Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-15
MAY EDOUIN

the Wilde-Strauss opera will be given
in New York this winter.
The John the Baptist play which Mr..
O'Neil presented here last night could
not in the nature of things differ great
ly from any of the other dramatic YER
sions Of the same story. The plot must
of necessity be the same; the calm
coldness of the Predecessors the wild
love of Salome and her mothers at
tempt at seducing him, his Haunting of
her, her conspiracy to destroy him,
Saome's dance before Herod and the
latters promise with it's greWsome and
CORY fulillment-the tale is too dra-
matte inherently to be varied; too
strong in it's badness to permit en-
bellishment.
And it was a mighty John whom
O'Neil so magnfcently portrayed last
night, a John with the spirit of the
Monte Cristo we have learned to love
and with the humility of the holy
man. 1t was superb exhibition of
harnessed force of mans very soul
striving to burst from its body, yet
restrained just at the bursting point
by the barrier of divine love.
The company arrived in Los Angeles
rather late yesterday evening and the
curtain did not rise until S:45 o'clock,
but it was we'll worth waiting for. The
scenery was beautiful, the stage man
agement perfect and there was not one
flaw to be found
O'Neils company is we'll worthy to
accompany his art. OF Salome, the
daughter of Herod. of whom so much
has been written, there is much to be
said of goodness and but little of bad.
Miss Ethel Dunn, a pretty slip of a
girl, portrayed the role, and one could
hardly imagine anything wrong of the
=
compassion than even a modern mortal
might have portrayed under similar
circumstances.
Of her mother, the evil queen He
rodias. one might believe all the evil
acts accredited to her. Miss Teresa
Dale appeared in the role and her work
was magnificent. After seeing her in
terpretation of the bad queen it is not
hard to understand why John the Bap-
tst was beheaded Miss Dale is re-
markably pretty and attractive but
such was the depth of her art that the
serving up Of Johns head on a salver
and its greWsOme presentation in court,
at her suggestion did not seem amiss
I'm such company. I'm the third act,
where with her charms she attempts
to seduce the Baptist and cause him TO
tmu from his belief, and fails, the ef-
feet is splendid.
might be mentioned. I'm the second
act while the king and his queen come
walking up tho street toward the tenn
pie to he welded, John the Baptist
stops them and holds up the wedding
procession and tells Herod what he
thinks OF him. And there was the
| bride, waiting at the church" and she
waited there for some time before the
king became angry and decided to be
married anyhow. 1t was fearfully iu-
formal especially at royal wedding.
| I'm the third ana fourth acts Miss
| Dale as Horodias acts as though she
might have been the grand ancestor Of
/ a Madame de Fargo or LuCrezia de Bor-
| gia.
Juauita La Lande as Ruth the sim
ner, is properly fearful ana penitent
and unusually good looking. Charles
Bouton as Caiaphas the high priest
showed himself exceptionally we'll ac-
quainted with the part.
The Voice of the Mighty" will re-
cciye it's second and last production in
Los Angeles tonight ana James O'Nci
in THE Count OF Monte Cristo' will
follow,