The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-29

rheatre, and whit would have been a
big one at the Grand, but for the
overpowering nature of the opposition.
For the three opera performances the
receipts were between 81, 600 and 81, 500.
The matinee was, of course, the light
est of the three houses, but for an
afternoon performance it was more
than fair. AZ the Grand, still Wa
tiers" has been a distinct artistic sue
cess, but a poor moneyed one-just the
opposite Of East Lynne" The COM
ing week will be the last but one of the
present company, and the final week
will be devoted to revivals of two of
the strongest successes the company
has made-"Niobe" and "Queena."
Then will come the SAD farewells, and
the opening of a new season on the
following Monday night, with Ken
mark, Edwards, Cooke, Clarke, King,
Bla1emore and Henry in IAN the
Comforts of Home"
The first production in Salt Lake of
one of Verdi's later operas. Aida"
was given last night before a large
audience, but one that was falling
off from the previous night. There is
no doubt that there was general feel
ing that the rendition of Lucia" on
the previous night fell short of what
had been expected. Guile, of course.
had made a great hit; but one swallow
does not make. a summer. The work
of the chorus and several of the prin-
cipalS had beer Slothful-no other
word expresses it. Then, too, people
had expected an English opera COM
ole Of
singing in French, a soprano in Ital-
ian and a chorus in a variety of
tongues, for aught that could be dis
tinguished, had q most unsatisfactory
result, especially TO those who had no
'fbook of the opera" Cf course the
management religiously abstained
from printing a synopsis of the plot
in the programme. Such a step would
have interfered with the prerogatives
of the libretto fiends and bred a revo-
luton.
Aida" gave US a good taste of the
Wagnerian blended with the melodic
Italian, with the Wagner predominant
ing. 1t was written by Verdi in 1872
for the khedive of Egypt and first pro-
duced in Cairo. Verdi himself says
it marks his first departure from the
purely melodic style, and it plainly
shows the influence the declamatory,
dramatic crashes of Wagner had on
his mind. 1t is a grand opera, difficult,
picturesque and tragic, and taxes an
ordinary company TO the utmost point
Guile showed himself equal to its re-
quirements and again made a great
singing hit, despite the drawback of
his appearance. TaVary did some
great declamatory singing. especially
in the high passages; but she is a dis
tinct failure in the art of making up
her face, and her appearance was
decidedly more aboriginally North
American than that of the Ethiopian
maiden. Mr.. Eugene as the father did
some good work. as did Mr. Abram-
off as the high priest. Madame
Dorre acted and sang with fire and
passion, but again gave the effect of
forcing her voice. The orchestra was
the grand feature, and the chorus got
sadly off the key in places-the fault,
possibly, of a piano back of the
scenes Aida was followed with in
terest and heartily applauded by mu-
sicians. By the masses, we fear it |
was voted too much on the order of |
trigonometric music to be popular.
The matinee rendition of I'll Trova-
tore was much on a par with that of
Lucia" the night before-that is, it
pleased, and aroused some enthusi- |
assn without attaining to any positive
heights of grandeur. A pleasant sur
q
young. fresh and pretty soprano, Anna
LIGHTER, who showed herself the pos
SCISSOR of a fine dramatic soprano
voice Her various familiar arias
were well rendered, the only thing
lacking being stage experience, with
out which she could not properly depict
the anguish-torn Leonora. Payne
Clark, the tenor, also made a good
impression, though he sang unevenly.
He is, however, no CARDINAL Belle
Tomlins' Azucena was we'll sung; not
so we'll acted. The Home to Our
Mountains duet was her best effort.
In her dramatic movements she fell
short, and before the memory of
zelda Seguin her work pales most per-
ceptibly Mr.. Eugene, the baritone.
has a fine voice, but he knows little
about the acting; and without fction,
what is the Count di Luna? The or
chestra was again at its very best
The chorus was good at times, but
there was much left TO be desired in
the prison scene.
Manager Charles H. Pratt of the
Tavary company looks scarcely a day
older than on the memorable occasion
when he saw the last sad rites paid
10 his star, Emma Abbott. at the
Templeton hotel six years ago. Her
death deprived Mr. Pratt of warm
j I
many, many thousands of dollars to
him. He, Miss Abbott and Eugene
Wetherill, her husband, were the
partners in the Abbott organization, ,
and for years it had been a veritable
gold mine to all of them. Mr.. Weth- ,
Grill long ago joined his wife in the !
great beyond. OF the famous old /,
company which Salt Lake remembers !
so well, Taghapielfa is in New York /.
doing odd jobs at concert singing;
Campobello's voice has left him en-
firely. and he is living somewhere in
tie south; Lizzie Armandaie is travel
ing with a "Trilby" company, singing .
Pen Bolt Pruette is with the Rob
Roy opera company. popular and
vigorous as ever; Broderick is with :
some farce comedy. The chorus is
scattered to the four winds, burt sew
eral of the male members are still with
Mr.. Pratt in the Tavary company I
One little fellow with a black beard \
seems TO have been a chorus fixture
with every opera company that has Q
visfted Salt Lake in the last quarter l
OF a century a
Mr.. Pratt says the Tavary company b
coined money in the City of Mexico.
The people fairly fell over each other D
10 pay s. a ticket, and the enthusiasm a
was beyond anything he ever knew in c
his long career as an impressario "
=
Louis Harrison has been trying his II
han d at play writing, and '<The Bicycle o
Girl is the result. With the jolly
rorlaeflie,lale Nelly McEenrv in the