Evening star., 1902-01-04
VULGAR DISPLAY At THE OPERA
What Patrons of the Theater
Withstand in New York.
REPROOF OF AN ARTIST
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

theme the jokists fall short of the actual
A night at the grand opera here is a miser-
able experience for the music lover and
the average music lover is an individual
who has to do some tall scraping to as
semble the price of a seat at the grand
opera. On Wagner nights the curtain goes
up promptly at s o'clock, long before which
hour the music drama enthusiasts are sit
ting tight in their places, working up the
mental rapture necessary to a proper appre-
citation of what is to come. They con-
verse in subdued tones from the moment
OF their arrival until the conductor assumes
his dafs and picks up his baton, and thence
ON until the curtain descends on the last
act they exchange their ecstatic ideas mute
ly through the eloquent medium of the eve
language. The only sounds they make are the
misses which they frequently direct toward
the lnconsiderate and ill-mannered occu-
pants of the boxes. The so-called swell mob
begin to dribble in about O'clock with
clatter of light speech and tread of heavy
feet and with much attendant spectacular
eNhloltion OF fnery. When they reach their
| places they chat and laugh ripplingIy, nau-
seating everybody, except their own little
coterie, with their small talk.
Artists Begin n Revolt.
Some of the most eminent of the artists
ara beginning to rebel at this sort of thing.
| Alvarez as Romeo was in the middle of
| one of his tenderest love songs breathed in
| the shell-pink ear of Emma Eames as Ju-
| liet few nights ago when the high and
discordant mingling of mans and wo-
mans explosive laughter electrified and mo-
] mentar1ly stunned the great audience. The
| laughers occupied one of the stage boxes
Alvarez shuddered perceptibly sang four
! or five bars badly off the key and then
broke down utterly. He loosened his en-
brace of the statuesque Eames and. turn
ing Squarely around, glared almost threat
entngIy at the offenders. The leader of the
orchestra brought the passage 10 a sudden
close with sharp rap on the page of the
score, While Alvarez, apparently without a
note in his throat, continued to scoWl
darkly at the still giggling, vulgar pair in
the stage box. For moment the scene
was full of possibilities, and nervous folks
| in the audience breathed hard in anticipa-
tior of a scene not in the score Then
after this dramatic rebuke Alvarez re-
moved the scowl from his features in con-
formity with the needs of his part as the
ardent, warbling lover, the conductor per-
susded the orchestra into the graceful re-
taking of the movement with a wave of
MS wand and the pair of high-caste gig
giers, blissfully unaware of the whole pro-
ceedlng. went on with their provoking
badinage. But Alvarez was in such a fume
that he sang perceptibly off the key for the
balance of the evening, and the two bright
red spots on his Latin-European cheekbones
from the moment of the strident laughter
from the box We're far too natural ever to
produce the effect of grease paint.
Jewels at the Opera.
The blaze of jewels at the opera this year
is quite beyond the power of description
The women are almost wantonly bejemmed
There is a modern pronouncement, proceed
ing nobody knows whence, that seems to
stamp it as bad form for the society yo-
men over this way to bespangle themselves
with their jewelry at balls, receptious din
M q 5N,,+
mits them to bedeck themselves like ra iahs
and nlzams when they attend the opera
1t would perhaps not be beside the mark 10
say that there was never an affair of splen-
dor in palace on the banks of the Ganges
since the world began that embraced such
an almost paralyzing exhibition of gems as
IS on nightly view at the Metropolitan
Opera House of New York this wear The
women seem to be ablaze with reflected
light. Their very cloaks and shoes are
ahare with prisms. One woman who sits
piacldly on the very pinnacle of New York
society, wears a so-caIIed stomacher of
dazzling pink diamonds, the tentacles of
winch begin at her shoulders and extend
In hundred directions until they sheer off
at the knees of her skirt. All of them are
wearing crowns. 1t would be idle to en-
deavor to criticise the effect of a diamond
crown on the head of a queenly woman
proper diamond crown would make a Sec
ond maid of the kitchen look sumptuous
but diamond crown on the head of a
regal woman, clothed in unison with her
jewels, is of Incompatible suggestfvepess
When one sees 3eo or 400 diamond-crowned
women in one sweep of your vision he finds
the efect startling in its beauty The ef-
feet is not lessened because some of the
chaste critics declare that there is a GER
tain snobbish impertinence in the very idea
OF an American woman ornamenting her
mead with crown. One of the most chic
and appealing characteristics of the aver
age American woman is that she does pre-
clsely as she pleases, and with impunity,
and II she took 1t into her head that the
oriental yaShmak could be framed I'D into
a pleasing variety of facial costume for the
occfdent they would adopt the yashmak
and transform 1t into thing of beauty
and a joy forever.
Most of the women who shed the splendor
or their gems upon the opera audiences are
followed at respectful but prudential dis
tance by private detectives, and in adii-
ton to these burly persons there are a
score OF headquarters men in queer-looking
evening toggery distributed throughout the
house to see to 1t that the jewelry is kept
intact on the persons of its wearers They
look like crew of dance hall bouncers in
their swallow-tails, but their services are
valuable, for there is scarcely a night at
the opera upon which they don't sift out
or the audience some notorious light-fnger
ed character, himself in evening dress who
has incautiously concluded that the opera
gems offer him fair and inviting field
The BeImont-Croker Feud,
d
lustration OF the ancient adage, Lie down |
with dogs and get up with ffeas," than this |
current case of Perry Belmont and Rich |
ard Croker Never in the history of local |
politics has a man been more foully be- |
smudged in the public mind than has been |
Perry Belmont through his hereditary as |
with Tammany Hail.
The truth of the matter is that the tom |
sawyers of Tammany, including the chief |
are racing men, and, as racing men they |
are jealous Of the power Of the Belmonts |
In American racing affairs. August Bel |
mont, the brother of Perry Belmont is |
the president Of the Jockey Club that ex- 1
ercises the strictest sort Of control over
eastern racing affairs, and he is the great |
and firmly rooted power in the American
racing world. The Belmonts back to their !
Belgian ancestry have always been racing
people, and the turf in this country has !
never known such an epoch of honor and |
as 1t has experienced under the
guidance of the strong-jawed August Bel |
mont as general overseer of and bondsman |
for the sport. August Belmont, having no /
political axes to grind, has been uniformly
defiant OF the threats which Tammany has
leveled at the sport of racing in the state
Of New York, and has beaten the Tam
many clique in its strike endeavors at |