The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-24

vaIli. ugly, and Ethel Barrymore, beau
/ tiful are the theatrical celebrities un-
/ der new consideration here. The
Italian comes a stranger, except as to
heersay, which declares him the second
best among Italy's players now active.
the first being Eleanor Duse- Yet this
acting is all different from Buses. tor
she is a mistress of graphic quietude,
While he is a master of eloquent agi-
tation. Wholly unlike the massively
heavy Salvini in Novelli, too. and the
| fioridly picturesque Rossi; and 1 car
recall no similarity in the stately.
formal RistOri to this latest of the
Italian actors to come 10 US. If | were
to give him a browning title is would
be King of Muggers." Hs is an artist
4 in wry faces. Novelli is very gesticu-
latcTy, too. He talks with his hands;
tie them behind him and he wouldn't
know whether to face the audience or
to turn his back to it. He is an embo-
diment of Latin ViVacity. 1T is easier
to measure any object by comparison
with another than to estimate II by
itself; and perhaps l grow lazy with
years: yet how can ] more quickly or
clearly give you an idea oe NovellIs
acting in three roles than to size him
up by actors with whose performances
many Americans are familiar?
Novelli introduced himself to New
York in Papa LebonnaTd." and his
choice of a play was shrewd for these
reasons: Our own petted Ethel Barry
more was appearing simultaneously il
a new play, and all that is socially
mOdish was bound to flock to her,
therefore his welcome depended upon
resident Italians, who are numerous
enough to make BIZ themselves city
as big as any save three in Italy, and
VINO, from consul to organ grinder,
filed boxes, parquet and gallery; and
SO il was better to present on that
night a play from his repertory I'M
known to people not conversant with
the Italian language. Papa LebOn-
nard" was written in French by "a
French author Jean Alcord, for a
French actor, Constant Coquelin, who
declined to use it: so it was translated
into Italian for NEWELL: and after he
had carried it to many countries, in
Guiding Cuba. Mexico and some South
American republics. it was adopted into
the repertnry of the Coincide Francois,
but not till after COquelin had quit that
institution along with Sarah Bern
hardt.
Lcbonnard has a newly purse-prOud
wife and a pUetentious son, but low
able daughter. The daughter wants to
marry a worthy lover of illegitimatc
birth; the mother and the son object
to such an alliance. whereupOn the hus-
band and father. hitherto of small ac-
count in the familys affairs, looms
suddenly big with a declaration of the
secret that the tilt-nOsed mother gave
birth to a toppy-neaded son as a conse-
qUence of her adultery. The human
rooster who, after being henpeekeG,
suddenly asserts himself as cock of the
domestic walk, is pet bird with the
atTical audiences. He is not presented
here in a farce of fun, but i'm comedy
of more pathos than humOr- Taking
Coquelin as a standard by which to
measure Novelli in this piece, l judge
that the Italian is better than the
Frenchman could have been, because
he brings the tenderness of the
man, where Coquelin would have
shown the eccentricity only. The
American actor best qualified to play
the part of Novelli does is old John II.
and closed his long career while tour
ing in The Bonnie Brier Bush"
&%*
The second play in which have seen
NovelH is Louis XXI" and he does
not measure UP to the height of Henry
Irving's delineation of the craven ty-
rant and senile old hypoctite; but it is
a performance wondrously replete with
tricks of changeful expression, in that
respect exceeding Irving's; but it lacks
the Englishman's genuineness of salts
flying Characterization. A third play
with Novelli in il. THE Merchant of
Venice" places his ShylOck much un-
der Booth, a little lower than Irving's,
we'll over Mansfield's and for above
Sothern's NoVeli demonstrates him
self Il truly great comedian, as /
think in the three comedies mentioned
1t is any opinion, too, that his perform
ance in king Lear shows the limit
of his powers in the direction of really
formidable PRESERVATION. and / believe
that in the familiar Shakespearean
tragedies. which Italy accepts at his
hands, we will find him unable to vie
with our Mccullough. Mantell, Skinner,
Warde or a dozen others of loud yet
not resounding renoWn. There is
common belief that French, Italian
and especially German actors acquire
a versatility enabling them to play
ira gedy, comedy and farce equally
well: also that dramatic genius used to
be as ductile as that in this country.
That is all mistake, believe me. Even
your grandfather, with roseate memo
ries of bygone days, never say John r.
Owens OF John S. Clarke try "Othello"
or Hamlet" nor Forrest or the tradi-
tionally various elder Booth undertake
Forty Winks" or The Widows Vic
tim" The prapahrase Izaak Walton's
strawberry saying, Doubtless God
could make ragedian-comedian, but
doubtless God never did.
Ethel Barrymore need not be praised
for her bravery of beauty. No courage
is required in a woman of well-assured
reputation for loneliness to show her
self in guise that would make plain
individual ugly. l was with the man.
aging editor of newspaper, recently,
when the question was brought to him
whether or not TO send a reported, at
past midnight. to get an interview with
a woman concerned in news story.
1T would be hopeless" said the city
editor. "She wouldn't get out of bed.
unadorned with daytime toilet, and
let a man see her So
Hold on" said the managing ed
itor: lis she really as beautiful as our
boys have described herr"
shed make good in a beauty con-
test of the world" said a reporter who
- for