The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-18
Especial Correspondence

seemed to have given all her life and facul-
ties to the preservation of her voice and ap-
pearance She never grew careless in her
singing. But she outgrew all desire to be
the person represented. Time never sue
ceeded in betraying the worn timber of her
upper notes. She had acquired the art of
cOncealment and lost the art of portrayal.
There was not feminine grace or pretty
girlish device Of manner that was not worn
as cogently at fifty as at fifteen, and she
has been content to remain to the last the
regnant Patti, while all the characters of
the old Italian opera that she impersOnated
have passed into oblivion.
! saw her at the finish of the season in
Donizetti's Lucia" once favorite opera
no less on account of its delicious melodies
and its magnificent sextet than on account
of its simple, ineligible and touching love
story. l never anywhere saw perform
ance in which the composer and his work
were SO inimitably showed into the back
ground by the personality of singer.
She treated the story with delicious con-
tempt, and it was accepted only as an eX-
cuse for Nine Patti to come on at inter
walls and sing for the audience at the
footights and coquette with them in her
own unapproachable style.
The integrity and illusion of the opera
were broken into by a regulation way Of
skipping down at the proper times to do
her arias and then skipping of. The rest
of the company trying to fill in the inter
regnums as best they might.
The audience treated the affair as re-
ception of PATHS. 1t used every plaudi-
tory device known to an audience to keep
her at the footlights, where it could carry
on the Irritation regardless of the story or
the ensemble. 1t asked her to sing Home,
Sweet Home" while Edgardo was waiting
to break his heart, and she sang it, al
though it has no more place in the opera
than 1.-The Star Spangled Banner"
1t passed flowers up to her continually,
intoxicated with delight at her girlish as
constituent and spontaneous JOY at receiv-
ing them. Patti must have accepted flow
ers enough in her lifetime to make an ordi-
nary career one perpetual decoration day.
1t is striking evidence of her unimpaired
faculties that she still claps her hands and
sheds tears and has a heavenly little thrill
at the sight of bunch of roses, and al
though her room at the hotel may be stored
TO the ceiling with bouquets, she goes
through the same gamut of spontaneity at
every additional bud.
Some variation was made on this occa-
sion, however, for live puppy was handed
over the footlights with other things. This
episode was Of more interest than anything
in the opera, and it furnished little COM
edy scene of more spontaneity and kisses.
Viewed from any composers standpoint
Patti is a divine impertinence, and none
of them, with the single exception of Ros-
SIM, lies quiet in his grave when she is
singing his opera. Rossini alone is COLI
tent, for the Rosina of his Barber" is so
conceived that she appears to be only
gathering bouquets.
A very significant incident occurred here
last week. Comic opera managers are
now put to their wits end to devise new
and startling costumes for the chorus,
which is always the important thing in
comic opera. No one any longer goes to
hear music in this form of entertainment.
He goes to see what the manager will do
with the girls.
Somebody struck new idea in the
"Child of Fortune, " and it was todress the
girls as Scotch laddies, a proceeding which
implied in its correctness some small por-
ton of an absolutely bare leg.
The opera is to be produced at the Casino,
| and it evidently occurred to the manage
ment to make the most of the Scotch cos
tune feature, so to begin with the papers
broke out the other day with the announce
ment that the girls at the Casino were in a
state of revolt at the proposition to exhibit
two inches of bare leg, but that, so far as
| could be learned from the management,
they would have to succumb to the Scotch
| regulations
| This was ingenious 1t excited public
attention, aroused curiosity and awakened
! interest But the fact is the girls had no
more idea of rebelling than they had of ex-
| piring. / was talking with one of them
| shortly after, and she hadn't heard any
| body object She didn't clearly know what
| aScotch laddie's costume was, bat whatever
| it was she guessed the girls could stand it
| If the manager could.
Mr.. William H. Crane has produced an
| other play at the Star theater. 1t is called
The American Minister and is laid in
| Italy. 1t is an attempt and not altogether
an unsuccessful one, to place an eccentric
| American in foreign surroundings. with
/ the one idea of making the contrast in
! character and environment humorous The
| play is farcical. and Mr. Crane is farce
/ ACTOR ne has uOh SOl a SERIOUS turn
! him. He handles the somewhat trivial in
cidents of this comedy with his usual
/ sprightiness and manages to make people
/ laugh, but the work itself is defective iii
/ its bathos; it makes important things triv.
/ ial, degrades responsible personages to ri
! diculous conditions, and generally views
/ diplomacy and United States officials ~
/ idiocy and end men.
/ The piece can never take rank among
| worthy dramas. for its theme or its litera-
ture. 1t can only prove successful as q
new medium for Mr.. Cranes personality
and humor.
| AT the Park theater we had at the same
/ time the white cruisers utilized at lase in
/ melodrama tumultuous affair called
The Golden Ladder was produced by Mr..
Edwin T. Thorne This time the scene is laid
! in Chill. during the recent unpleSssctness
/ and the hero. pursued by Gillian villains
! takes refuge OF United States cruiser
/ and in reply 70 the demand of the Chiliau
, authorizes the Commanding officer beats
to quarters surrounds the scene with
blue jackets and invites The authorities Z
come and take the man
\ worse play was probably never seer
anywhere, tut this claptrap episode savet
il
| Apropos of the recent moral spasn