Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10
The Foreign Stage.

LONDON, February 1.-"Of course a
woman wrote it, was the conclusion Of
one of the most distinguished of London's
| sedate and elderly dramatic critics regard
ing The Stronger Sex" The remark was
| significant, because while this Americana
made play is evidently going TO be a mark
| ed success and was received on the first
| night with unusually enthusiastic and gen.
| uine applause, yet it was received by the
| critics next morning with an inharmonious
| GLORIOUS of disapproval. There are many
| things that could be said against the play
that it is mostly conventional; that 1t is oc-
| casionally In bad taste (as when a worldly
| woman is permitted to exercise her wit on
| the subject of her stepsons death the day
| before) and that 1t is true to the stage rath-
| er than true to life. The objections may be
made to take so long in the telling that
| they rather obscure the principal word to
be said in favor of the play; viz, that 1t is
| almost continuously and sometimes poig-
nantly interesting. The trouble with the
critics seems to have been that the play
glorffed the woman at the mans expense
Which instead Of being feminine viewpoint
| Is more properly speaking an American
viewpoint.
It has been supposed hitherto that grand
opera on a large scale could prosper In
grand opera season was over. But tradi-
lions like nettles are harmless enough X
gripped boldly enough, and Herr Van Dyck.
who Is good business man as well as q
famous singer, is evidently going to make
a great success of his German grand opera
season which began recently at the Covent !
Garden Opera House. The great auditorium
has been crowded nightly. Probably the
chief reason for 1t is that Arthur Nikisch
and the London symphony Orchestra are
an irresistible combination. Nkisch has
conducted COvant Garden
before. He made his debut with Tristan
and Isolde" on Tuesday, and the result
was memorable. The much-abused word
magnificent could be used appropriately.
for once. to describe 1t. Van Dyck, who is
a much better actor than singer. was
Tristan and Litvinne was Isolde. and
Maria Brema wholly admirable Bran
game" They were called before the curtain
again and again. but the audience would
not be quieted until Nikisch had appeared
with them. 1t was a veritable trium-'h for
the conductor. He covered himself with
glory again on Wednesday night in Der
Freischutz." The season also tntroducesa
Reichmein of Mannheim, who led off on
Monday night with "Die Meistersinger,"
and made a particularly favorable impress
sion.
If the shade of Demosthenes takes enough
interest In mundane affairs nowadays to
read the newspapers and this should meet
its eye the distinguished phantom Is here
by enioined not to be too "chesty." That
| little feat of the Greek orators in curing
his shutters by means of pebbles was quite
remarkable, of course, but there is a young
American actor in London who can claim
to have effected almost II not quite as
striking transformation in his manner OF
speech.
and attention is directed to him on account
of his having taken over the leading part
in Hall Gaines play, The Bondman,'
which I'D to now has been filled by Henry
q HamDden9
first notable appearance at London the
ater however, for only short time ago he
| played one of the most prominent char
of the Sword" at the Adelphi, and before
| that he had done much good work in the
metropolis.
But at the outset Hampden literally had
hard time to get "hearing'-or perhaps
| 1t would be better to say that hearing him
proved such a. painful experience to English
that they , 9ne and all nt S 70
ly) was his accent. Hampden was splen.
did elocutionist-nobody denied that-bue
his American pronunciation and infection
were at the outset deadly handicaps 10 MIN
in the line he wished to adopt on this side
| of the Atlantic. That line was the classical
| one. and, putting patriotism aside. 1t IL
easy to understand why English managers
| would not have Romeo an actor who
obviously hailed from the great pie belt"
| or engage for the part of a young Roman
| citizen player who betrayed his trans
mouth.
Hampden. as matter of fact. comes
from Brooklyn. N. Y, and is Harvard
man as we'll, and though it might be argued
that his accent was no more marked than
that of James Carew. Frank Mills and
many other American actors who have got
on here from the start. the fact remains
that at the outset the line he wanted to
take up over here. was closed definitely
| to him because of his enunciation. F. r.
Benson, the great trainer of Shakespearean
| consented HamDden
into his company, 1t Is true, but only for
thinking" parts. and SO 1t became evident
to the American that, difficult and dis
tasteful as 1t might be to him to learn to
say "cahnt," he must do 1t IL he wanted TO
get on in England.
And he has done 1t, though only after
four years of constant effort, which Is
longer, If one remembers correctly, than
| it took .old Demosthenes to get the upper
| hand of his bad habits. Ultra patriotic
Americans may think 1t a pity, but the fact
remains that now no one would guess from
hearing Hampden on the stage that he
hailed from Gods country-and as this
particular line, congratulations are permis-
sible. Incidentally he plays the part OF
Michael Sunlocks very well indeed, ana al
things considered may be said 10 nave
justified a certain '.misdemeanor' of his
extreme youth.
st. Petersburg-say Its newspapers-is
Sherlock Holmes mad Judging from
recent happenings In the cars capital, tho
real detectives there are not important. SO
perhaps the populace has to satisfy itself
with the exploits Of fictitious ones. Any
how the various Sherlock Holmes stories
are said to have gone into countless editions
there, and various dramatfzed versions OF
them have been played with great success.
(There Is no copyright in Russia remember,
to protect Messrs. Gillette and Doyle, tho
authors of the authorized version.) OF late.
however, the thing has gone much farther,
and such dramatic monstrosities as ''Sher-
lock Holmes Wife" and Sherlock Holmes
in st. Petersburg" have been placed on the
stage.