The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-22

one production of comic opera. We get
/ two of the three merits of a good libret-
/ to, a good score and a good perform
/ ance I'm one production of comic opera.
/ We get two Of the three in "Babette.' ~
/ The music by Victor Herbert is excel
lent, and so is the company's work. but
the play itself is by contrast as stale
and fiat as beer that has stood over
night i'm a vineglass. Harry b. Smiths
pen is clever when he uses it in his best
way, bur in turning this piece from
French comedy to a setting for Her
bert's tunes and FRITZ Schef's capers
be has done little of original work, ana
/ done that little ill., The heroine is a
Netherlands villageT away back three
centuries in the time of Spanish dom
( nation. and il comes in her way to
/ thwart a scheme of some neighbors to
aid the cOnquerOrs. A part of her
achievement. is to substitute herself and
family for party travelling i'm state
and to initiate their fine mann IRIS.
! Don't ask me how many times tat
plot has served in frisSy plays2 No
! body has kept count What I am sure
of is that none of them ever had a
dulleT story thar "Babette.' nor
brighter heroine than FRITZ Sched One
( of her companions has voice powerful
enough TO make her think she is sdl
I in grand opera. L mean Eugene COWles,
whose bass songs. deep and strong, you
q used to hear with the BOstOnians. a
tenderlOin arecdOte says that when
/ MIR. COwles was i'm a cafe one night the
conversation turned to the subject Of
sound waves and Of those caused by his
/ most strenuous notes. A bet was made
/ that he could break a pane Of glass by
singing against it. A confederate
cracked the glass from the further side
with an ice pick. at the lowest note in
: Brown October Ale" and the doubter
/ paid W.
! The play which takes it's name from
Mrs. Humphrey Wards novel Lady
/ Roses Daughter" serves the purpose
/ of making a star OF Fay Davis. She
was a London favorite at one OF
/ Charles Frohman's theatres till he
/ brought her here and put her in the
I way OF American advancement. She
{ is a little like Maude Adams in an
| eerie charm OF personality. and SINH
/ lar. too, in being original in her ways
/ of acting. Have you read Mrs. Ward s
( boOk2 Julie le Breton is not a saint
nor q sinner, but a midway human
young woman. with tendencies heav-
[ onward and hellward. She is the same
as that in the play which George
/ Fleming has made, though the drama
/ tizatiOn is not very expert and doesn't
/ emphasize either characters or episodes
I sufficiently But it is as faithful to
the original story as an actable YER
/ sion could well be. Julie is again a
/ rebel; again she goes dangerously close
but safely, not quite to self-destruc-
ton in a trip with her lover on what
/ but for the lack of a marriage GER
/ tifcate, might become a honeymoon.
/ After some ensuing variation I'm the
+ tale, she is saved by the patiently
/ faithful Delafeld to become his wife
( and q duchess. We get the moods and
/ motives of this imperilled heroine very
{ clearly set forth by the actress, as
/ they were by the authOress. though
without the best of help from the dram
atist.
/ Most appreciate by critical observ-
/ ers of George Fleming's craft in this
play is the effectual unconventiOnality
( Of the climaXes in two of the acts.
J Do you recall the chapter devoted to
/ the reception which Lady Delafeld ar
+ ranges and then abandOns, and which
/ Julie disobediently gives in her stead?
| AS presented on the stage, after the
: old woman has dismissed the guests,
] and ordered the servants to turn off
/ the lights, the girl is left alone in the
( drawing room. You hear her sobs in
+ the darkness, but get no glimpse Of
/ Ter, tin she opens the wide doors at
I the back Of the scene and stands sill
houetted in the illumination from the
hallway as the curtain goes down. The
other silent ending of an act is when
jules vicious lover. being confronted
\ by her virtuous lover and others, at
I the Paris rendezvous for her elope-
ment, cravenly denies that he is any
thing to her, but is betrothed to a more
( eligible sweetheart. ThereupOn she
4 goes slowly close and gazes into his
4 face with "a wordless yet eloquent ex-
I preston Of surprise. resentment and
detestation. At these junctures there is