The herald., 1897-11-21

week has happily come to an end. 1t is
= very unpleasant task to sit through
such performances as have been given
by this company, and to feel the neces-
sity for telling the truth about the work
done. 1t has been urged with Justice
that an opera company giving perform
ances at seventy-five cents admission
should be Judged more leniently than
one charging higher prices, but the fact
remains that the San Francisco Tivoli
furnishes opera all the year round at
fifty-cent admission fee, which is many
times better than this Grau company
has shown itself able to put upon the
stage.
1t looks as IL the manager, conscious
Of the weakness of his company imag~
ined that ne could win popular favor by
importing a lot Of cheap vaudeville bus
iness into each presentation of comic
opera. Even the vaudeville turns were
indifferently done and their introduc-
ticn at all was an insult to the intelli-
gence Of the people who went simply to
hear the familiar music of the work an
nounced for the evening.
The Herald has been the only daily
journal to protest against this imposi-
tion, which 1t did upon the first two Of
lenses and afterwards preferred to re-
main silent. Certainly it would not
praise the performances in the early
part Of the week and hedge when it
became evident that the public would
not encourage this grade and style Of
cheap opera. The truth should be told
at the beginning of the week as well as
at the end Of it.
It is a matter Of regret to learn that
Frederick Warde's tour with his new
play, '1skander." came to an untimely
end at Elmira, N. Y, couple of weeks
ago. The piece is of the semi-barbarlc
military type. and. as might be expect
ed, highly romantic both in its language
and it's incidents. It's success was fully
anticipated, and although the cause Of
Its failure Is not stated, 1t is probable
that the lack of feminine interest may
partly account for it. a romantic play
exacts heroine as we'll as hero. "The
Prisoner of Zenda' is good sample of
a popular romantic drama, and while
Mr.. Hackett is the center of attraction ii
is easily to be seen that without an OBJ
ject on which his fervor might be law
ished, the play would be comparatively
cold. The heroine's part in 'Iskander"
is a rather shadowy one in comparison
to that of the young chief. and would
require more talent than the average
dramatic training school graduate pos
sesses to make it effective. 1t is highly
proba BILE that Mr.. Warde was not sue
cessful in finding an able leading
woman.
In spite of the fact that the aspirants
for the stage are so many and that
they are increasing in numbers every
day, it is Iamentable thing that neither
from the training schools nor from the
private walks of life are any remarkable
additions to the stage being made. On
the contrary, the majority of fresh ac-
uuisitions appear to be people of medi-
ocre ability and of only fair intelligence,
whose chief claim to public considera
ton in their own estimation is the fact
that they are very fond of the stage"
which is as good an evidence of ability
~ that offered by the young woman who
wanted a job as librarian of a public
library. and urged as her chief qualifi-
cation that she was very fond of read
ing
done in the subsidized yellow news
papers of New York about the feeble
little curio, Cleo de Merode, and her
signal failure to do anything worthy
of recognition, it is mournful to read in
q New York paper the notice of her exit,
which says:
'The Johnnies shed lot of hot tears
on Saturday night. when the only Cleo
de Merode finished her engagement. AT
the close of her performance she took.
herself and her wonderful hair. and her
bandboxes and her mamma. and disap.
peared forever from the great music hall.
It is scarcely likely that she will ever
return to America, unless she manages
to learn how to dance. or else gets up
some new advertising dodge to beat the
Belgian king idea"
The actor that does not definitely de-
termine beforehand just how he is going
TO speak his lines is no artist; he is only
g slapdasher.-AlfredA Ayres.
An Official description of a costume to
be worn by Madame Hermann at the
Los Angeles theater this week, including
q catalogue of her jewelry, on fingers
and toes and elsewhere, appears to con-
tain matters of interest, to women at any
rate. and SO it is here quoted verbatim,
as follows:
The ladies who attend the Hermann
performances at the Los Angeles thea
ter will find peculiar pleasure in an
opportunity to behold one Of the most
exquisite and costly dresses in the
world. This is the new "Trilby gown"
Of Adelaide Hermann. She wore 1t for
the first time on the occasion of the de-