Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-28
GEORGE ARLNS
SCORES TRIUMPH
Cyril Maude's Daughter With
Famous Leading Man of ''Dis-
raeli" Delights Many

Nicolo Pasanini, famous Italian Nio-
linist and composer. who died in the
year 1870. was revived Saturday even
ing by George Arliss and a company
of unusual ability in the three-act
comedy by Edward Knoblauch. After
sitting entranced during the intensely
fine character reproduction by the
famous actor. many in the audience
transferred the halo of actor-suprem-
aCy from the head of their faVoritcS
and placed ii on the more or less tenn
porarily disfigured crown of George
Ariss.
Unquestionably and without the
shadow of doubt MIR. Arliss in his
accurate and vet broad minded por-
trayal of the eccentric violinist S oddity
of speech and mannerismS thrilled the
audience in a way that Harrisburg
audiences are seldom thrilled. They
saw an artist and recognized his art,
but in that recognition the splendid
support of Miss Margery Maude as the
innocently gay and adoring young girl
who falls devotedly in love with the
master musician was not lost sight of.
Nor did they neglect to give credit to
Mrs. Arliss, as Lady Strangford, and
Edgar Kent, as Sir Richard Strang
ford. a sour old barriSter with the
brain of q rattle as Paganini might
have said; and Florence Auer, who as
Antonia BianChi held the center of the
stage with her impersonation of the
tricky, unscrupulous, sinuous, terrible
Italian blackmailer; and the waiter
and the secretary and the father of
the adoring young girl who enter
tains the maestro in his home and
makes possible the plot of the story by
giving it background. None were
forgotten.
The fusing into a mixed tongue of
the rich Italian with the idiomatic
English gave to Paganinis converse
ton a fascination that caused the
audience to hang on his every word.
His remarkable composure, his
brusque and commanding manner, his
uation like a flash. his eccentricities
and witticisms, his facility in express
ing in his face thousand meanings,
all clothed him with captivating at
mosphere that is equaled, in the
opinion of the writer, only by the char
acter of Svengali, the mysterious force
who in "frilby' eXerts somewhat the
same influence on young girl, al
though the latter lacks some of the
tragic intensity of the former pro-
duction.
Closely as does Mr.. Arliss stick to
the characterization of the original
Paganini, yet his discerning artistry
sensuality which is supposed to have
been a dominating characteristic of
the great musician, and his delicate
handling of those parts which show
the influence that he possesses over
the feminine temperament stimulate
but a feeling of sympathy with the
love which the two bear for one an
other.
The play might very we'll have
ended with the second act, so far as
meeting the dramatic requirements
was concerned. for there a happy cli-
max is reached that leaves the audi
ence in a good humor. IT seems
strange, dangerously strange, that one
can be perfectly satisfied to see the
young girl go off with the visionary
musician twenty years her senior, the
father of a natural son, and the girl
having renounced father and flance-
and yet that is just the effect that is
produced at the close of the second
act; the love motif and the romantic
element is so strongly influential and
is so carefully handled that all else is
forgotten in sympathy for the girl
Charlotte whose very soul goes out in
pleading alteration to the sensitive vio-
linist whose first love is his precious
instrument.
In the last act the true balance of
actualities is found, however, and the
cold truth hits the poor girl with COM
pelling force. Miss Maude grows with
acquaintance. and the final scene,
where love is placed by the musician
upon a more solid and less ethereal
footing as he gives Charlotte over to
her young soldier-fiance, Dion Tith-
eradge, marks the conclusion of pro-
duction that Harrisburg may well con-
slider herself fortunate to have seen.
MAN ROBERTSON.