The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

dear old Mother Goose. positively the
funniest person; and there are the
charming hero Colin. the lovely he
roine Jill, and Jack, her brother,
real cute boy. Surely one can imagine
no better fun than to take an orphan
asylum or two to see all these glo-
ries
For the uneasily virtuous it should
be said that virtue is here not it's only
reward. The grown-up child VIII en-
3, joy Mother Goose" not less than his
small neighbor- The piece is remark
able herein. 1t has three times the
plot Of the average musical comedy,
ten times the fun, as much music and
more folks to sing 1t, and a splendor
of spectacle never before seen here.
In that it is as bad or as good as a
three-ringed circus. You cannot take
1t all in at one sitting. Take the Pal
ace of Fantasy scene, for example.
Filing in, dozen by dozen, come chorus
girls, each set of which might have
been drawn by Mucha. You have a
half-minute only to take in costumes
that are worth five for their sheer
artistry, rich, subtle, bewildering,
army of beauty. The girls are here
supposed to represent articles of
"bigotry and virtue" in bronze.
ivory, enamel and the rest. and the
Illusion even to the last hair of the
wigs, is marvellous. Then. when from
among them the Grigolati aerialists
take their fight, poising like flying
loves in the air, one can ask nothing
more from stage picture. Further, the
specialties. one after another. keep
coming UP afresh to claim their laugh,
and it is only afterward that one
realizes the number and originality of
the skits. In the wealth of them, and
the overwhelming fun of the two chief
'turns''-the burlesque on the mill
tary drama and the "Old Oaken
Bucket quite forgot, for example,
Corinne's Laughing Water" the
acquaintance.
Each of the four funny men. too
and they are dyed in the wool funny
Joe" Cawthorne (Mother Goose), Har-
ry Kelly (Jack), w. II. Macart 0he
Laird of Borderland, and the most
comical Scot since Alf Whelan) and
Clifton Crawford. has turns in turn
and plenty of them. Neva. Aymar adds
curls and Lulu CHASER prsttiness to
the picture, as well as other turns, and
Corinne is the most fetching of panto-
mime boys generally. a clever and
busy stage zoo adds yet more, chiefly
in the comical persons of Walter Stan
ton as the goose and Dave and Sey-
mour as paralyzingly funny horse.
Words fail me when it comes to the
glittering wonders of the tranSforma-
tion scenes, and in fact 1 do not know
what more could be asked of panto-
mime Mother Goose leaves me with
out a wish.
At this afternoons Kopta quartet
concert will be heard for the first time
here a Veit string quintet for two
vioIas, of which one hears many prom
Using things. Mr.. Kopta is a country
man and great admirer of Wet and
says the work is as beautiful as-with
the double viola writing-it is novel.
1t has four movements, one of which
the composer names THE Fairy" The
other part of the programme consists
of piano trio, op. 50, of Rubinstein,
and three string quartets, the menuetto
from the E fiat quartet of Dittersdorf,
lIIC <AAQdilC SdhloOAlC AAOhA Up LIZ
Tschaikowsky, and the "Canzonetta"
from op. IL, by Mendelssohn.
Nine Caro- Roma (soprano). Mrs.
Edith Scott Basford (contralto), Signor
Cortesi (tenor) and Signor Viglioni
Borghese (barytone) are among the
soloists to be heard at the Verdi monu-
ment fund benefit concert that will
take place on Friday evening, Febru-
ary "a. The programme will be selected
entirely from Verdi and will include
oratorio and operatic selections. Miss
Grace Freeman will play violin con-
certo and Signor Villalpando will play
q cello solo. Guilio Minetti is the leader
OF, the orchestra and James Hamilton
Howe leads the Howe Club.
The next singer Of Importance to be
welcomed here is David Bispham, who
will give three recitals toward the close
of the month. Mr.. Bispham's pro-
grammes are always models of pro-
gramme- making and he has even out
done himself in the three to be offered
during his coming recitals- Here is
the first one for February 81:
Commit Thy Ways (st. Matthew. Pas