, 1892-03-03

Plano and Comedian-MRnsheld's Eng
lish Notions.
NEW YORK, Feb. 24-There is a good
deal of speculation as to the outcome of the
opera season. Mr.. Maurice Grau's public
statement that Mr.. Abbey is tired Of
opera and will not have anything to do
with it next year is coupled with a rather
litter complaint of the way the press has
treated the management. Neither Mr..
Abbe- nor Mr.. Grau would care a raparee
for what the press said If they had been
successful.
1t is now understood on the inside that
the stockholders are going to run their
own opera next season on a popular and
economic basis-mixing cayiare and mock
turtle periodically; that is, alternating
Wagner with Meyerbeer. In any case it
will not be opera for the people, but for
the stockholders. A great deal of injustice
has been lone the management by the
press, or at least that part of it which is
inimical to Italian opera. 1t has sneered
ut the artists unjustly and found fault
with the orchestra, the conductor and the
ensemble. But the fact remains that the
season has covered a wider range Of works
than ever before, and covered them with a
larger average OF artistic success.
Opera at the best is n thankless under
taking for a manager. Those who want
l0t exclusive anu tADthSlNc luAuI1 OuEHL
TO pay for it, and that is what they will
have to do next season.
Lillian Russell and LA Cigale" ave
withdrawn from the Garden theater for
the road and simultaneously Miss Hunt
ington and Miss Gerrish come to the front
one at the Union Square the other at the
Casino.
The Casino affair proved to be a riotous
vaudeville in which an approved monkey
LLN-a. No. L. walt 40 -
of all the honors with a pitchfork-
You can hardly imagine a popular en-
tertainment at this house whose two at
fractions aside from the ever regnant
,horus) is an automatic piano and the
exploits Of the comedian in trying to
carve a roast turkey. But that is what
Uncle Celestin' rests on. 1t must there
fore be said that the Casino did not fill
the gap left by Lillian Russell. 1t pro
'uced Loie Fuller in a dance and Mabel
Stephenson, who chirps like a bobolink,
but everybody felt hat the automatic
piano was the main card.
IL will be a very difficult. thing to offer q
substitute for Lillian Russell to the men
about town. There are a score Of women
who can sing better, but there is nobody
who has the same amount of good looks
and good voice combined. Without doubt
she carried La Cigale'' through all the
NtthS ~ INC 1hIutn lnthItT On ntT WDlIe
shoulders. Strangers at the hotels went
TO see Lillian Russell. They never asked
hat the entertainment was, and they
were amply repaid by the sensuous CON
temptation of the beauty, cunningly ar
rayed in the most seductive and sumptu-
uus robes.
These feminine pets have their clientele
IF admirers or worshipers, who are much
more of n popular phenomenon than the
-. - A. l.
goddess and they agree TO swear by her
and buy her flowers and expend an enor-
nous amount of eallow enthusiasm over
Ler until a new star appears. Lillian Rus
Dell has had a following of that kind here
for "A long time. There is, / believe, "a Lii
liam Russell club up town of young men
who, having no other ideal, have selected
this one as an inspiration and n trade
mark.
iresher woman in Miss Russell's company
Is attracting attention. This is Miss At
talie Claire, who has the advantage of vir-
ginity, etheriality and n certain vernal in
genuousness. The college boys having
taken an oath to love and decorate her and
buy tickets to her benefit, we can under
stand nat presently the managers will be
reaching out for her. Some years g there
was a play put on Mt the leading up town
iNhb1 "hAth NiuANN !" vi
women, and the management had to Sc
cure in addition to its regular lead another
and younger who made a great hit with
The public.
The lady of the company then appealed
10 one of the New York clubs, and n pow
erful coterie went to the management and
threatened 90 withdraw its patronage II
the newcomer was not shelved. i am
sorry to say that the manager succumbed.
IL 10 enid Inv tha CIafra alharapto
that the recent presentation OF diamonds
TO Lillian Russell was gotten up by the
management, Miss Russell contributing
the diamonds, and even the club boys ac-
knowledge that chivalry is better expressed
a flowers.
Mime. Emma Eames has appeared at the
Metropolitan opera house rs Margherita,
in Gounod's Faust" 1t is notable that
this opera drew one of the largest assem-
blages of the season. Every box and every
seat in the vast house was filled, which was
very far from being the case on the nights
of the much vaunted "Lohengrin." The
interest of the story was attested by the
close attention of the extraordinary audi
ence, and there was a great deal of anxiety
10 see NJ. Edouard de Reszke as Mephisto.
This artist had been somewhat extrava-
gantly praised, but / was disappointed in
his M~ephistopheles, which had been done
ltA III NV Dbob NlNbo = athA AAACAS Va
the sardonic flavor that Gounod no less
than Goethe put into it, and he fell far short
of the devilish cynicism and sarcasm of
the music in the serenade. Mime. Eames
seemed to me to be a colorless Margherita.
She certainly lacked emotion and power.
Her voice is not extraordinary in compass
OF timbre. Her attack is bad and her in
tonation defective.
1T is seldom that a Gretchen fails to win
an audience in the jewel song or the king
of Thule" but Nine. Eames' effort passed
without a hand.
Mr.. Richard Mansfield has eturned to
the Garden theater bringing with him his
Don Juan" But the place that gave it
birth did not know it. He has taken all
the bones out of it and let the epidermis
hang in the air. 1t is now a farce called
1.-The Weather Vane."
Commend me to Mr.. Mansfield for max
ing a piece stay. II you don't like it as
tragedy, he will give il to you as burlesque.
He is going to do his whole repertory, ex-
elusive of Richard Ill" II he would let
some competent playwright make him II
play he would, if well fitted, make a great
deal more money than does Mr.. Crane, for
he IL an acf1r of startling ability but ma n