Omaha daily bee., 1906-02-28


IN Domestlque .....'.....'..''',.' M. heoay
Tn Commissionaire .......... M Cartereau
Nichette r.,................'... Mic. SeyloI
Mamie ...................... Nine. BouiShser
Prudence ................. Nine. Irma Perrot
Annals ........................... Nile. Alsson
Esther ,''..................... Mile. MacLean
Dne Dame ..................... MIC. tNosei
Sarah Bernhardt paid her first farewell
visit to Omaha yesterday, and last night
enacted the role OF Marguerite Gautier be-
fore the largest audience ever assembled IN
Omaha to witness a dramatic performance.
No two theaters in Omaha could have ac-
commodated the people who were seated
in the Auditorium. 1t might not be far
from the truth to say that some OF those
in attendance would have been nearly as
well served If they had been seated in one
theater while the play was being enacted
In another. The Auditorium is far too vast
for the uses of the drama. Musical pro-
auctions, opera, concerts BY bands and
such like entertainments may thrive there,
but it is hardly likely that it will become
a popular substitute for the theater SO
far as the drama is concerned.
Five states In Audience.
The audience was cosmopolitan I'm a
large degree; that is. il was gathered from
FIVE states and many cities. People came
from as far away in Nebraska as McCook;
Yankton and Sioux Falls were represented;
Sioux City and Des Moines marked the
Iowa limits; Missouri was represented by
delegations from Rockport and towns be-
tween there and here, while some Kansans
could not wait for the performance at
Kansas City, to be given at Convention
hall this evening, and came to Omaha.
Ia y IL
Des Moines and Sioux City had a numer-
Gus representation. In fact the surround
ing country contributed in a very large
measure to making up the throng that fol
lowed with more or less interest the un-
folding of the tale of the love of the Lady
of the Camelias for the Gent with the
Hasty Temper.
No Evidence of Age.
One has difficulty in reconciling the in
exorable fact of her birth in 1874 with the
appearance. of Nine. Bernhardt in the char
acter of girl in her twenties She has the
grace. the suppleness, the ringing laughter
the merry voice, and the sensuous seduc
| tive way of the woman who is just begin.
ming to taste the joys of living rather thar
| the look of one who has told three-scorC
| years of active, souI-testing life. II time
in the rounding of form once slight and
| fragile it has not quenched the fires tina
illume that artistic soul. Sarah Bernhard
| is being advertised as on her farewell tour
that seems like a press agents trick, fol
| nothing apparent to the eye suggests augh
than that she will yet again visit the coun
try that not only showers her with tbs
warmest of praises for her work as al
artist but which also rewards with thos'
! golden tokens of appreciation so essential!
! necessary to true art. Bernhardt will com'
back for she is greater than Paris, or New
! York or any one city in the world; she il
| a true world-artist, and needs the world a
much as the world needs her.
Repetition of Triumph.
AS Marguerite Gautier Mime. Bernhard
is merely repeating triumphs won long age
! She has made the role her own, more 81
probably than any other and comes to i
always inspired by memories of pas
achievements. She vertically lives the part
and from the lighter scenes of the Garlic
acts moves to the climaNes of the third an
fourth with perfect confidence in her ow
| powers. Far and away the best scene las
right was that between Marguerite an
Duval pere, in which the relentless deter
mination of the one broke down the tear
full pleadings of the other, and life wa
crushed that a love might go unsatisfied.
boots not that logic sustains the father
reason and cool judgment is on his side
but sympathy goes to the woman "a
sparks fly upward" Between Nine. Bern
hardt and NJ. Piron the scene was most ei
fectively enacted. To pursue the topic an
praise the star for her art. to refer to he
wonderfully mobile face, with its continus
shift of expressions, her smile as bright a
sunlight and as winning, her tender look
of love, her woe and anguish, her indigns
ton and her joy; to tell of her voice, wit
it's music and caresses, its notes OF prid
and of pain, of laughter and merriment.
sorrow and of triumph, is simply to te
again what has been told before. II is
this that her strength resides, and over
all is an infinite capacity for taking pain
4 The details OF role are what mark Sara
: Bernhard as apart from other actresse