Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-20
BERNHARDT In "LA TOSCA" DELIGHTS
LARGE AND FASHIONABLE AUDIENCE
Actress Bids Adieu to
Her Friends in
California
Shows Trace of Fatigue,
but Great Climax
Is a Triumph
Adleu Sarah Bernhardtl

Adleu Sarah Bernhardt!
For two glorious days you have been
with us, and you go leaving behind the
memory of three great artistic tri-
umphs-"La sorciere,' Camille" and
LA Tosca."
Any one of them would have placed
you in a position of honor in our hearts.
LA Tosca" was the farewell. It was
an evening of misery with Floria-mis-
cry for arts sake, but misery never
theless.
Not the sorrow that touches the heart
and brings tears of pity, but the misery
that racks the human frame.
Floria is not a woman to love, she
is hardly woman to pity, but, rather,
one to suffer with-a woman caught
in the meshes of the green CODA slave
to jealousy.
Sarah Bernhardt's acting is the tri-
umph of perfect technique, with now
and then flashes of powerful feeling
which reveal her at the height of her
power.
A Trace of Fatigue
In the first and second acts she ap-
peared to be little wearied, showing
a trace of fatigue after her wonderful
performance of Camille in the after
noon, but in the third act her mood
changed. Every energy was saved for
the great climax.
The scene of the first act is laid in
a Roman church. where Mario, the
lover of Floria La To5ca, a noble and
an artist, is redecorating the church.
He has gained liberal views. from years
spent in France, and when an escaped
prisoner comes to the church for pro-
lection he befriends him. This leads
to his undoing.
Floria visits him at the church, and
the first traits of her jealous disposi-
tlon are revealed in her objection to
the color of the Madonna's eyes. They
are not the color of her own.
Mario and his prisoner flee to place
of safety, and in the second act they
are discovered through the jealousy of
Floria. The enemies of her lover con-
vince her that he has gone with another
woman and then follow her to the hid
ing place.
The scene between Mario and her
lover shows Bernhard in many moods,
and her flashing change of facial ex-
preston is wonderful.
In Changing Emotions
At first she is the spoilt child re-
jecting the endearments of her lover,
then pleading with him as she hears his
story and at last just the frightened
woman realizing that she has brought
danger to the man she loves.
In the third act Mario is put to the
torture to make him tell the hiding
place of the prisoner. From room ad-
Joining Floria hears the groans of her
lover, while Scarpia stands over her
trying to make her tell the secret. In
that time she runs the gamut of human
anguish, taking her audience with her.
A glance through the door and the sight
of the suffering weakens her. The
secret is told.
In the fourth act Scarpia shows the
girl two scaffolds erected TO hang her
lover and his friend. He offers to spare
his life at the price of her honor and
the scene between them is one of the
most horrible and at the same time one
of the strongest in the Bernhardt
repertoire.
Honors Are Divided
NJ. De Max shares dramatic honors
with Bernhardt in this act, rising to
greater heights than in any other part.
The climax of the fourth act, in which
she promises to yield to the loss Of
honor in order to save her lover from
death. but stabs Scarpia to save her
self. was marred by the curtain calls.
The curtain refused to work, but that
was not the worst of it. The dead
Scarpia came to life in response to the
applause, causing the artistic value TO
be completely lost.
Bernhardt's ending of the tragedy this
time differs from the way she has
concluded it on former occasions, and
from the way it is played by other
actresses. Instead of jumping from the
window to follow her lover, who has
been killed, she leans against the win