St. Paul daily globe., 1896-02-09
CUBANS HAD TASTE
THEY WOULD NOT SUBMIT TO
FRANK DESHON IN s.THE
MIKADO.H
PALACES OF RICH MARBLE
THE ONLY SORT OF THEATERs
THAT SUIT THE BROWNIE
KING SINCE
HE COULD wARBLE IN EsPANoL
But They Made Him Sing His Operas
I'm EngIisil-No japanese
Went.

1t ought to satisfy any one to be
king of the Brownies, to live
in such glittering glory as does Frank
+ Deshon, of the Brownies company,
and to maintain such amiable relations
with the fairies who have nothing to
do but to wiggle their wings, make
love, and emerge from opalescent ether
at the end of a wire rope.
But Mr.. Deshon sighs for fays "as
is' fays. The royal Brownie dreams of
cigars and senoritas. He yearns to re-
turn to Cuba, to Havana the hospita-
BILE, the city of enthusing 'bravos" and
of marble theaters with a nightly busi-
ness Of 5000 'down in front"
81 took my opera company down there
two years ago." said Mr.. Deshon yester-
day in his dressing room at the Met
ropolitan opera house, "and had the
greatest experience of my life. Ours
was the first company that ever gave
comic opera in English at Havana.
They have plenty of opera there, you
understand, and good opera, too. But
it's all given by European troupes and
in either Spanish, Italian or French.
Those Cubans Of the better classes
seem to know as much French as Span
ish A good many Of them, especially
the wealthy tobacco merchants, are
we'll acquainted with English, too. But
they sometimes have queer way Of
pretending that they know Spanish
only Then they let you talk, in good,
vigorous American about the govern
ment or something until you've put
your foot in it, before you catch on
that they know as much English as
you do. Well, these foreign companies
usually spend the whole season in three
places-twelve weeks each at Havana,
the City of Mexico and Buenos Ayres.
The Cubans had heard all the French,
italian, German and Spanish comic
| operas, and everybody we met seemed
to be letter perfect in anything but
an English opera. We gave 'em Mas
cotte,' 'Erminie,' Black Hussar,'
'Boccaccio, Chimes of Normandy
and the rest, and during the four weeks
that we stayed there we just owned
| the earth Once we sprung the MI
kado,' but the satire was too English.
They shook their heads politely, and
said the whole thing was stolen from
the Pearl of Pekin,' and wouldn't do
at ALL And when they said that, We
switched to something French in short
order. Because, if a Cuban audience
doesn't approve Of a play or a singer,
you find it Out. They'll whistle like
! calliopes at a. bad act or a poor singer.
! Kissing is too slow for those people.
But if you do a good turn, they could
MT be more generous. Every little
piece of new business that we intro
duced in our operas was appreciated
at once. Those Spaniards may look
dignifed, but they have a fine sense
of humor And as they got through
yelling Bravo in the Theatre Payret,
where we opened, they'd follow us
around and insist on our eating and
drinking ourselves sick in the hand
some cafes open to the sidewalk on
every street. Then we had to go driv-
ing under the tropical moonlight
Mr.. Deshon sighed regretfully as he
pulled the seal collar of his ulster up
around his ears, and made a grab for
the overshoe that had fallen down be-
tween a royal robe and a wet sponge-
"and visit Castle Moro, which protects
| Havana's harbor, and ride out along
| the beach, look at the breaking waves,
| and compliment the ladies in what we
| thought was polite Spanish. It made
the girls smile, anyhow. And we'd lis
ten to statements from the same girls,
| in their cosmopolitan lingo, to the
effect that our singing was 'magnifque,
and that mot one sail sing Of a man.
| nair more parfait-no! not even Don
| Antonio Rodrigo Maxine Jose from
Madrid! That wasn't the most un-
! comfortable position we We're ever In
you know. The senoras contributed
much to our satisfaction. They are not
small. pallid, sallow women, as I ex-
pected. but their forms are as ex-
| quisite as their rich complexions. The
opening night at the Theatre Payret
was surprising display of beauty
If you had the value Of the fans in
those boxes said a Cuban to me, you
would be independent for Hfe,' Then