The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-03
MANSFIELD IN
TRAGEDY ROLE
New Orleans Critic Describes
Great Actors Success As
Don Carlos
1T is ROMANTIC AND SUBLIME
1T is ROMANTIC AND SUBLIME
Bijou Makes New Record At
Holiday Performance-How-
ard Kyle Here Friday.

well known dramatic critic of New
Orleans writes as follows regarding Mr..
Richard Mansfeld's production of Don
Carlos which VIII be played at the
Academy on Saturday night, preceded by
Beau Brummei" at the, matinee:
Don Carlos" is q tragedy, which is as
boldly romantic as it is grandly sublime.
It's theme is one upon which an English
or American dramatist would not ven
ture, but in this it is characteristic of
Germany's great dramatist. The love of
The hero for his beautiful stepmother
: might be regarded as "a peri.ous theme
for exploitation on the speaking
stage, but it Is handled wi,n such lofti-
nesS of tone, purpose and method that no
one would think of regarding 1t as peril
Gus.
Don Carlos, who in some respects sug-
gests q modernized Hamlet, is not by any
means wholly lovable character. Pro-
foundly in love, he has little regard 10
waste upon anything that does not min
lister in some way to his own aspirations
Smarting under the cruel Injustice OF a
cruel, tyrranicai and cowardly father,
he suspects every one he meets of being
Il paid spy, and while in most cases he Is
right, he makes a melancholy mistake in
the case of the Marquis de Posas. His
+ NIlu tltiSSIpI lpE iit'S iiis-NS'
him all but monomaniac, while his sur
roundings have forced upon him the ne
cessity OF meeting treacker; with cum
ming. The best side of his nature Is
shown in his grief and anger at the muir
der of his only friend and far and away
the grandest passage in the play is his
fierce arraignment of his father, the King,
as he stands beside the lifeless form or
his murdered friend.
u Great Ovation
This is an grafton that deserves even in
the translation, to be ranked as classic
in dramatic literature. In this Mr. Mans
held was seen at his best. The marvellous
and thrilling vocal effects produced were
in themselves a study to wonder at with
q seeming Inconsistencies he sweeps
through octaves, scale rising upon scale,
and gliding down to the profoundest
depths, yet never inharmonious nor I'M
Inelodious; nor in either the highest or
the lowest note do the tones give the
slightest suggestion of having approach
ed the limit.
The bitterness of this fierce denuncla-
lion is but half eXpEsssed in words, how
ever. The look, the gesture, the horror
md rage depleted in face that sug-
g0'ts the snarllng of some mortally
wounded wild beast, all intensity the ex-
preston Of the burning torrent OF invec-
tive which he pours forth.
In his love scenes, Manstields Don
Carlos is tender, poetic, digpited, and ro-
mantle in the most exalted sense. but
withai rather more OF the ponderously
poetic German, than of the fiery, hot
blooded Spanlard. This is doubtless cue
TO Schiller rather than to Mansfield. Who
took the Spanish hero as the German had
created him. Weird. to the verge OF tran
scendentallsm this persecuted, unfiial son
of a soulless, tyrannical father, makes
a lover that is picturesquely romantic and
profoundly pathetic, yet not the man to
win the heart of the normal woman.