The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-12

interrogations and descriptive answers
on the main stage in the absence of
| the principals; and they we're a ballet,
too, for they moved and posed in grace
| full pantomimic groups. Motion pictures
| should have been made of these figures
! in classic draperies for decorative pur-
| poses.
The practice of putting songs and
dances into melOdrdmds as well as
comedies and farces has been noticed
in this correspondence; and now, in
the final weeks at the rival two opera
houses, by the repetition of works new
| this season, the disposition TO put melO-
drama into grand opera is emphasized.
Musicians used to think that librettos
for the best scores ought not to be OBJ
| trusively equal in interest with the
music; and not until the great works
of Wagner did stories and their person.
| ages take rank with the songs and
their singers. Subsequently, the liter
| AZURE of fiction, and the more romantic
of plays, were drawn upon by the OPP
cratic composers. But not until the
presentation of Maeterlinck's "PelleaS
and Melisande" and .Sardou's La Tos-
ca" as librettos for grand operas have
we been reminded that the original
meaning of the word melodrama was
music-drama. The Maeterlinck play is
symbolic and mystic with its plot of
gore. but the SardOu piece, written for
Sarah Bernhard and used here by
! Fanny Davenport, differs from the
writings of our Kremers and Blaneys
in graces of speech and clothes. not in
purpose or literal potency; and to see
| Scarpia's familiar assault of Tosca,
with her killing of him, depicted by
man who utters his baseness in a low
bass, and a woman who emits her
fright in a high soprano. seems funny
to a person more theatrical in taste
| than musical
| Within thirty rods of Broadway on
a side street are FIVE theatres with
plays so prosperous that the bills
haven't been changed since 1908 began.
A sixth has a strong vogue with vau-
| deVille at dramatic prices. Only the
seventh, although big and handsome,
| is given I'D to week visits of tourists
| with plays of the lower grade. The
block containing these seven theatres
is crowded from 7:45 o'clock to S:15 by
people on its sidewalk and by carriages
on its pavement. Saturday is modish
as well as popular in stage amuse-
ments. AS 1 watched the gathering in
of the Saturday night audiences On this
block, | saw that the usually almost
/ spOtlessly white faces of the thrOngs
were mingled with an uncommon num-
| Der of cOlored ones, from negro black
| to octOroon yellow. These tinted per-
sons went into that seventh theatre,
where travelling companies perform;
and not all of them arrived on foot, or
| in trolley cars; for several taxicabs
| brought others finely dressed, and a
big automobile delivered three pairs of
1 IL,
| ly CARRIED for anything else than a box
party.
! Negroes going into a New York thea
tire by the main entrance betokens a
negro company on the stage; for at all
| other times the cOlOred element is kept
at the top of the house; and the rea-
son why il was permitted to permeate
the parquette there and then was that
| the Smart Set was to play The Black
| Politician" A similar breakage of the
rule is observable at the theatre in
upper Broadway where Williams and
Walker are on the stage in "Bandanna
Land" 1t is a popularity of both
| these negro extravaganZas that the
principal comedian is a mulatto, who
/ has to blacken his face with burnt cork
and enlarge his mouth with red paint,
to make himself look TO be of full
! blooded and comieal African descent.
AS l desired to make a close study in
color, 1 bought seat in the second
row. directly behind the orchestra
/ leaders chair.
| The leader who came to that chair
was a negro with no Caucasian blend
while the toOters and scrapers were the
regular band of the theatre. 1t is usual
/ to carry along a musical director with
! eXtravaganZas, else the singing and
| dancing would go wrong; and the local
leader sits aside, playing a fiddle and
| relinquishing the baton to the visiting
leader. But this time the white man
was absent, and the black man, instead
of welding a baton, played a piano to
keep the orchestra together, and only
in cases of necessity waved his hands
covertly TO restore tempo to the white
players. They had refused TO work
! under a negro boss unless he leave out
all tokens of authority
| Old in form, though new in some of
| its filing, is The Black Politician"
and its pulling power is centeTed in
! s. II. Dudley, clever humorist in
negro characterization yet doing moth
ing singular enough to warrant de-
scriptiOn. The noteworthy things were
the chorus boys and girls, who had
been trained to eliminate their racial
I pecuHaflteS, ana DendNe just ike
white folks in similar stage employ
ment. The opening sight. as usual with
| such plays. was a chorus and march,
utterly meaningless as to its indistin-
! gushable words, but serving as a
| showdown of its femininity. There
were two dozen slim girls, natty in
short frocks, and from the center of the
! parquette they must have looked white
| born. Not one was anything like a
| negress, or even a mulattO; even from
| my near view there appeared to be
/ more Ortoroons than quadroons; and
| that impression didn't come altogether
/ from lack of color, for a free use of
/ powder and rouge had faded the nues
Il of chocolate or coffee 10 cream, but
! from the fact that the faces, though
| prettiness was scarce and beauty alb
sent, showed no fiat noses, thick lips,
/ OF other betrayals of Afric origin.
\ If, now, this had been problem
drama, instead of an antic farce, the