The record-union., 1893-04-01
MUSIC AND TIE DRAMA.
Short Items About Actors, Sing.
ers and Managers.
The People of the Stage and Their
Movements - About Weu-Known
Dramatic and Operatic Artists.

In Milan, his young would-be rival, the
absurdly over-rated Mascagni, has been
hissed in Venice. A report of the first
performance of II Rantzau' in that city
says that IAN attempt at applause after
! the prelude was Missed down. The whole
OF the flrst act was sung amid icy silence;
in the second act Johns aria was ap-
plauded, but Mascagni refused to appear.
! The conclusion OF the act was much APP
plauded; Mascagni was loudly called for,
| but did not appear; whereUpon an indiS-
sCriOable noise and kissing arose. After
time the stage manager appeared and
excused Aascagni on the score of indis-
position, which provoked new demon
strations. The rest of the opera was
heard without any applause; on the
whole, the reception of the opera was
very cold"
In a recently published letter of Verdi
| to Count Arrivabene, dated April 2S,
1868, occurs 4 sentence which illustrates
| the fluctuations in musical taste. 1t re-
lates to once famous Italian composer
who died in lS0l: That the aria of Cim-
arosa is well written l admit. But there
are hundreds Of arlas better than that.
Poor Cimarosa, in his day he was re-
puted noisy and 'deafening,' while to-
day he is held up as a model, the ne pas
ultra of beauty! With the assertion that
ClmarOsa was a man OF uncommon en-
dowments, and that his IL Matrimonio
Segreto' may be regarded as one OF the
| best operas OF his time, / agree. Beyond
that do not go. Let us leave all foolish
and impossible comparisons aside"
Emily Lytton, the beauty who sup
ports j. X. Emmett, was presented with
a very shaggy Yorkshire terrier the other
day. Anybody familiar with this breed
of animal knows that it is with the ut
most difficulty that anyone can tell
which is the head or which is the tail, as
the dogs are so shaggy. On the stage the
other night where Fritz was playing,
one of the company asked Miss Lytton
if the dog was looking at her. She
promptly threw lump of sugar on the
floor. The shaggy dog revolved. and the
end furthest from the two slowly APP
preached. "W hen l want TO put Nellie's
collar on, / always do that" remarked
| the actress.
Since the burning of fthe Opera Comique
at Paris, in 1857, 1t has been the effort OF
nearly all French theatrical managers to
adopt a speedy means OF lowering the
| iron curtain in an instant, and electricity
has been found to supply the demands of
| both the managers and public for shut
! ting OIL instantly any fire occurring on
| or about the stage from the audience. The
| first theater in Europe known so far TO
use the electric iron curtain is the Co
medic Francais at Paris. The curtain is
! hung by four steel wire ropes which run
over pulleys, the ropes then meeting al
| and going over wooden drum. This is
driven from the pulley by an electric
motor.
A series of model operate performances
is to be given in the summer at Gotha,
! Germany. The Duke of SaXe-Coburg-
Gotha has offered a sum of 5000 marks
as prize in a competition for the best
| one-act opera and this work, with Cher
ubini's "Lodoiska," Spohr's Faust"
and another opera, is TO be given with
| the best possible cast and mounting. 1t
is reported that an enterprising New
| Yorker has paid S27 900 for the privilege
| of using the curtains OF the theaters in
| Chicago during the Worlds Fair, and
that it is his plan to paint upon each cur
tain square space to be Tiled with ad-
vertisements.
Sydney Armstrong, leading lady of the
Empire Theater, New York, in an inter
view published in the Sun, furnishes a
refreshing contrast to the twaddle OF
many young actresses. Miss Armstrong
did not go on the stage to elevate it. but
simply because she liked it and was COM
| PEELED to do something when her father. a
rich merchant, failed. She did not have
to learn to chew gum to play a gum
! chewer, and she is not a one-part actress
by any means, having marked talent in
various lines.
The Professional Woman's League
have in their handsome apartments in
New York spacious sewing and dress
making rooms, with 4 large wardrobe
containing elegant dresses contributed by
wealthy society women and rich actresses
to the young ladies of the stage whose
salaries will not permit them to dress
magnlhcently without assistance. The
league is a society of the leading actresses
OF America with the above benevolent
scheme as its principal object.
The point has been authoritatively de-
cided by the New York courts, after nu-
merous appeals, that in cases where a
two-weeks' clause exists in contract
made between actor and manager, and
the actor is discharged without the usual
notice, the amount of damages which can
be collected by such actor is two weeks
salary and no more. This decision was
| handed down by the Court of Appeals
and will in all probability settle long
/ disputed question.
Richard Mansfield was complimented
in Brooklyn during his recent engage
ment at the Park by the ladies who, for
I