The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-20
RERNHARDr is "IzEYL.n

EhthuslasttCs New HaVenefs Greet the
Divine Sara-App,ause the Order of the
EveninS-It Was Buddhist Drama,
When the history of the theater of
this present century shall come to be
written the name of Sarah Bernhardt
will stand before all others as the most
unique and fascinating actress of her
time. This wonderful woman paid her
fourth visit to this city last evening
and her advent was to student and
lovers of dramatic art the most i'm
portant event of the year-a year re-
markable for good things in the past
and promising other great theatrical
attractions For all these much graft
| tude is due our enterprising manager,
Mr Bunnell. With the coming of Elean-
ora Duse there will be opportunity for
pertinent remarks on the respective
merits of the two methods of interpre-
tation-the subjective, of which style
Bernhardt is the most striking exam
| pie, and the objective, of which Duse
is the perfect type. 1t is vexed ques-
| ton and much good ink is spilling in
| the fight. Meanwhile let us proceed to
an account of last evenings perform
ance.
| The play is four-act drama by
| Armand Silvestre and Eugene Morand,
| founded on the Buddhist legends of the
Prince Siddartha and the court san
vasevad alta or "Izeyl" as she is called
here for the purpose of euphony. An
account of the origin of the play has
already been published in these col
| umns. The plot is briefly as follows
| Izeyl, a courtesan of the city Kap-
iavston in India, is sick of her mon
| otonous existence and longs for better
| things At the coronation of the
Prince, Yogi, one of the ascetic
priests of Buddhim appears with his
! following of the blind men, lepers and
| beggars. This Yogi so moves the
Prince by his philosophy that he gives
up his throne and follows the priest
| into the desert, Izeyl has watched the
scene and as the Prince goes she mocks
him and says IF you knew what love
means you would not CO."
| In the second act Izeyl follows the
Prince into the desert and endeavor by
her seductive powers to win him back
TO his old life. Instead she is herself
| converted. In the third act Izeyl re-
turns to the city to sell her possessions
and give all to the poor. Scyndia, an
old lover, comes to her. and being re-
pulsed threatens to kill his rival, the
Master, as the Prince is called. In her
| terror Izeyl draws poigrand from his
belt and stabs him. Scyndias mother
at this moment knocks at the door.
! Izeyl conceals the body under a table,
| The mother enters and Izeyl confesses
| her deed and the mother, a powerful
Princess, promises protection until she
learns that the victim is her own son.
when she gives Izeyl over to the fury
of the populace.
In the fourth act the scene is the
place of execution. Izeyl tortured,
blind and starving longs for death.
| The populace mock her in her distress.
The Master enters and confesses his
love and Izey1 begs to be allowed to
live. But death has his grasp upon her
| already and she dies in her lovers
arms. The story savors unpleasantly
of the gospel narrative of Christ and
the Magdalen and the idea is emphasiz-
ed in the performance.
! To this drama Gabriel Pierne has fur
nished the incidental and accompany
/ ing music. Madame Bernhardt, who
has never shown any great desire to
foster advanced and progressive ideas
on the subject of dramatic art, has been
| quoted as saying that she believes that
the drama of the future is to be a COM
/ mon meeting-place of all the arts; that
the tendency of the opera is toward
musical defamation with musical ac-
| compartment as in the music dramas
of Wagner and his school, and the ten
dency of the spoken drama is towards
a union of the arts of music, painting
| and acting as in the Irving lyceum
productions. Madame Bernhardt
| thinks that somewhere these two forms
will come together and the majority of
| the critics, both dramatic and musical,
| are of the same mind.
| 1t looks as though an attempt in this
direction had been made in "Izeyl"
We have Bernhardt's Incompatible elo-
cution, almost constant music, and the