Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-10-05

ure true, for at that time the theatcr going public was almost certain to pat roniZe any thing that the management put on.
 But the Casino fell upon unhappy days. The people whom it had brought out and given reputations were. most of them. taken i'll with violent attacks of the starring fever, and the house which was once very properly called The Home of American Comic Opera" began it's downward career Then the unhappy idea of refined vaude- vile found lOdEment in the fertile brain of the manager-Rudolph ArOnson-and the havoc started by the defection of the erst- while Casino favorites was completed. A travelling opera company was brought in to check the tide which had set so strongly against the once popular place Of amu>e- ment, but 1t was too late, and, besides, the tide checking company was entirely too weak for the herculean task before it. \ little later the receivership troubles came, and after that Mir. Roseborn took posses sion. It is perfectly safe to say that from an artistic standpoint Mir. Roseborn has not achieved glittering success, and it would probably be no great congregation to speak in the same manner of the finan- cial end of the enterprise.
 Mir. Roseborn's first undertaking was the production of something which for want of n better term might be called a comic opera, but which in reality is one of the most absurd things with music in it ever inflicted upon patient New Workers. And for most of this ex-Manager Rudolph Aron- son was responsible, for didn't he write the score' The concoction is called The Rainmaker of Syria and the gentleman who encouraged Mir. Aronson in his fell purpose by contributing the libretto is Sydney Rosenfeld. the talented author of The Senator and many other fine plays. Mir. Rosenteld's book is really very | bright, and 1t contains a coherent story, | which is more than can be said of most libretti. There are many quaint and essen | tially Rosenfeldian conceits which are ad- mirable, but with all its brightness the book is so weighted down with the pueril- ity and absolute inanity of the music, if it | may be called music, that the impression | apt to be left upon the noncritiCal auditor is that the whole thing-libretto and all | Is very, very bad. I cannot understand l how an experienced and able manager. like Mir. Aronson is conceded to be, even by his | enemies, could have been deluded into the belief that the jingley drivel for which he has to answer could possibly, under any | combination of circumstances, be forced | into even comparative success. It only | adds another argument to the claim that ! no man Is competent critic of his own l work.
 The neck and neck tubogsan race of the | Casino with diversity i~ likely, however. tC ! come to an end snon, for at the close of the run of The Rainmaker of Syria Lillian Russell, who is one of the greatest favorites in this city, is booked to go in there in . | new opera under thc management of Ca 1 nary S Lederer. That she will make n sue cess of the venture if the opera is even pass ! ably good Cot $ without saving for thert are few stars who can draw more money on the strength of their personal popular ity in this city than Lillian Russell It i. expected that the work in which she TyiI appear is Princes Nicotine b. Charlel 4 Byrne and Louis Harrison,
 One of the smallest parts m The Othel Man now in its last days at the GaFdeI theater, is the prince in the awkward squad. It is played by a man who, in hi excellent mak, Q. looks like atwin brothel of Richard Maj. field. He is Leo Ditrich stein, and this is his first effort in an Eng fish speaking part, although he has beeI favorably known in this city for some tim as a member of the German companies His impersonation of the prince has at tracted a good deal of attention and mucl fattering comment, and some facts in con nection with his career may therefore be O interest.
 To begin at the beginning, Mr. Ditrich stein was born in Hungary 3I yearS alsu He was educated in Vienna, but when b | feACneu that IbDluI ll lllt W ltlA LE s4ltuta have gone to the university he determines instead to go on the stage. He made hi debut as a member of an Austrian compan
 which was doing The Private SeCrt tary" in the provinces. The stability of tn
 banks evidently did not disturb Mir. Ditrich
 stein much at that time, for he infurme
 me with something of pathos, Il rehearse7
 during the day, acted at night, studied
 new part for next day after the perform
 ance, and in the interval I starved, or q
 any rate I was unable always to get a
 much food as could accommodate"
 Mir. Ditrichstein had the good forum
 about this time to discover that he was tn
 possessOr of an excellent tenor voice, an
 he put it to good use by singing in comi
 opera in the best theaters of Austria an
 Germany. After some years of this he he
 gan playing light comedy roles in Berlin where Gustav AmbcrS saw him ant brought him to New York. His worl with Mir. Amberg's company has been O
 such an excellent quality that as soon a
 he had mastered the English language suf ficiently he WAS offered his present part il
 '"The Other Man" Mir. Ditrichstein vii "A E@