New-York tribune., 1920-02-01
Regal Passion
Missing From
cleopatra .
Queen Is Sentimental, but
Does Not Reach Supreme
Heights in Hadley Opera
Presented by Chicagoans
Cautier Climax Ignored
Production Staged Magnif-
Gently and Star Is Ac-
corded Splendid Support
By II. E. Krehbiel

year ago at the Lexington Theater
Mary Garden disclosed to us her con-
ception of the character Of Cleopatra
filtered through French librettists and
diluted with the lucent syrops. tinct
with cinnamon" of Massenet's music
Some time before the Russian dancers
mad mined story about the lady who
mas enthralled poets, historians
and dramatists for centuries. The
tale OF Iheophilo Gauter has little
incident to commend it, yet in the
i telling of it there was enough to move
Sw'nburne to celebrate it in the
memorial verses which he wrote on
the death of the French romanticist
1T was story Of a night Of love.
When she that made the whole
worlds hale and bliss,
Made King of the whole worlds de-
sire slave.
And killed him in mid kingdom with
kiss"
Yesterday afternoon an audience at
the Metropolitan Opera House saw and
hear an opera made out Of this story
by Mrs: Alice Leal Pollock and Henry
X, Hadley. 1t was an English opera.
the tenth Of its kind, SO far as the lam
guage employed was concerned. which
mas had hearing since Mr. Gatti-
Casazza assumed the management of
this institution, and the directors
wife, Frances Aida, appeared as the
tltular parsonage in it. Gautier called
his romance "a Night of Cleopatra"
or "One of Cleopatra's Nights" Mrs.
Pollock and Mr. Hadlcy call their opera
"Cleopatra's Night" There is diff
ference in the significance of the tirles
which might furnish forth food for
descant if the Cleopatra of the opera
had been presented with even Il little
trace of the wondrous woman who
transformed the triple pillar of the
world into "a strumpcts fool"; but
neither the book, the music nor the
hlstrlonic capacity of Nine Aida made
would have had to be combined to BODY
forth the idea that the great Ecyptian
had passed through the adventure re-
lated by Gautier as only one Of many
excursions undertaken IN mis- craving
tor Change from the monotony Of
sated desires and ambitions
Cleopatra in New Mood
The conceit of the story is that Cleo
patra yielded to caprice and sur
rendered herself to the embraces of a
pleblan youth for d night because she
was weary Of the sycophancies and in
slnceritles of her other lovers and
wanted to be loved for herself Having
gratlticd her wish, as the morning
breaks she has cup of poison put in
the hands Of the young man, and as he
tails dead at her feet she gives greet
ing to Mark Antony Here in the
tale of Gautier is the one dramatic
touch. One would have thought it
would be impossible for a dramatist
gong To 1t for material to overlook it's
effectiveness. Daylight is come. A
slave hands the poison to the youth
who has yielded to an immeasurable in
fatuation for the queen and is willing
to pay the price exacted. He filings his
"hole ilfe to his mistress in one last
look and lifts the cup to his Inns
Cleopatra lays her hand upon her lov-
err arm and is about to say: Live to
io'e me when clarion is heard. "It
H. the hour when happy dreams take
night tie empties the vessel at a
draught and falls as if struck by light
ming. "Cleopatra bent her head, and
one brimming tear-the only one she
had ever shed-fell into her cup to min
gle with the molten pearl
BY Hercules, my fair queen! [
come too late cried Mark Antony. en-
tering the ba9quet hall, the supper is
over But what signifies this corpse
upon the pavcment?'
oh, nothing. returned Cleopatra
with smile; only poison | was
testing with the idea Of using il upon
myself should Augustus take me
prisoner My dear lord, will YOU not
please TO take a seat beside me. and
watch those Greek buffoons dance ?"
Something might have come of that
even in an opera. But Mrs Pollock
and Mr. Hadley evidently wanted to
apply the lustral water of 'love" to
the Egyptian, and so they have
Antony's coming announced and leave
Cleopatra kissing the dead face of her
paramour of a night and finally going
TO welcome the man who should have