Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-02-18

A successful comic opera is made,
not born; and the elements entering
into such a success are many. Peo-
pie oft think it sheer luck on the port
of my manager, Kirk La Shelle, and
myself that we have never had a
comic opera failure Many of such
people seem to fancy that we simply
secure a libretto set to music and that
then the company has nothing to do
but learn the lines and act them out
rs we speak them. l won't say that
there have not been successful comic
operas produced exactly as they were
first written But | will say that l
never heard of one; moreover, | never
heard OF any man who ever heard of
one. When the author and composer
think that they have turned out about
the best comic opera ever written and
hand it to the manager for production,
he goes through it with cold, expert
enced, practical eyes. He slashes here
and interpolates there to lick the thing
into such shape as his experience has
taught him the public wants. Some au-
thorS fancy a manager or star for
whom the opera is written is actuated
by the idea which frequently moves
youthful critics to find fault lest they
be termed too easily impressed. But
such a fancy is wrong. Sometimes, in
the operation of slashing and inter
polating, no doubt, art suffers but an
opera must appeal to the public in or
der to live. If the public doesn't like
it, the public viii stay away. And
without the lifeblood which the heart
like box Office sends through the plays
arteries and veins, the play dies; that
is all.
What makes a comic operas favor
able effect on an audience?
Comedy first, pretty girls second,
music third, scenery fourth. A comic
opera must be the very nature of
things be funny. If it isn't funny, it
fails of it's initial and announced pur-
pose. Then the girls must be pretty.
There is nothing an audience repudi-
ates SO strongly as unpretty, not to
say homely, girls. They may be all
right in a dramatic performance. AS
we all know, some of our greatest act
resses wouldn't even be allowed to
compete in a beauty show, let alone
win the prize. But not SO in comic
opera The girls of comic opera are
chosen by the discreet manager first
Of all for their beauty. He knows how
potent they are in magnetic power.
Then the music There must be a
plenty of it, and it must be not nee
essaily so good as popular. We all
hear about composers writing down
the public; of composers who belittle
fneir talents, and all that sort of
thing. Well, without taking time to
combat that kind of talk, l want to
say for comic opera composer to
succeed he must write what the public
wants, or the public won't come.
When a composer wants to know
what sort of music I prefer: I say,
"Whistlers. Punctuate the score
closely with whistlers" By whistlers
/ mean music which tickles the aud
fence and which remains with those
who hear it and is hummed and
whistled by them on their way home
from the theater and the next day and
for a long time afterward. The more
they whistle it the better they like it.
l haven't classed costumes as one
of the requirements because l regard
them as part of the girls. Poor cos
tunes make pretty girls unpretty.
When you hear of a company with a
lot of pretty girls, you can make up
your mind that the costumes are pref
ty. The costuming of a comic opera
is great business.
The scenery plays an important part
In a production and should be of the
best. In fact, I should say here that
everything connected with comic op-
era production should be of the best,
the very best Nothing is saved by
getting cheap material. And this ap
plies to all and everything, from the
principals down to the programmes.
To return to the first requisite