The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-21

Wednesday Night-ManteIIi ItaI-
Gnn Grand opera Company.
Friday Night and Saturday Matt
nee and Night-sA Friend of the
Family"
'Peck's Bad Boy held the boards
yesterday. 1t was not the first visit
TO Savannah of the farce, which is
made up in great part from the book
OF the same name, and there was the
usual amount of fun, extravagant alb
surdities, and, horseplay. 1t command
ed appreciative audiences.
Grand opera, farce comedy and
drama are offered by Manager Sees
kind this week. Miss Helen GRAVITY
will be seen in two performances of in
the Palace of the King" on Tuesday,
the Mantelli Italian Grand Opera Com
pany on Wednesday night and "A
Friend of the Family Friday night
and Saturday matinee and night.
Helen GRAVITY as Dona Dolores in
: ''In the Palace of the King" Tuesday
matinee and night, comes to Savannah
highly recommended. The play ran
for 200 nights in New York, where it
attracted attention for its dramatic
and picturesque power as well as for
the magnifcence with which it was
staged.
In the Palace of the King" is a
dramatization made by Lorrimer
Stoddard of a novel by f. Marion
Crawford. The story which is set
forth lucidly and in melodramatic
fashion is briefly this:
The action takes place in the palace
of Philip the Second of Spain, in the
year 1870. Dolores de Mendoza. daugh-
ter of the captain of the Kings guard,
has loved since childhood Don Juan of
Austria, half-brother to the King. who.
at the opening of the play, has just
returned from a successful campaign
against the Moors Capt. De Mendoza,
a man of stern sense of loyalty to the
interests of his prohigate King, for
bids his daughter to listen to the suit
of Don Juan, and lest she disobey him
confines Dolores in her apartment in
the palace Dolores contrives to es-
cape from her Imprisonment and gains
the room Of Don Juan, where, hidden
behind curtains, she witnesses a quar-
rel between the King and her lover,
which ends in the apparent murder of
Cardinal Luis de Torres by the King.
Aghast at his deed, the King forces
Don Juan to assume the guilt of the
crime. Dolores declares his innocence
publicly, though by doing so she sac
rifices her own good name. Don Juan
is condemned to death, but in the final
scene Dolores secures his pardon by
threatening the King with the disclos-
ure of the real murderer's name. AT
the last the cardinal, who it appears
was merely stunned, enters, and the
play ends with happiness to those of
the characters who deserve it.
Mile. Mantelli and her Italian Grand
Opera Company will be the attrac-
ton Wednesday night. Seats will go
on sale tomorrow morning. The OPP
eras to be sung are two acts of Car
men," the second act of "Mignon,"
and the fourth act of I'll Trovatore."
"a Friend of the Family" the at
traction Friday and Saturday, with a
matinee Saturday, had its origin in
the German, where, under the name
of Der Familier Freund," it enjoyed
a phenomenal run of 215 nights at the
Court Theater, Berlin, Germany. Aft
err some litigation Manager w. f. Cor
man, who is personally directing the
tour, secured the American rights to
the piece. The company includes Alice
Johnson, late leading lady of the Muir
ray Hill Stock Company, New York
George W. Barnum, leading man of
Mrs. Leslie Carters Company; Vio-
lette Villiers, late of the Liberty