladies"' calls the nervous
stage manager, rapping on the stateroom
doors Hurry up-frst scene, ladies?'
And from the cabins and hooks and quiet
corners of the boat come blondes and bru-
nettes, petite young girls and solid matrons,
who are cast for parts in the first score of
the opera on hand. Down in the main sa-
loon they range about one of the long
tables librettos before them. The black
servants are vet clearing away the debris of
late breakfasts. Idling passengers hang
about the stairways and lounge on the dis
tant sofas, listening curiously TO the reclta-
tive.
The opera is ''Fatinitza" and the stage
manager is drilling the corps of ladies in
their several parts While this is in prog
ress the notes of q single violin are heard
from the ladies' parlor above and the voices
of pretty songstresses rise and fall with
the rvthnlie motion of the ship-pauslng
suddenly at intervals to give the sharper
and corrective notes of the musical director
q chance.
Treasures Wasted on Gu1ls and Porpoises.
Now and then the clear and penetrating
voice of the prima donna, too powerful for
the narrow confines, opens and floats
out upon the trackless ocean to cheer the
Ewooping sea gulls astern. And then the
plunging porpoises, plowing along under
the stern of the 1roquois leap into the music
laden air and shake their sheeny sides, as if
they too were members of q comic opera
company and were enjoying the coming re-
hearsal The male chorus is playing poker
in the smoking room. Another hour and
the suave and indefatigable director has
them in hand and in turn. Thus the work
of licking an opera company into shape goes
on from day to day on the ocean.
The facility with which these professional
people can be brought together-their
mental and social pliablity-is something
verging on the wonderful To illustrate:
The Dunbar -Broderick Opera Company
existed ten davs before it sailed for Charles
ton only in the mind of Robert Dunbar,
tenor. Having just closed his season with
the Little Tycoon" at Pittsburg he rushed
up TO New York, caught William Broderick,
the well-known basso and Billy Keogh,
manager of the Charleston Academy of
Music and began to walk Broadway and en-
gage the people. Within six days thereafter
they had Miss Carlotta Maconda, prima
donna soprano, formerly with Juch and the
tralto, well known to comic opera, but more
recently with Mestayer at the Park Theater,
New York; Miss Monroe, of the Pauline
Hall Company, and some 80 other singers
and orchestral musicians and were rehears-
ing in New York hotel parlor.
They Soon Get Wei Acquainted.
Two DAYS later they were on the ocean
bound for Charleston for a season of light
opera of eight weeks. No two of these peo-
pie were from the same company, and not
half dozen knew one another. On board
ship acquaintance is easily made-friend-
ships ripen suddenly. With this Bohemian !
crowd the usual barriers do not exist They
are quick to yield to circumstances, and q
single day out of New York finds them
happy family. The women pair off by
natural selection, and the men hang together
in body or flock alone.
At table the company have half the saloon
am sandwiched between a pretty contralto
and q premiere danseuse, and have a man.
Sger and the prima donna vis-a-vis 1 note
that the latter is partial to salads and that
the demure danseuse usually gets the tough
legs of the chicken. The pretty Southern
maid just below lives daintily upon rice and
milk. The contralto likes what like, and
that is plain substantial food and plenty of
it-so she gives two orders of the same"
which relieves me of the gastronomical re-
sponsibility. Down the table is tall
bleached blonde FROM Frisco, and her chum
Is petite brunette from Pittsburg-admir-
able foilS
A Pittsburg Girl Right in 1t.
The little brunette has large laughing
brown eyes, which have bored brace of
young male passengers full of holes. One
of these young men follows her around the
ship all day like sick poodle, and when
he looks at her afar of it is with please
come-and-wipe-your-p r-pretty-feet-on-me" ex-
preston that indicates the early stage of
love paresis. At dinner a glance from her
makes sad inrcads upon his liver; but she
eats as much as a farm hand, so the steam-
ship company doesn't make anything. The
Pittsburg brunette has waist only about
seven inches in diameter, and am ALWAYS
making involuntary calculations where she
puts things. We have tremendous appe-
tites all 'rourd and eat three excellent OBJ
long meals day.
Basso Broderick eats with his libretto
tilted up against q glass before him, alb
sorbing his lines with his potatoes. and
some of the rest eat with knife Occa-
sionally the ship wallows a trife heavier in
the trough OF the sea and everybody pauses
and looks around uneasily and tries to
smile
The second day out the wind shifts to the
east and we roll. A pretty chorus girl
sucks a lemon and bottle of ammonia at
tains a limited circulation. There is an
evident disposition in various feminine
quarters to seek seclusion; but the ener-
getic stage manager and the musical direc-
tor are inexorable.
Nal de Mer and Rehearsais. |
Rehearsal at 5, ladies. Rehearsal at 8, |
gentlemen. Come to the centerl''
IL.