Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-27
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE

Il moving to its climax through a
= network Of risque intrigue, there
was staged last night at the Mason an
exquisite and tender love story-pas-
sionate and imperious at times, as
true love ever is; at once lyric and
dramatic in its expression; the eternal
struggle of sex with sex, attuned 20
limpid strains and the trip of dancing
feet. The program called "The Merry
Widow" an operetta. 1t is really an
intoxication the red wine of first love
regained after weary years, and the
white wine of woman's vanquishlnS
wit A musical duel it Is, of two old
lovers that love too we'll to be easily
won, but demand that their courtship
be sung into a drama, whose cumula-
tive climaxcs shall be the lyric note
that supplies the clew to the charac-
| tiers of both. This, with a gorgeous
setting and a splendid company OF
artists animating 1t, is the thing
which has set two continents afiame
and beggared the best superlatiVes o
every critic who has seen it.
1t is easy to see why a Frenchman
could not have written this operetta-
book or score. 1t assails his fellow citi-
zens, for one thing, but more than that
1t brusquely puts into very lively
background those Partisan notorieties
upon which he is wont to pride himself.
Maxim's, the sly intrigues of fashion
able life, the game" of love as dip
lomats and courtiers play 1t; these are
all very we'll in their place, but that
place is subsidiary, a background, II
you please for the grande passion,
which is a fairer, purer thing-frst love
reawakened. Even as the hilarious
melody of the "Maxim's' song is lost,
moment by moment and act by act, in
the great swelling madrigal of the
Waltz, so the little, petty figures that
grace the Marsovian court blend with
the lolling groups of the demimonde,
as the gray dawn breaks over the scene
OF hushed revelry. Sonia and Prince
Danilo are passing out the door, on into
the country of heroes and lovers, whose
voices sang to them from out the
strains of the Waltz. The prince has
saved his country from financial ruin.
oh, very we'll. But that is a trifie. He
has found his sweetheart-his little
country sweetheart for whose Jilting ne
has been torturingly punished. That is
the thing that matters.
A Frenchman would have made the
laughable and shadowy intrigues of
various lovers with various "dutiful
wives" the salient features of the
opera, and he would never have shown
us his adored Maxim's under the tell
tale light of dawn, nor made us forget
it for moment in the dominant in
terest of a love tale-half pastoral, half
sophisticated. And the Frenchman's
operetta would have been playing in
the Moulin Rouge to delighted au-
diences this very minute, instead Of
capturing the world by its orchestra
ton of the love passion
But undeniably the Merry Widow
"has an air." as her French suitors
themselves would be free to admit
Gauche and provincial as she is IN that
slow. tantalizing way of hers in Miss
Cameron's compromising and capti-
waiting portrayal, she is arch and en-
shaving, too. Emphasized as the purity
of the plays principal theme Is by It's
background of intrigue and reVelry, IT
is of the essence of romance ana al
venture. Sonia loves her prince, but
she loves her power OF conquest, TOO,
and the zest with which she keeps him
dangling at her flashing heels, the
while he thinks he is outwitting her,
has all the refined coquettishness OF
the Continental spirit
When he vows never to say to her,
"I love you," she knows the pain 1t
costs him, and when he refuses TO re-
woke his vow even to save his country
she knows how much he loves her. IL
is a battle of wits to which each reels
the others strength and skill, admires
even when it seems going against
him. and trusts unconsciously to the
power of their common love to con-
auer each obstacle to its victory.
such is the spirit in which Sonia
dares the Prince to dance the dance of
their native land with her, for the
last time" before her mythical wedding
TO the Frenchman. In mood M
blended defiance and longing he ac-
cepts her challenge, and the result is
the apotheosis of the waltz, sudden
hurst of all the suppressed passion we
have caught in fugitive refrains from
the beginning of the opera, reflected
in all its phases and shadings on the
faces of the dancers, The dance ends
and the prince is still firm in his de-
termination not to avow his love.
There follows the episode of the pa
yilion, in which Sonia steps into an