Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-11-12
STAGE KISSES.
They Are Sometimes OF n Very Realistic
Character.
Baltimore SUM-

Baltimore SUM
I.ove-rnaking on the stage Is generally
supposed by the unsophisticated public
to be more or less of perfunctory bust
ness, make-beleve affair as dry and
tasteless TO the performers as the property
food and drink which they affect to
swallow at their banquets. Romantic
and sentimental people will be glad TO
know that the tender passion, as repre-
scented on the boards. is not all pretense,
and that occasionally. at least, Cupid
gets in his work without shame or COM
junction right before the footlights.
case in point IS said TO have occurred
recently in a popular comic-opera troupe,
in which the prima donna and the bari
tone were the victims OF the sly little
god How or where the mutual attrac-
ton first began is not stated, but that
Il had not only begun, but was well adj
vanced, was made manifest TO the audi
ences soon after the baritone Joined the
company. 1t was part OF the baritone $
duty TO kiss the prima donna, and IL was
supposed that he would do Ii after the
ordinary stage fashion,, as man eats
who Is not hungry, or drinks VINO IL not
thirsty. But what was the surprise of the
spectators and Of the other members OF
the company to see that he performed the
duty as If he liked II, and liked II very
much indeed. In fact, he kissed the prifna
asm, ana she apparently reciprocated with
so much earnestness and Vigor, that the
labial scene soon became the most proinl-
nent in the opera. A witness in describ-
ing Il said the baritone's zeal reminded
him Of the realistic manner in which Rig
mold, an English actor, discharged SINH
lar duty in Henry "" Rignolds kiss
was linked sweetness so long drawn out
or drawn In, that when he began, the
sporting gentlemen in the front rows of
the theatre would regularly time him to
see If he would break his previous records.
The baritone's kisses were OF the same
sort, and when he administered them in
Philadelphia he created such sensation
that the gallery howled and the orches-
ira chairs fninted," The manager "rush-
ed" behind the scenes and asked the BARI
tone what he meant by such a perform
ance. Instead of modifying the kiss. how
ever he intensified II, until the composer
and the author were entirely forgotten
in the wild, delirious expectancy with
which the audience waited for that kiss. y
The manager In despair discharged the
baritone, who said he would rather sur
render his salary than his right to kiss
the prima donna, and to kiss her con-
scientiously and with all the elaboration
that the scene demanded The prima
donna declared that the interests of art
demanded that she should support the
position taken by the baritone, and she
promptly resigned an engagement worth
s23 900 rather than not be kissed In soul
ful and resounding style. The manager
stood firm for few days, but without the
ferVent kiss the opera lost much or us
magnetic power, and he was, II Is said,
forced 10 capitulate and summon the
his service. A kiss for which a man Is
willing to forego ambition and employ
ment, and "a woman $4,000 during Such a
financial crisis as the present, must be
sweet indeed. Who would not be n bari
tone or a prima donna with such delght-
full perqulsites as this?