The San Francisco call., 1897-10-24

new romantic drama, new
musical comedy, q big mposer who
played the piano, a symphony concert,
production OF a celebrated Gillette farce,
a quartet OF variety noveltles-it has been
a live week for any body whose business il
Is 10 see and hear all such things. l ap-
preciate the prodgallty of the gods, but |
would be content with a lesser variety
and more "Geisha." | have not been TO
the TIvoli since the Sunday night OPEN
ing, and ] am sorry for myself. II is
show like this that chases away the pes
simism, of youth and brings tie mellow
enjoyment of maturity. And think oil
getting 1t ont of anything Japanese
at this date-oUt of Japan, that soiled
and ragged land thum marked by tour
lists and cheap br. brackers, dogeared
by tattling correspondents and done 10
death by Edwin Arnold.
1 approached The Geisha" gingerly
last Sunday night. And there never was
q happier man than l when it turned out
to be nothing more formidable than Eng
ish musical comedy set in a japanese
locale. When Donald Graham, who
knows his Japan ike an Arnold, told me
(hat the kimono costumes were distinctly
Nun-Japanese, and that the girls did not
even know how to tie their obs, nv fe-
Hclty rose higher still. There is no First
Born" local fidelity in The Geisha" The
Chon kina tune is Japanese, ano there
the connection ceases. Tne rest is harry
Enghsh-or happ.e er American, for Edwin
Stevens has largely incorporated his own
humor in the lines of the Marquis Imar,
and Thomas Leary hss spilled his own boil
Ing temperament all over the Chinaman
i bock is the onlv weak feature of the
piece, and the more you diStigure it the
better 1t IS. But the lyrics are sacred and
L wish some one would impress It on Miss
Walcott that every syllable OF o Mimosa
Sans is public property and too precious
TO be swallowed entirely by herself Look
ing over the score / find that the text of
the "Amorous Goldfish" is even as dis
t1nguished the music. Beyond the
tune. which Miss Walcott hum med very
sweetly, l had no idea what it was all
about. And you may see for yourself how
important Is this piscatorial tragedy:
a goldfish swan in a big glass bowl,
dear little goldfish do;
And she loved with the whole of her heart and
soul
An officer brave from the ocean wave,
And she thought that he loved her too
Her small insiLe he daily fed
With crumbs of the best digestive bread
This kind of attention proves" she saik
How exceedingly fon0 he is of me-"
And she thought, 1t is fit-fit-fiter
He shou love my glit-glit-glitter
Than his heart give way
To the butterflies gay
or the birds that twit-twit--twitter
a pathetic story is the gold fsh's, and
very appropriate to Q Mimosa San, the
little Camille of the teahoUse of Ten
Thousand Joys. Two other verses tell of
the beautiful girl VINO Iured the officers
love 10 other waters.
Until at last some careless soul
" n q smash Knocked over the big glass bowl
a nd there on the pei dead ana cod
Lay the poor little fish her frock Of gold
And all of this sentiment and hnguaI
convclution 9fas lost in the shuttle of
Miss Walcott's enunciation
~.
l know that sane spePch is not the rule
in comic operetta; it seemed never to have
been The general order at the Tivoli untiI
Ed Stevens came back Sunday night
actually discovered the chorus in the act
OF articulation. Heretofore the Tivoli
chorus, like other comic choruses, has
voiced vocabulary bounded by fiddle
tum at one end and la-la-lee at the other
Well, the litterateurs who provide rhyme
and conversation for musical diversions
are getting to be OF i'm portance. Musical
on. hos