The San Francisco call., 1899-07-07

LIGHTER has taken a vacation
and the part of Nora is played
by a new TivOlite named Ada
Palmer Walker. The change is an i'm
Droyement. Miss Walkers voice viii
not set the bay a-burning; it lacks in
Iusctousness and is inclined to be wiry,
but it certainly is an improvement on
the music-box mechanism of Miss Lich-
ter. and backed up by a good amount
Of dramatic force and sensativeness
finds happy vent in this part. Indeed
Miss Walkers performance Of last
night was notably good. She gave TO
the part the intensity and sympathy
that her predecessor had denied, and
invested it with no incongruous Ger
manisms The only German feature
that is left is Mr.. Pruette, although L
am reliably informed that he is an Eng
lishman. But his temperament is ex-
clusively German, and never more so
than in this role of the good Irish priest.
Rhys Thomas is convincingly British
as the relocated officer and sings his
part with even better effect than in the
first production; he now steers clear of
the immodest rubato and fondling of
the top notes and presents a really
striking character. Kitties music often
takes Miss Meyers beyond her depth,
but she acts the part vigorously; Phil
Rranson Chow often have I been tempt
ed to call him Pill BransonD is some
thing less than his usual explosion as
Mike the infOrmer; the chorus is gen
timely animated, and the orchestra ex-
cellent. although a few instruments shy
according to the score. In a word the
production is a credit to the town and
deserves all the attention that it is re-
ceiving.
AS for Denis O'Sullivan, you simply
cannot overpraise him in the part Of
Shamus, which belongs to him by all
rights of discovery and conquest. My
life at present is bounded by Oakland
and the Golden Gate, but still / am
willing to risk the opinion that the fell
low doesn't live who can play and sing
Shamus as OSullivan does 1t is large
ly due to him that the only big opera
which has come out of the mother
country in many years has been made
popular in America You may say
that Mr. O'Sullivans voice is not al
ways steady, that his acting sometimes
runs to excessive melodramaisms. but
you can't name the man who can give
to Shamus the identity that O'Sullivan
gives Perfect" is high word
and one that should be frugally en-
ployed by well-reguIated critics, but it
is the word that fits O'Sullivan's pre-
sentation of this character. Most of
the nights of my adult life have been
spent in a playhouse, and as matter
of course | have acquired a gallery of
pet characterizations running from
Booths Hamlet to Nat Goodwin's Jim
Radburn in In Mizzoura," and as |
have now witnessed about dozen full
performances Of "Shamus O'Brien" and
as there is small hope of seeing another
production of the work after the pres
ent run at the Tivoli is over / may as
we'll take this opportunity to include
O'Sullivan's Shamus in the stage por-
traits that are for me indeIible To be
sure. I dote on the opera. / did at the
first and went on record to that effect
when many of my colleagues who now
praise it were giving it anything but
sympathetic ear. But O'Sullivan's Sha-
mus has been to me a matter of grad
ual Appreciation; the better l know the
piece and the part the better do / ap-
preciate the brains humanness and
virile singing that he has put into it.