Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-21
WAKEFIELD GENIUS
TRlUMPHS AGAIN
MTHE MUSIC MASTER" Is SEEN
AT THE MASON
PATHos AND MAJESTY OF GREAT
IMPERsoNATIoN ENJOYED
GThe Devil and Tom Walker is Or
pheum's Merry Headline Offer
ing for Week of the
Holidays

T1OHIdyS
"Tbe NIusic Master" a comedy drama in
three acts, by Charles Klein, played at the
Mason opera house Monday evening" Dec
20, 1909.
Herr Anton Won Barwig David Narheiu
Musicians of the Liberty cafe
Signor TagliatcO, ''Eico" of Milan ....,..,
..,,...............A Augusta Aramini
Mons. Louis Pinac of Paris, viola. =.
.,.............,.... .... ..' 'Irahtls N"'ii'''
Herr August Poons of Lepsic, cello.
..................B .Bernhardt NiemeYer
Henry A. stanton. ,, ;Osear iAs Is, 'u
Andrew Cruger. .....'.... hiilIhiii II, DV,
Beverly Cruger, his son. Geo heiilis W."
MIR. Schwarz. secretary Amalgamated
Musical association. ... Alfred Hudson
Mr.. Ryan, delegate BrickmakeTs union.
................ Tony Bevan
Al Costello ..... Thomas IL. Wilson
ToIas ...........Ch Charlton Rivers
Ditson, Mr.. StantOn's secretary -. H..
................... John V. Daley
Collector. .........s Lhoi'- ptt"N
Mrs. Andrew CrUger. ....'''.' e hhtia a, , ~,
Helen stanton ...............J Janet Dunbar
Miss Houston, of Houston street -,
......,.....'...'''''; :, .uario Wis,
Jennie e.,............... .AntOlnette halho
Mrs Crugers Nieces
Charlotte .....,......B Bertha johnson
Octayie ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. MaTgeTy iayiOF
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
It is the whimsical property of se-
MUS to glorify common things by the
sheer potency of its magic touch. The
greatest players have often achieved
fame in the most trifling of plays. The
fame achieved, the play derives a halo
from the player. Thus Irving created
1.-THE Bells" and Mansfield Beau
Brummel." Thus David Warfield mas
made us love and venerate The MUSIC
Master"
lust how prosv and talky it would
be without him | refuse to conjecture.
Enough that he Is Won Barwig, the
soul and flesh Of him, or, more truly
Won RarWir is Warfield, the only
Warfield thousands of his admirers
will ever know, by the curious and re-
lentless transmutation OF artistic de-
terminism. We feel that for this thlhg
was the actor made, to embody for all
noble and oppressed and strugginIs
souls the ineffabe beauty of endur-
anca and the triumphant certainty Of
eternal justice.
Tbere viii be those to say that
Charles Klein bungled, that he should
have written a tragedy not comedy
TO such il will seem that the ialhe,
remuneration was too fine n thlng 10 Se
rewarded. and that the playWrlghs
should have accepted his sacrllce ana
sent him home to LeipsiC, torlorn Dut
1,ndaunted stole. 1t may be said that
the dquChter's good name is hopelessly
Ieonardized by the revelation OF hef
true parentage and the mother Hlsllt
with the fathers rival ana FORMER
friend. Such critics have tound the
iast act sunernuous. and would leave
us in our tears, unreheNed by slealn
of hope. ,,4
This is the voice of art. maybe, but
if is not the human criticism Nor
does It really comprehend the depth OF
subtlety of the Warheld method' NoH
Barwig is no servile yielder 10 inc
crude claims of wealth and power. he
IS no sniveling sentimentalist. His
tears are not a luxury, but the bitter
main of n brave mana fighter TIL the
end. His humor too, is no tactltlous
thing-no comedy relief" The soul CT
the man is elate with a strange ana d
significant passion for joy. amid all MS
agony. In a flash this inner com lpui-
sion toward happiness asserts ltsel'
and the barren old room rings with the
mirth Of a great and a breaking heart
In the midst of death we are in life.
OF this kind is the characters shreWd
and kindly sagaCity in the affairs OF
others. contrasted with his almost
childish humility and difiidence When
face to face with his own poverty ana
apparent ruin. Here we have a shining
ness. an innate courtesy that makes
the terms # social superiority and sub
seryience but pale and barren things.
We understand now his casual cheer-
fulness at crises, the roguish hypoc-
risy with which he sent that delicate
ly derisiVe message to stanton by the
daughter and the sudden and terrible
resolution of his damning attack upon
the man who had outraged his home.
yr,,... ,e tor, 9 Nv War
field creates it, is in no sense a scene
of pathos. Rather it is a moment of
Judgment and Of condemnation Scorn,
buoyed up but not submerged in grief;
righteous hate, steeled to awful Vigor
bv the sense of truth and wrong un-
utterable; these are the emotions which
the actor so piercingly conveys. we
forget the sObs. We are blind 10 the
binding tears. We see only the man
and the covering shape of his enemy.
This is something more than art or
nature, or emotion. 1t is life.
To me the most impressive thing
about this greatest of living American
actors is his marvellous repose. In
the primitive sense, l may call it the
strange and unworldly content of Won
BarWig's grief. We see ii in the faclIe
curb upon the old musicians spirit as
he checks his love for his daughter
and in the finesse with which his in
terpreter makes even his own manner
isms-which are not few-appear the
mannerisms of his character Mr..
Warfield is no mere emotional actor.
The llmpid simplicity of his portrayal
is the simplicity of an intellectual
method as assured as it is transparent
so transparent that we see clean
through il to the suffering but irwin
chile soul Of the musician.
OF the neeting but real moments of
true pathos many critics have written