The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-26
THE ART OF DUSE.
She Paints Her Stage Pictures in Won
derfully Vivid COlOrs.

The conditions of Duse's temperance
are different. Her genius is now cele-
brated A brainy as well as a modish
audience crowded the New York Theater
Monday evening and gave a welcome TO
her without doubt or hesitation. She
did not need to attain the height of the
public's esteem, but merely to maintain it.
The a ssemblage which she faced was
not, as before, hesitant to trust its own
judgment, but was eager to accept her on
sight. IL was no longer surmise that
she was an exceptional mistress of the
dramatic art, but a certainty, and so
the applause to which she bowed upon
her entrance was spontaneous, hearty
and prolonged, without the help Of the
ushers. The greeting over, those people
who were not Italians, settled back in
their seats. recalled all their recollections
of the familier SO amille, and undertook
TO get Iheir moneys worth of pleasure
from Duse's representation of its heroine
in an unfamiliar tongue. ] hat hey were
able to do so was manifest throughout
the performance by frequent yet discrim-
mate applause. She was called out many
times al the ends of the acts.
There was nothing in Duse's acting to
call for repetition or amendment of the
views already published regarding her art
as exp essed in "Cnmille,n the play
which she had cho-en for the start of
her new season in New York. She makes
of the outcast an unidea yet adroitly fasci-
mating creature up to he point where
pure love awakens her better womaniness,
ana disgusts her with the foulness of her
life. Thereafter the aspiration toward
cleanliness, the sorrows of her failure to
become decent, the sgonies of her broken
heart while agsin smearing herself with
mire for the sake Of Ter infatuated adoier
and nnslly the pitiful scene of h,. death,
are depicted with graphic subtlety ana
uncommon power. We hsve had more
intense Camille in Sarah Beinhardt,
more sweeping emotional one in Clara
Morris, and Others which In one refpect
or another were more effectual in forcing
this pernicious woman upon our sym
pathy; but IL is safe TO regard Duse is
embodying in her amille more complex
and vel clear and human exposition of
characteristics and motives than has been
given by any oth'r actress.
One thing is worth noing in the art OF
Dusr. She IS not a naturaiistic actress
i'm the sense which the-term is abused by
the aGvocates of monotony In stage per-
formances. She is no oevotee of the COM
monplace. She does not make her pic
lures with a camera in black and white,
but with brush In vivid colors. She
gets the proper and admirable effect, not
with the uninteresting lid lity Of n care
ful photographer. but with the bold brush
of an origina painter. who sets back the
particulars, brings forward the principles,
and so composcs masterpiece. IL is
true that she ices not oistort, and II is
more than Importantly true that she ex-
aggeratos like veritable genius in stage
c aft she Is not theatric, bot she is
dramatic. and qui'e as far removed from
hal we call rca ism a. she IL from what
We call rant. composite OF Sarah Bern
haTdt end Clara Morris. each at bCs
in Camille, would make N EleOnsri
Duse in that role. Could higher praise be
given 10 an Italian player?