The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-05-27
SOUSRS EEL CAPTAIN.
The Famous Band Masters
Celebrated Masterpiece
Will Be Presented at the Grand
by De Wolf Hopper.
June g. is the Date Fixed for the First
Appearance in This City of the
Broadway Theater Success

Probably no comic opera produced in
recent years has attained a greater
success than has Ell Captain" in the
hands of De Wolf Hopper and his per
sonally selected company. Since leaving
the Broadway thaater in New York,
where It was first put on last fall, Eel
Captain" has been presented in the
majority of the principal cities from
New York to San Francisco, and has
won the most f1attering notice from the
press at each engagement The opera
Will be produced for the first time in
Topeka on the evening of June 9.
With John Philip SOusa's march lei
Captain everyone is more or less IA
miliar, and the entire mt sic of the
opera is the work of the famous band
leader. The librettO of the opera was
written by Charles Klein, and the de-
liciOus humOr in which it abOunds is
made the most of by De Wolf Hopper.
The plot of the opera is based upon
the miSfOrtuneS one Don ErrlccO Medi-
qua, alias "El Captain" who has been
appointed vicerOy of Peru, and who
finds his subjects in rebellion under the
leadership of Don Luis CaVaZza, his
predecessor when he reaches the South
American dependency of Spain. Find
ing himself deposed before he has even
assumed his viceregal position, Medigua
takes upon himself the character Of a
blOOdthirSty Spanish warrior, a Verita-
BILE Weyler whom the King of Spain
has sent to Peru to quell the rebellion,
and appears on the scene as Ell Cap
itan." Medigua is naturally of re-
firing and somewhat cOWardly nature,
and assumes the character of Ell Cap
itan" simply as a matter of personal
safety. Much of the humOr in the
opera grows out of the contrast be-
tween the real nature of the vicerOy
and the nature he attempts to assume
in correspondence to his war-like
makeup
The opera ''El Captain" is elaborate
ly staged. The scenery is the work of
Ernest NJ. Gros, the famous Partisan
scenic artist, and the costumes and
draperies are of a magnificent order.
Many of De Wolf HOpper's associates
in past productions are with him in
lei Captain and the cast of principals
is said to be particularly strong. Edna
Wallace HOpper,the comedians charm
ing wife, takes the leading female role,
and the soprano and tenor parts are
taken respectively by Miss Nella Ber-
gen and Mr. Edmund Stanley. The
chorus numbers so voices.
OF De Wolf Hopper's cOmical and
wholly war-like makeup as Eel Capt.
tan" the Los Angeles Express printed
the following in a criticism of the
opera:
Mr. Hopper's first appearance in the
character is a thing long to be remem-
bered. and told to the children when
lettering age shall put comic opera per
formances out of the question His
lordly height of six feet four is topped
by a helmet of high plumes that must
carry his total up to seven or more. In
addition to this he wears the latest
thing in armor. consisting of q woven
wire nightgown with sheet iron bolero
jacket and Overskirt, and altogether 1t
is not to be wondered at that the girl
ish heart of the beautiful Estrelda, car
azzo's daughter. should give itself un-
resistingIy to into the keeping of SO
gorgeous a gentleman, or that his wife,
the Princess Marganza, and her daugh-
ter Isabel, should object, to say moth
ing Of one ScarambO. who loves E1s-
trelda and simply will not put up with
it."
The sale of seats for the opera will
omen at Shows drug store next Monday
morning The Grand Opera House
will probably be crowded on the even
inec of the nerformance.