The San Francisco call., 1899-01-15
JHE OUTER WORLD

he w lEH WOH4D
A week ago Friday night in Philadei-
phia Melba appeared at Mimi in Puccini's 8
! La Boheme." Both opera and singer
scored successes. The performance was
in Italian. This is what a critic from the
! New York Herald says of Melba's work:
'As Mimi she made charming figure in
! her picturesque costume, and in both the
comedy and tragedy she was exceedingly
effective, especially for an actress upon
the operate stage. One does not look for
! decided histrionic talents in prima donna
| nowadays, and it was all the more graft
| flying to observe that she had studied
the dramatic as well as the vocal demands
of the opera. After the second act the
recalls were repeated, and on the fall of
! the third curtain there was a scene that
! might almost be called an ovation. 1t was
most demonstrative as well as long con-
! tinued, and confirmed the personal sue
cess she had achieved earlier in the even
ing"
| Cissy LOTUS, who is under contract to
appear at Roster G. Balls, New York, has
refused to do so so long as the much dis
cussed tableau 'Un Affaire Honneur is
| being shown. She claims through her
lawyers that she would not witness it
! from the front and certainly will not show
on the same stage with 1T. Manager
! Aarons tersely says: ''If she does not ap-
| pear here next week shall see that she
appears nowhere else in America.
sarasate has two superb stradivarius in
! struments and other violins Of different
| makes. He has besides in his vest pocket
| a miniature case in silver no larger than
! a locket in which lies tiny, tiny violin,
| counterpart of his favorite, in real violin
/ woods and strings, perfectly proportoned,
! and which can be taken out and looked at:
! He is very fond of this toy. Speaking OF
! the condition of violin art at present, Sar-
asate makes the remark: The subject
speaks for itself. We have neither Paga-
mini nor Stradivarius."
Olive May. the actress, yesterday OBJ
! tained a temporary 1nJunctlon restraining
her former husband, Henry Guy Carrie
ton, from making any further contracts
! for the performance of his play called
1.-The Butterflies" Miss May secured a
! divorce from Mr.. Carleton several months
| ago in Dakota on the ground of abandon
! ment. She was married to him while she
was playing in "The Butterflies. Mt
Carleton has more divorces to his credit
than any other living playwriter.
Olga Nethersole ought to be a lucky
woman She says she has the dramatic
rights to one of Kipling's stories, new
| play by Max O'Rell and promise of one
| from Rostand.
Jobyna Howland has been drawn more
! times than any actress on the American
| stage, and yet she is a mere girl in years:
| The explanation of this is that she served
! as the model for Charles Dana Gibson,
! and her beauty and grace added much to
! the charm of his pictures. Her most Ia
| nous work was the illustrations for "Ru-
| pert Of Hentzau," in which she is now
playing Flavia in the dramatlzation.
! Stuart Robson recently made a trip
! from Boston to New York via Rotterdam
! Junction which any experienced traveller
will recall is not the shortest or most mn
joyable trip from there to , Gotham firad Ro01 1G
dusty and was awaiting the ferry to take
| him across, when he was approached by
a ragged member of the Weary Waggles
| brigade, whose makeup and appearance
would have shamed any stage tramp ex-
tant, and who in a quivering voice said:
please, mister, will you be so good as
to give a poor tramp nickel? I'm broke
and 1 want to get across the river. The
| comedian slowly extracted the necessary
| coin from his pocket and placing It in
| the hand of the mendicant said There
] you are, my poor man, but | don't see
/ what difference it makes which side of
/ the river you are on. as long as you re-
broke"
Moritz Rosenthal,. the pianist, tells a
! story, which is none the less sarcastically
| witty for being purely of his own inven-
/ ton. AS the performance of a certain
composition at an orchestral concert In
/ large German city drew to- a close; a dis
/ concerting smell of smoke became notice
J able; the conductor, fearing a stampede
if the alarm of fire should become general,
! had the quick wit to turn to the audience
! and proclaim in his loudest voice. La
/ dies and gentlemen, the orchestra will
now play the fourth symphony in e minor
/ by Brahms!' Not a soul dared to leave MS
| seat for fear of being thought unmusical
"Cyrano de Bergerac" was presented
| in Pitsburg at the Grand Opera-house
| with a vengeance. Advertisements say
! the outfit consisted of ten tons of scenery,
/ sixty-eight actors and two hundred supers
| on the stage.
Caesar and Cleopatra is the subject of
| Rernard ShaW'S latest dramatic work.
In FIVE acts and eight scenes, it begins
! with the arrival of Caesar in Egypt, in
pursuit of Pompey, after the battle or
! Pharsalia. 1t terminates with his depart
with THE Serpent of Old Nile. The en-
| tire episode was rejected by Froude as
mythical, but Mr. Shaw has found more
| Mommsen's copious details OF the incl
! dent With it's successor. already near
ing completion, and ,Ihe Devil S Rl&SeI- SCI
/ Shaw's plays, to be published early in
/ the spring.
NovelH the Italian actor, is said to have
put into the mouth of character in The
Merchant of Venice" recently in a Paris
theater, to please the and-Semites, a
proposition that the ships of Antonio
were wrecked by the co-religionists of the
maligned usurer He also cuts away
| ruthlessly those parts of the play which
! do not give him sufficient prominence. To
compensate for these losses he has added
| an entire scene. which will not be found
! in any edition of Shakespeare, to give him
! full opportunity for the exercise of his
powers.
Belascos adaptation. "Zaza," produced
! by Mrs Leslie Carter in Washington,
| Christmas night, has made a lasting i'm
| preston there. According to Eastern ad-
! vices "Zaza" will run "Cyrano de Ber-
! gerac a close race for popularity.
An English dramatic critic writes
! about playbills AN old playgoer calls
! nv attention to a laxity in theater man
| agement that has often puzzled me and
! has never been explained. Why are not
play bills dated? Dated playbills make
history. Undated playbills lead TO lunacy.
After forty years service in the sup
posed interests OF the drama ] suppose |
| have a goodly collection of playbills, all
preserved in guard books in connection
| with every theater in London. Not
tenth of these playbills are dated: ] can
/ not. therefore. go to these playbills for
| history but must rummage about my
/ hooks and the books on stage history be-
| tween 1850 and 1898 are rare indeed for
| purposes of reference. Where is our Cen
! est? we wanted to make E. l.. Blanchard
! oltr modern Genest, and arranged to ap-
! noint, him the stage historian and thus
! make him happy for the rest of his life.
! Tut the scheme broke down. Blanchard