The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18

somG but mobile. and a powerful voice | modulated by culture. In the fashion ablo gowns of this heroine she. Is sight roustngly pictorial
 What Is the upshot? Oh, the super 1 huous husband dies under the desir- | able husbahd's surgery. neither know ing what tho one would recollect If
 the other restored his memory. The
 play ends 90 abruptly with the a11-
 nouncement of the patients death on the operating table that the people are reluetapt to quit: for they would like to know If the wife tells her sur vlvins husband about. tue husband hrst subject to dIe under his hands.
 With alEits odd originality, this dreama
 has resemblances to familiar Actlons..
 Agnes Is offered In the matrimonial
 markets of Europe by her sordid moth | er-as in Dora" she coldly repuises
 the ardent man she marrfes as In The Forgenaster;" and she Is Appaled by the return of a husband thought
 dead as in 'Enoch Arden" Who's carping? Not l. Agnes is.a good I drama that misses being great
 The Smiths write two dozen plays
 per annum. I guess so without stop
 ping to count them up; The plays are
 matically complete. but are the words
 In prose and rhyme-solpetime poet ry--for musical composers to set to
 music, or comediaps to utilize for their l cpt-u Actors In comic opera and
 song1and-dance farce so to the smiths
 for 'stuff," as the slang. of. the bus
 ipess phrases 1t; and the stun may
 nonsense; but. don't let's be uniustly
 abusive. There are two of these Smiths, Harry B. and Edgar, of con.
 sanguinity unrelated. The libretto
 for The Golden Butterfly" success In comic oRera in Broadway this week. 1 is Harry B. Smiths and my first
 thought while listening. to its music
 as sung tripmphaptly,, was that Reg
 inald DeKoven, the composer, might
 well have hitched up with A more
 original writer However. =DeKpyep iS no novice, and I stirred up tine guess
 cry ganglia in my brain for a reason
 why he let his score go with 8 lib-
 retto based on the stalest two ideas in stage musical fiction; that Is to say,
 a sudden substitute for a cranky prima donna winning d victory by hitherto | unrewarded merit and a composer Of I as yet unrecognfzed genius recovering
 his original opera from g plagiaristte
 rascal after its victorious nrst per.
 fermances. If even a famed dramatist
 turned out a play with that substitute
 singer and that plundered composer
 for its hero and heroine no manager
 would read it beyond the point where
 he discerned the nature of the plot.
 "Why. then. does The Golden But
 terAy' get into Broadway, at a prep
 aratory outlay of thirty to.forty thous-
 and dollars with those old chestnuts
 roasted over again? Answer; The
 Smiths are sure smiths at hammering
 old metal into new shape. NO other
 Smith or Edward .or Harry could put
 the substitute soprano ana the pIun7
 dered composer on the zstase 2, one
 more. A second idea fin this snow
 that's frayed and battered by long use
 is to derive a romantic title from : something impertinent. There Is no
 golden butterfly You'd surmise. ehT that the heroine is a wealthy heiress fitting and huttering like that gay insect in a garden of social exotics. Not so, The name hits nothing but the point that a stolen opera Is men ttoned In the main opera as The Golden Butterfly. without tellihg why. No play ever yet went we'll without ; ; diseernable things to make 1t go. one of these in "The Golden Butterfly" IS DeKoven has written since Room Hood :" It is customary. to throw ] stones at DeKoven as an eehoist or other mems tunes. He makes the chief comedian, Louis Harrison Tn the ! character of a plagiaristie composer
 | 00E6n , dies. sounding new. through small al terations in time and tempo. Ear l scratching airs of his own originatlon I are abundant, though, and the success comes chiefly of the excellent singing of them The only names that re- y coenized in the casts list Of nearer , forty than thirty were Grace van stu1' l afford. Charles W. Butler and Harri' l son, There is Gene Luneska, sopra- ' no and handsome. and an Alice Hlil cortraIto and emotional, both rival 2 ling inc starred Grace Van .Studdiford 5 In singing value. Nevertheless, Grace Is the malnstay. of, the outht. 4 lt- tie while ago she was the wire oI mid State rnerchant-of St. Louis, ] 5 ha1Ieys-and to have described her ] then for publication would have been inpolite: but her husbands business !, went awry, one of the familys assets 1 was the wife's voice, and so she is now a professional seeker of publicity 7 and popularity.
 ' Grace Van Studditord In chnrcn \ choir would edify and exalt a con- gregation of religious worshippers be- e hind their backs; in concert or ora torio she might rouse an audience
 dressed like a lady for a social tpno' tion: but in comic opera, to cash UT her vocal gift of nature ana cuitute . she must make herself count to tns . utn,ost in every possible way. She tS : past. s,to not so very far. the age of girl e hood in stage semblance. her face i' comedy, but far from beautiful; ano s she is not a clever actress; but tht = facile use of wonderful voice wouIc e seem to be all sufficient. Applause |; louder than she got on Monday nigh 7; would have strained the roof. Ye e the theatrical business demand wal t that she unskirt herself. The director y evidently, had sized her up critically - There was her angel voice and lady h department: but her face was neutral 8 passa ble. pot tangible charm. Vel @ to get M the point quickly-hov \ about her figure? Would there be L. raln of atRhtifuess by removing hei