The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-15

Il a . H..
Some little time ago The Republic tool
occasion to felicitat4 the music-lovine pun
lie up the fact thst a violinist who wa
not-'a boy wonder would soon reach oul
shores. He has a~rrived-Hugo Herman O
~ermanS-ha just made his American de
but in New York. anS the press OF tina
city is raptly enthAsiastic about him. HI
IS old and gray. but he Is hailed as a mas
ter interpreter of Beethoven. and IS de
scribed as presenting a 'leonine aspect
facing his Audience with patient CAIN
"tawny of visage, with deep. disquleuns
eyes At the close of his first New forf
recital he was recalled ten times, ana II Is
said that no other musical newcomer Oh
this season has so stirred an audience to
reclamation at first sight.
When Mascagni gets back home in Italy
from his l~uclless American tour. II he ever
does. he is expected to forget his sorrows
in work on a new opera, the ibretto OIL
which is now awaiting him. The title OF
the opera is Marie Antoinette." and its
theme. or course. is the French ReVoiu-
ton. This would seem to be a happy choice
for the exercise of Mascagnfs genius. since
the anna appeal of The Terror" should
prove irresistibly stimulating to a composer
of his impassiOned temperament.
Sir Henry Irving has at last disclosed
something of the ideas on which Sardou and
atpreau have based their drama of Dante.
which Sir Henry will produce in LONDON
during Easter week.
The play is founded on incidents OF Dan
te's writings. which the playwrishts nave
amplified and run together.
The first incident is an allusion. or. to De
more exact, a certain number OF ailuslons'
in the Vita Nuova,' to the fact OF Dante
after the death of Beatrice. having fallen
ir love with and been beloved by a young
friend of the dead girls.
! a mutual bereavement brought the two
together. and their friendship seems grad
ually TO have ripened into mutual love. me
| second incident. out Of which tho plot OF
the new play has been woven. is alluded to
in the fifth book of the "Purgatory.' Con-
temporary record gives this somoer Story
more fully and as follows:
An italian nobleman, Velloe Della Pletra,
had espoused a lady Of noble family, Ma
donna Pia.
He became Jealous of his wife. with but
little reason. and, becoming more and more
convinced of her guilt. he finally decided to
shut her up in a castle OF his that lay III
among the marshes of Ravenna- Here.
without his ever having accused her, she
gradually sank, in silence and despair. and
d:ed from the feverish inhalations OF the
marshes.
method of vengeance returned to his own
head and he shortly fell prey to the same
wasting disease.
Mrs. Sara Stevens, of the Way Down
East company, has passed into her sixty
fourth year, and her memories or cele-
brated players go back to the winter Of
1851. when she supported Edwin Booth.
That was Booths first season In New York.
He was a comparatively young man then
and unaffected by the great grief that sub
sequently clouded his life.
She has a high regard for his genius, she
recalls instances of carelessness in giving
and adhering to stage directions, and her
anecdotes go to prove that SO far from
losing himself in a role he would often in
terrupt serious scenes to make facetious
remarks.
Mrs. Stevens played 'Perdita" to the
"F1orizel' of Lawrence Barrett in New
York. and she ~testifies to the high admira-
ton Barrett had for Booth even in those
early days.
Mrs. Stevens adds: Great griefs develop
mans ability to appreciate friends as they
develop his other abilities. Clara Morris's
account of the, manner In which Booth
leaned on Barrett during their last tour 1
believe to be perfectly accurate. Booth
never was practical, never could attend to
details. 7it
He was a poet and a dreamer. and. par
ticularly after the assassination Of Lincoln.
needed the support Of stronger nature"
.
There are fads in plays, just as there
are in everything else Stuart Robson re-
marked to a dramatic interviewer in Wash
ington the other day. The public must
be permitted its eccentricities of taste. for
nothing can prevent these changes.
do not think that we Of the present time
are undergoing an experience different from
all others in the history Of the stage. No.
the decline of the stage was predicted
before any of US were born. and in those
days it was just as favorite a pastime
to decry the various idiosyncracies of plays
and players as it is to-day. One hundred
years ago 1t was said that the stage was
topping; and why?
| Because all London impulsively deserted
| Sarah Siddons and the Kembles in order to
see a certain Master Betty. Parliament dis
solved for the sole purpose of attending one
| of his performances. After a while London
came to its senses and returned to its great
| actors, and Master Betty passed on, and
was forgotten.
1T is tine fashion of modern times to set
up a hue and cry about the evils of farce
comedy. and its supposed popularity over
Shakespeare.
MY observation has shown that with a
few exceptions Shakespeare's plays nave al
scented. The Shakesperean plays have made
more fortunes than any others in the
records Of the stage"
ss
A new dramatization of 'Oliver Twist
has been made by Beerbohm Tree. and the
characters of this famous Dickens novel
will again be seen on the stage in the near
future at his Majesty's Theater. London.
Beerbohm Tree will appear as Fagin. the
lew.
Oscar Asche, who made such a hit in New
York with Virginia Harmed in Iris will be
the Bill Sykes. and it is understood tha Ell
len Terry may possibly play the part of
Nancy.
There have been one or two dramtic YER
sions of "Oliver Twist before this. the most
remarkable being that in which Sir Henry
Irving played Sykes with such brutal force
that his acting was described as positively
awesome.
Mr.. Tree. however. considers Fagin the
more effective figure in the stage version,
the scene in which the Jew incites the
housebreaker to murder his mistress, Nan
cy. being the actors opportunity.
James A. Herne staged the original "Chil-
dren of the Ghetto" production. and in order
to get the right effects in the mob scenes
the apostle of naturalism went IN the
New York Ghetto and engaged the real ar
ticle. employing at the same time an inter-
prefer to explain to them in Yiddish the
stage directions. TIL plan was. successful.
But. according to William Norris. when
the production was taken to London this
scheme was abandoned. with amusing re-
suits. The English stage manager had en-
ployed the usual group of cockney supers,
and spent something like 800 in buying
make-ups for them. When George Tyler of