Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-02-20

nou Faust" was Kissed on the oman
,us nisht. Bizet died. it was said
lioa, eotoken by the abuse which the
ei'e'cs gave MS Carmen" In our CITY
Gnu generation Eleonora Duse was at
~ 81 rejected, the critics sneered at
-nl iie Media on her debut at the Metro
poIltah. Mascagni was greeted with
scorh' yet his ''Cayalleria Rusticanap
became one of the most successful
works of modern composition. Regi-
ndtu De Koven had a hard fight. Sou
Cd I'll CAPTAIN" was Knocked in the
newspapers No actress has ever hean
more reviled than Mrs James Brown
Potter, yet she is now the chief actress
IN London Harry Bell in New York
Press ~
Some aspiring dramatist. who seeks
LOT sudden fame through a plav in
which the emotions and passions ara
served in lingerie, should choose as a
theme for a drama the social condi~
rlons In Washington which are onIv
now coming TO light through the num-
elous suicides OF young women who
ndNe occurred IN the capital of late.
mere IS material to spare lying
alouhu ioose IN diplomatic society
uowI tnere which has never been serv-
81 upon lhe stage, for the reason that
II IS 100 shocking for even newspaper
Pupilcatlon. But, now that the stage
mas established new school of morals
there IS no reason why this modern al
Idf OF politics, on which women and
girls are sacrificed, should not receive
attention from dramatists of the Pot
Ter school.-Matinee Girl in Dramatic
Mirror.
Anent the production in New York
or The Conquerors" and the Tree OF
knowledge, Vance Thompson re-
marks: " Twas under the later Roman
Empire that the drama died a natural
death, not because the church con-
demned it, but by lust for sheer OBJ
scenity and bloodshed which made true
dramatic writing impossible The
stage became too vile and horrible for
description. Delight in the imagined
thing had sickened until men were
made to die and women to degrade
themselves in the very theatres-the
drama died under the obloquy and in
fanny of this awful realism. To-day
there is plainly discernible that drama
tic tendency that passes-now as of old
from the morOSe delight of imagina-
ing evil things to the brutal realism of
witnessing the evil act At the EN-
pire Theatre and at the Lyceum Thea
tire plays are exposed in which the
chief scene-the closets that outrage
upon womankind over which the mobs
of dying Rome howled frantically. The
Romans saw the slight Christian girls
delivered over to the savage, eXultant
barbarian. AT the Empire Theatre the
play-goers indulge themselves in the
complaisance-the morose delight, as
the church calls it-Of imagining the
infamy. The naked instinct is draped
with social conventions and painted
and ruddled into a blushing simula-
erum of decent modesty; the foul deed
is swathed in hints and furbelowed
with insinuations and intentions.
What is the future of comic opera
in this country?" Its prospects are
very bright" said Reginald De Koven.
In order to explain this | must go
back some ten years or so. AT that
time American composers were prac
tically unknown. Sullivan was the
rage, with a generous touch of Strauss,
Genee, Planquette, Millocker and
Suppe. At that time | was working
at commercial pursuit in Chicago. |
saw Gilbert & Sullivans The SOcerer,
and became imbued with the idea that
l could compose. SO | first wrote the
book and then the music Of a comic
opera, which | submitted to Colonel
McCaull, who liked it very much, but
who declined to produce it because Of
its similarity to The Socerer. How do
| write the music Of a song? In diff
ferent ways at different times. Some
times | write the music to Mr.. Smiths
words; at other times | write the
music and he makes the words fit the
rhyme. Then again he will submit
three or four sets of words, and | will
pick whichever suits me best. When
get the words | memOrize them until
they ring in my ears. Then the mel
ody suggests itself OF course we al
ways discuss the atmosphere first. and
thus get in close touch with our work.
For instance, if there is a chorus Of
country yokels coming home from
work the natural sequence is a song
to fit the moment, both for words and
melody"