The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-25
PlNfROS NEW PLAY, 1.-THE WIFE WITHOUT A SMILE
BIZ FRANkLIN FTLES

lish, who are now showing US things in
the way of Irises and Olga Nethersoles.
refused TO permit the French story-of a
cOnsumptive courtesan to be told on
their stage. So a version was arranged
under the gentle title of "HeartSease."
and Marguerite Gauthier, renamed
Nioletta Valerie, was engaged" to an
ItalianiZed Armand 1t was TO this form
Of the story that Verdi set his airy
Italian airs. which the younger genera
ton tell us cannot be taken seriously.
Some of us may. indeed, smile at death
and destruction set to gay and tunefuI
music but the rest of us Ore apt to say
go hang with the subject, let's reveI in
divine song. And certainly it is divine
song when Marcella Sembrich sings
it.
Here is illusion flung to the winds. A
fat woman dies of a wasting disease,
yet trills the while like the birds above
The more intense her misery, physical
and sentimental. the more frenzied and
superb her vOcalism. And i'm the end,
her long scene of dissolution ends in
wonderful expiring note, 1t is un-
reasoning. prepOsterOus yet what mere
actress can impress such an image of
ideal e-unto-death as this creation
OF Verdi when realized by Sembrich?
The Polish singer clings to the tradi-
tons of the opera; she makes no effort
to assimilate the old school and the
new. In the ball scene, with its beauti-
full waltz movement, she follows PATHS
example of flinging all sense of time
and place To the winds along with
reality. 1t didn't bother the sopranos
they Of the true regal prima donna ele-
gance-of thirty years ago that Violetta
was of ancient Italian days: they
moved amongst a company lin the
period, wearing a gown of modern
and modish splendor. Thus does Sem
brich, and further like unto her sisters
of the past, she is incrusted with dia-
mOnds.
And Of Faust" what is there left to
say? Who. who has ever been to the
opera, or even Of those who have not,
hasn't thought everything he could
think on that subject? Yet point We
forget is how wholly apart from the
Goethe poem this flowery opera is. [
went to our German theatre last sea-
son and heard the long speeches Of the
original drama acclaimed to an en-
raptured audience. l tried last night to
find a resemblance of that in the
waltzes. red lights, gay ballets and pic
torial ascension to heaven Of the
Gounod entertainment. The person
who spoke of Henry Irving's famous
Faust" production as a dramatization
of an opera was not far wrong. His
spectacle was the marvel of twenty
years ago. Today we see what an aid
electric lighting is to the horrors of
hell.
Interest in the present operate re-
vival centres in Emma Games Mar
guerite, not, Of course, as a novelty,
but rather as a safe object of en-
thusiasm. Joy in the Eames voice is
an easy and accepted sign of culture
The conventional among us, who don't
risk thinking for ourselves. are made
aware that special comment or undue
rapture is not expected. as in the case
of Sembrich or Hilka Ternina This is
nice to know, and makes the strain,
especially on the box occupants, far
less in hearing Emma Eames. Our
placid pleasure in this American prima
donna is ruffled only when husband
Julian Story designs new and dazzling
costumes for her-as in the brilliant
Aida" wardrobe. Marguerite gives