Evening star., 1896-02-18

America but the Dame Of the Camelias has
been made lovable. pitiable or ordinary, as
the case might be. by all who have trodden
the boards, and an impersona ton, which,
with most actresses, would be challenge to
comparison, was with Duse an easy and
certain triumph. In no way could the truism
that art knows no geographical boundaries
have been more forcibly Illustrated than by
the successful appeal to an English-speak
iPS audience of an Italian actress, who, as
was the case with each member of her COM
pany, employed her mother tongue in pre-
senting the masterpiece of a French dra-
matist. In criticising his sons work on this
play, the elder Dumas, speaking with the
enthusiasm Of the literary vivisectionist,
said that its greatest merit was its fidelity,
despite its richness of sentiment, to the
eroSser truths which assert themselves in a
woman occupying Cami1le'S position in the
social scale 1t would have been unnatural
he said for her to rest satisfied away from
Paris. and he was warm in compimenting
the Plot device by which she was tored to
the Saitles of the French capital. The am
bition has been, with Camille. as with every
heroine of fiction. to idealiZs her beyond the
range of everyday ccmprehenston TO
make her a creature with impulses and SEN
sibilities beyond the reach of mortals, as
they know each other. Duse's Camille seems
strangely in sympathy with the criticism of
the great litterateur Discarding the affec-
tations which have become common as to
attract no notice, and stepping into the
realm of the absolutely real, with sure and
audacious tread. she becomes strangely and
ConvipcinSly human. Their: is 10 gliding of
forced sentimentality over her career; no
mawkish apology fSr her fate. The
tragedy is consun- mated with feel
ing that her suffering was the fufillment
OF a destiny which. the noble character
awakened by her sincere affection for
Armand could not avert. Duse cannot be
considered as an artist only. Her per-
fcrmance inpresses the auditor as an in
spiration of the hour and not mere study
in the science of expression. There is
haunting awe in the scul-tcr;ure which she
undergoes. She makes no Haunting appeal to
the ina maSindtion either in voice or gesture.
The auditor is made to sympathize by
appeal to the intuition by which one human
being knows that another suffers. Move
ments which with the many would be col
orless and commonplace in her become
eloquent The tears which flow from her
eyes do not seem the hackneyed real
tears of theatrical commerce. She is
sincere in all else that she does that these
incidents, ordinarily deserving TO be classi-
fed as mechanical effects, must be accepted
as genuine with the rest. In the produc-
ton there was little or no attention to
the aids which the modern stage offers
the actor. Scenically the pretentions are
less than small, and the Indifference to
details of furnishings cannot be entirely
excused by pleading the artists confidence
in her superiority to surroundings for all
that she touches is of regal luauriousnass
and beauty. Her gowns a nd wraps are of
a richness which commends tie untutored
d
envious sigh of discriminating femininity.
1t does not appear that great thought has
been given to the supporting company.
1t is no doubt taken for granted that at
tention will be focused on the star and
even Armand impersonated by Carlo Rosa
spiro, did not shine with splenior, which
customarily surrounds the role.
Analysis fails in the case of Duse. She
is sui geEcris Her struggles for recogni-
ton were long and arduous. But she seems
to have teen great actress from the be-
ginning, waiting only for the opportunity
and Enthusiastically possessed of the quail
fties which command. if they can once
be made known. Her progress was not
a rise, step by step, in routine
schooling. Much of her life was pass
ed waiting in the ranks of the unsuccess-
full for q chance to display her superiority
over her surroundings. There is little of
the intellectual in the impression she ere
ates. 1t is the fierce white fame of un-
restrained emotion which makes the spec
tator pliable to her moods. L. is for this
reason that comparisons with other emf
nent actresses would he difficult. She has
ton and has little nothing to do with
method. She gives herself unstintedly to
the role tfat she assumes, regardless cf the
penalty which nature must one day claim
for 50 lavish an expenditure of vitality.
There is Il commenGable disposition on
the part OF Duse's management to refrain
from the usual parade of personalities in
connection with this star. She is marvel
ard the world has little to do with the in
dividual cccentricities or the charms of in
telectual cultivation, which she may or
may not possess.
Her Camille left an impression never to
be effaced. and the only doubt that arises
in the contemplation of her genius is the
thought that it is too nercely brilliant to
endure.
Despite the occasions which claimed the
consideration of the fashionable world
elsewhere last night the social life of
Washington was we'll represented. In Civ
ing Camille Duse has an advantage in
the publics familiarity with Dumas
heroine which overcomes the difficulties
presented by difference in Ianguage-lif.
fculties in which TIL, so-cailed books of
the play are found to be strangely and in
exousably inadequate. The assumption
that cultivated theater patronage has no
reed of 4 libretto should either be
carried to it's logical conclusion-that
of dispensing entirely with the serv-
ices of vendors in the auditorium, or else
it should be abandoned so as to permit
members of the audience who neither be-
long to the Italian legation nor attend
boarding schools to follow the play as
closely as may be desired, even at the
risk of punctuatipg sublimities in progress
on the stage with the unseen1ly rustic of
turning leaves. Tomorrow night Duse ap-