The San Francisco call., 1913-09-09
."BEGGAR B i R STUDENT" 7 }. IS RICH
Golden Melody and Memories at Tivoli
Sprightly Music
OF Other Days
Are Rejuvenated
by WALTER ANTHONY

You should see the way those an
cient tunes of THE Beggar Student"
timber up at the Tivoli. 1t seems inn
possible that they are so odd years
old and that they have lain silent In
their scores on the Tivoli library
shelves for a score of years. No odor
of moth balls hangs about on their
pretty embroideries, and they skip
and dance and sparkle like an old lady
dancing the minuet in the deserted
garden of her memories.
I will not ask the silly question.
why don't they write that kind of
music now?" for they do, and better
but seldom; just as 1t was seldom 30
years ago. Millocker himself only
duplicated his "Beggar Students"
sprightly inspiration once, and per-
haps Doc" Leahy will be kind (and
he will If we are kind, and give US
THE Black Hussar" some day to prove
! this assertion
The audience sat in satisfied
frame of mind throughout, save when
the seemingly necessary first night
stage waits became minute or two
over long We listened TO the music.
as / think. with a dual sensibility-
one related Immediately to the per-
formance at hand and the other re-
lated to those performances OF other
years. the distances between being
bridged beautifully by the melodies
of Millocker. Many have carried the
tunes in their heads, but had lost their
location. They have come hauntingly
to us, and we have wondered where
and when we heard them. I relocated
many Of these stray tunes last night
in The Beggar Student" and they
beamed in the most friendly manner
and identified themselves at once, like
a long departed companion returned.
let us say. from Ceylon. Immediately
they we're taken to our hearts and it
was as though they had never been
away.
Even the comedy, which is OF the
old school-that is to say. clean and
harmless, IL at times a trffie feeble
minded-amused u.s. We laughed
when Ollendorf stuck his quill pen in
the pate of Jailer Enterich. and the
original banquet scene where the
countess and her half starved daugh-
ters bought potatoes also was funny.
A gentle eXn1laraIlOn was somehow
felt when Ollendorf was kicked. Our
joy was increased when the plot. sin
gularly enough. found itself a happy
ending.
Those naive comic opera endings!
How frankly they throw themselves
on your credulity and hug you into
willing belief Suddenly an envoy ar
rives. The hero is about to be led off
to prison, lose his sweetheart and be
hanged for the traitor that he isn't.
Says the courier or envoy OF the king:
''An eruption of Mount Aetna has just
taken place. and now you are the
pasha of Persia" Then the Amazon
chorus comes and the last trace of
your disbelief dies in mute admira-
tion of the graceful lines OF true comic
opera
The singing last night was splen-
did, particularly in the role of John
r. Phillips, whom we all forgave for
an Interpolation. so well sung 1t was.
Rena Vivienne was also in splendid
voice and sang the pretty duet in the
second act, Let Us Suppose" with her
accustomed archness of expression
and more than accustomed pitch
veracity. And speaking of duets, the
offering of Miss Myrtle Dingwall and
Henry Santrey, THE Kiss, Sweet
Love-" was tender and true and mer-
tied the encore 1t received A fair