The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-05
ELEONORA DUSE HERE AGAIN,
! NE CELEBRATED ITALIAN AC-
TRESS BEGINS HER SEASON.
n Annunzios La GiOcOnda" Played Last
Night In the Victoria Theatre 10 .
Delighted Audience buses Improved
Appearance and Her Improved Acting.

Delighted Audience Buses Improy ed
Appearance and Her Improved Acting.
Eleonora Duse. one of the worlds great
dramatic artists, began her third season
in this city last night at the Victoria. As
sisted by some members Of her old COM
pany she appeared in Gabrielle d Annunzio's
La Gioconda," afour-act tragedy Of power.
beauty and horror. Despite the reputation
Of the poet-dramatist and his undeniable
qualities Of copious invention. skilful char
acterization and prime literary ability,
this piece was not warmly received in Italy
Its unrelieved analysis, its slowly accu-
muating burden of misery and the cruelty
OF the climax DO not allure the average
listener. Yet II is a play among a thou
sand; mastery in construction, mastery
in its exposition Of motives. And the poet
in d'Annunzio shows At every line-there
are many gorgeous ones spoken in La
Gioconda
Dusc returns stronger In appearance,
indeed, there Is an increased buoyancy
in gait and gesture. She If almost vivacious.
and her speech seems TO be Of intenser
quality. In a, least one episode last night
she displayed brdrurd that recalled TO
many the brilliant rntuosd, Sarah Bern
hardt. Duse wore n semi-auburn wig;
she even rouged discreetly. Her figure
Is as plastic, as unconfined az ever while
her expressive, changeful mask is key
board across which drive moods of fire
and melancholy. II Is a battle-ground
for chromatic emotions. As "A master
viohnist plays upon his inst nIment. so
the temperament of Duse H. exposed in
all it's caprice, passion, petulance, anger,
resi- gnation and with a grace that has some
thing Of the antique, mysterious charm
Of sense in "A Leonardo da Nlnci portrait
She possesses the subtle hands of that
painters Lisa Gioconda. and as the mot i've
Of d Annunzio's play springs from pair
If hands-its original title was The Tragedy
Of the Beautiful Hands Signora Duse
makes Of her fingers ten eloquent signals
And her variously colored voice Is ever
the servant of her SOUL she is mistress OF
the tact OF omission-her very pauses are
tense with meaning.
The opport unity for Theatre climax is
rare in La Gioconda;" but when II does
come the effect is appalling. A wife whose
love and devotion are sighted dares 10
face her rival in the studio Of the sculptor
husband. He has endeavored desperately
20 wean himself from his passion for the,
model who posed as his masterpiece, a
Sphinx. Attempted suicide before the ac-
ton, of the play proved how deeply sunk
n.
His wife meets the woman who is Young.
beautiful, strange and absolutely enalnored
Of the sculptor or her sincerity there is
no doubt, Then the dramatist throws
w!re-drawn analysis TO the winds and in a
sc'ue of peculiar brutality the women
duel for the possession Of the gifted, worth.
less man,
Here buses grandeur Of Imagination
and histrtonic technique are revealed
thrLllingly She must remain the refined
Woman, though her brain is afre, her soul
up In arms: In acrid terms of reproach
and irony she defes the temptress OF her
husband. knowing full we'll that he is lost
TO her; in the very flush of defeat she would
pluck victory by the sleeve. Startled by
the ready assurance. enraged by the SEEM
ingly triumphant wife, Gidcondd the model.
rushes into the atelier bent upon destroying
her counterfeit in clay. that figure she 50
lovingly guarded during the sculptor's
illness
She had watched the work Of his soul.
while his wife nursed only his sick body!
with this she taunts the other. In despair
before the looming catastrophe, Duse the
wife, cries that she has lied, that her hus-
hand still loves his model. But il is too
late. The struggle of the woman il heard
crash and scream announce that the
statue has been overthrow. Then an ugly
Sardou motive il obtruded
With the shadow of eternal regret in her
eyes. her hands wrapped in the wet cloths
that bound the clay, Duse staggers from
behind the draperies of the ateler She
has saved her husbands statue, but her
beautiful hands are hopeessy manned
This scene is hideously cruel And to top
the crescendo of woe the vacilating man
runs in: You, you, you" sobs his wife
1t is safe" and the curtain blots the ago
nizing situation from our eye, not from our
memory.
The play might be truthfuly called The
Triumph Of Art, for, il 1t poses any
problem at all, it is this: What will an artist.
a sensuous, weak. decadent do when CON
fronted by the choice Of relinquis hing his
wife or his mistfessy The latter is sur
passngly beautiful and. a. he tells his
friend, the painter, IN act one, she is,his sole
Inspiration, the guiding pillar of fame for
his art She has thousand statues in
her, in that marvellous body that is like
a look. He loves his wife, too, but she
does not reveal 10 him his entire creative
self. She is a stan TO lean upon. not an
electric impulse in his life. To the every
day observer all this seems a variation of
an old story: Lucio is tired Of .S,iria. his
wife, and da2zles himself with the soph-
istrles OF art base sens uality being the
real reason for his behavior.
But this -upposition is only half truth
Ihcio has a species of accursed tempera-
ment that needs must feed upon the ex-
quisiie surfaces Of beautiful things He
Is tru" artist Of medieval times, loving
iur ar Is lis motto, rs il was Benve~uto
,.lN's. o, - was George Elot's Tito
M''H3. LLClo's most eloquent speech
",'lI.'7 ''' appeal GiocOndd makes TO lis
"itr'' halpg", the creative ardor she
"I'''-"- This speech il of much sign g.
,a'ro
pesrinah" ~ is the man, and we never
"''h Iii- ultimate desertion of his wife,
.h"r" i no denying the grim truth with
NnI'A D." d depicted. That he is not sym
t"h''r Is hardly our affair II j. bad art
- preach and that d'Annunzio never does.
II, SIMPLY sets before us with consunmatc
'pth~N few episodes in the life OF an
"nndplE family, leaving Us TO draw our
own differences. Hi men and women
are genuinely alive, and, given their vari-
wa, COMPARTMENTS, they act as they in
',IahE would ia the world Of tho living.
10 character Of the wife, Siirid, is beau
."rI H"~pr" the diS-onance Of the fatal
"h'rNn she utters. Without mawkish
"i' ih"u'aNY sh" divines the eternal
''Id 'ud' o., the basis Of every artist and
+. -" iorglves her husband As port rayed
ny Dus" on" feels that lurking in the sane
'Hd'E "i her lnn"rmpst being there is the
,d'' hI''eI SUSPICION that her sacrifice will
h" IN vain ''
h"t she stops not to count the cost and
az we end Of act one, when the emotional,
H~'dH-splncd fellow touched by her sacri-
Hor' casts himself sobbng at her knees,