The San Francisco call., 1899-06-04

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suits of modern meretricious perform
ances may be conspicuous by their alb
sence, while the giddy fairy may not
dominate the chorus, and while the
stage manager may not have received
his education at the London Lyceum.
the bone and sinew of an operatic com
pany is all there" Bone and sinew
sound we'll and are good things to
have; and Mr.. Wyatt the manager.
promises me that the homeliness of the
chorus will be diluted by a handsome
bunch of damsels from the local Italian
colony; and as there are several shops
in town that make a business
of renting decent opera costumes,
it is possible to triumph over
some of these material Difficult
ties. And the orchestra, which here
tofore numbered a beggarly dozen
instruments. will for us be sweled to
thirty. However, tomorrow night will
tell the tale. l am not much given to
booming the unknown and unheard.
but from all signs it seems to me that
the town ought to turn out tomorrow
night and find out for itself of what
stuff these modest Lambardis are made
Still speaking of opera-only of an
other kind. I have never heard any
thing quite so banal muscauy as The
Princess Nicotine" which the South
we'll company has struggled with dur
ing the past week. The composer is
William Furst, known and loved here
for a long spell Of bright, original
work. Furst is the cleverest light
opera leader the Tivoli ever had and
he showed musicianliness and vigorous
invention in his grand opera, "Theo-
dora" which was produced in the little
opera house around the corner some ten
years ago (and subsequently worked
over by the Bohemian composer in the
form Of incidental music for Frohman
and Hayman plays). But Furst left us
for the wider metropolis, where he took
to leading theater orchestras and writ
ing comic operas at so mitch per yard,
or mile. And his finish found him 1t
takes a particularly sensitive ear TO
find how much worse is one recent
swear that The Princess Nicotine" has
less tune to the acre than anything
else in Mr. Fursts collected properties.
1t isn't even decently stolen. Occasion
ally you catch a snatch of somebody's
good music. but in the next bar it is
submerged in the hopeless common
plaCeness of the composers own. It is
music without color. without tune
without motion. The orchestra and
company go through all the sound
and gesture of a real comic opera.
There is a character song for the
comedian, a warble song for the So
prano, and triOs, quartets and finales
in which the brass blows and the drums
thump and the hardware rattles-but
no music comes cut of it. You have
listened to the street preacher whose
motions and pulpit business might be
Henry Ward Beecher's. but whose
words are 4 tireless stream of nothing?
The Princess Nicotine" affected me in
the same way. l admire the SouthweIl
company for the most complete comic
opera organization that ever occupied
a permanent place in our amusements.
and would encourage rather than chill
its enterprise in producing pieces that
are new to us, but as 1 live l would
rather sit to a revival of even THE Bo-
hemian Girl" than to such stuff as
Nicotine"
Besides singers Yet unheard we are
promised On Monday night in the Co
lumbia play as yet unacted and un-
titled. from the pen of Mrs. e. F. Riggs.
Southern woman. Herbert Kelcey and
Effie Shannon will produce it and a
prize of 500 will be given the lucky
suggestor of the most suitable title In
the theatrical business the name of a
play is very important detail, and a
good one is easily worth the price CT
fered. l hope that the play may be of
equal value. That, too, is a matter to
be settled later. After several readings