Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-02-21

| ly charming, and harmonious. Too
often some one gets color, pretty
enough individually but 1arring BY
reason of lack of harmony with the
general scheme.
| 1t is not the intention to tell the
story of the opera in detail. Briefly
| speaking it is the story OF a milk
maid. Patience. who has never loved.
| Possibly that is the reason why she
has two poets in love with her.
Twenty lovesick maidens" are In love
by turns with Reginald and Archi.
bald, the jinglers in question. Some
| fine looking dragoon guards sought
the lovesick maidens' favor in vain
that is. until the end of the story.
| Then Patience, the unloving, the cold,
| the coy, decides she loves Archibald.
| since he Is no longer a perfect being
whom it would be selfishness to love.
but just an ordinary man. The dra-
goons are rewarded according to their
merits. while poor Reginald had to be
contented with their sympathy. Even
the faithful Lady Jane, who had loved
and followed him when all others had
deserted him. accepted the duke. Not
| that we any of us wondered at her
| choice, for he certainly made brave
appearance. So they were all happy
ever after except poor Reginald, who
alone was left in his misery.
The title role of Patience" was fll-
ed by Mrs. George West, who made
ii charming milkmaid. Some of the
songs were delightful. One in partic-
nlar began Love is a plaintive song"
but all were delightful. The ease
with which Mrs. West sings, the ut
terance of those high. clear tones with
no apparent effort, cannot but make
her favorite with her hearers. Her
acting of Patience, the unapproach-
able. was also particularly good.
The character of Reginald was per-
haps the most difficult of any in the
cast to play. The difficulty lay in
portraying the poet as ludicrous, but
not too ludicrous to be unreal or un-
lifelike. Mr.. Henderson's adaptable
ity has been proved before, and last
night the character was in good
hands. His Interpretation of
Bunthorne was vastly enjoyable
We'd never have recognized him If
we'd met him on the street.
Another difficult part was that of
Lady Jane (Mrs. l. Kruschke). In
this she proved to be very entertain
ing. Like Mr.. Henderson, she kept
the balance true by making the char
acter, though ludicrous. very natural
So often characters of the kind are
overdone. Lady Jane was strange
being. full of all kinds of humors. fly
ing from one extreme to the other. yet
always true to one thing-the love of
Reginald. Mrs. Kruschke certainly
possesses an enviable versatility and
adaptability. Let us hope to hear
her again.
Archibald Grosvenor, played by Mr..
Gus Roberts, was another very inter-
esting character, which really seemed
to be interpreted perfectly. We all
admired his looks-the costume was
certainly handsome and very becom-
ing to the wearer. The part. POM
pous and egotistical at times. was
one we should not care to play in real
life, and for that reason one admired
the art in its production last night.
| Lady Saphir Mrs. Sedwick) played
as if her whole heart was in it. She
has wonderfully expressive face, a
mirror of emotions felt within. Her
movements, too, were most noticeably
| graceful.
The Lady Angela Mrs. C. E. Per.
kins) looked daintier than ever last
evening as she fitted here and there
over the stage, pouring out at times
a perfect flood of melody. Some OF
her attitudes last evening were lovely
Everybody enjoyed the quintette.
consisting of the Duke (Mr. Lund).
the Major CDR. McCanna), the Colonel
Angela and Saphir. Personally, while
the costumes of the gentlemen were
doubtless artistic and their postures
aesthetic, we admired them much more
as dragons. Hard-hearted maidens.
how could they reject such handsome
lovers?
| AS before stated, the songs with To-
cal hits were very funny. Two cho-
ruses beginning 20, isn't this redic-
ulous" and There's plenty more fish
in the sea, were very entertaining.
1t is pity that the stage was not
large enough for the dragons to have
more of promenade with the maid
| ems in the closing scene OF Act ].
We understand they were entitled 10
embrace the maidens there, according
to the author of the play. Well, it's
safe to bet that if some of the bald.
| heads had been among those drapoons
| they would have carried out the au-
| thor's idea of an embrace to the let
ter-even If they'd had to remove the
walls to get space. Boys, that was a
shame! We're afraid the girls "job-
bed you there. But never mind,
your uniforms were effective enough
at distance" The girls in the au-
dience were very hattering in their
compliments. There now. we nearly
| gave away some secrets