Salt Lake Herald-Republican | 1898-01-02 | Page 11 | Dramatic and Lyric

1 ttY r rrf tt-Y 4 r 1 r l d4LL i iH l j1kJV LOTTIE LEVY New Years Dr ir Hal It has been a bright and glorious day for the amateur opera people and Mr i TV f ihp and his conferees may be said j to have solved the problem of how to j give firstclass amateur opera at secondclass rates The Mascot Patience and latest and best The Chimp looks like a fair start towards a repertory and the really magnificent grtttirs the company has received net only from the Salt Lake public but frcnj that of Ogden Logan and Provo as well seems to indicate that the venture ven-ture can be a permanency if the pro I jtcturs < hoobe to make it so side from this New Years revival the week has been devoid of interest t Katie Putnam came and went without musing a conflagration of the Thames ti nd Harry Emery that prince of good fellows and indifferent actors merely I flashed across the pathway of his old t friends and was gone A pretty bad play Katie has succeeded in getting to unexpectedly good news to hear her I gather in Tom Tinkers Kid and its husband say that in such art centers as I Yfalla Walla and Missoula this years I business has never been equalled Theres a touch of the pathetic in the spectacle of John Lindsay one of the pioneer players at the Salt Lake theatre the-atre coming to his home to find theO the-O > TS of the old house closed against him and being driven to the necessity of putting up at that Jonahs paradise the Lyceum Thirty years ago and I mire when the muses were young in Salt Lake and dried peaches were tal > n at the box office Mr Lindsay toned as one of our foremost actors r nd thrilled our fathers and mothers with the force of his delineations of heavy villains But the public in its k aggregate capacity is a pitiless thing i i to deaf with and the repidly moving I j procession in the city at least has passed the old players by making it al togither too uncertain a venture for i any manager to think of playing them i i on shares Th theatre is to be had but only on rental terms and those are out of the 1 question for companies without a sure I pull on the public But it is pleasant to know that in many corners of the country there still linger admirers of the old school who extendMr Lindsay awelcome and encourage him to continue con-tinue in the profession in which he has labored so hard and so longMARGE MARGE DRAMATIC AND LYRIC The long awaited Scalchi engagement is at hand and next Wednesday and Thursday evenings at the theatre music mu-sic lovers will doubtless be out in force The advance sale opens tomorrow and there will be no advance in price beyond be-yond that usually charged for first class attractions On Wednesday evening even-ing the first part will be a concert participated par-ticipated in by Scalchi and the quartette quar-tette which supports her and the second sec-ond will be the fourth act two scenes the prison exterior and interior of Trovatore with the following cast ManricoMr Thomas McQueen Count Di LunaSignor Alberti Leonora Mile Toulinguet Azucena Mme Sofia Scalchi Thursday evening the usual first part will be given and the second will consist con-sist of the third act garden scene of Faust with the following cast Marguerite Mlle Toulinguet Marta Mile Du Bedat Faust Mr Thomas McQueen Mephistopheles Signor Alberti Siebel u Mme Sofia Scalchi Those who know Scalchis reputation will not need to be told that she has made her fame in opera rather than in concert Her soprano Marie Toulin j guet is the dramatic soprano who headed Maplesons Imperial Opera company com-pany when it came to this country last year Alberti was the baritone of the same organization McQueen is the tenor who sprang into fame by being discovered as a printer in the New York Herald office by singing for a charity concert and by being sent off to Italy at once to pursue his studies Marie du Bedat who was also with Mapleson is the mezzo and Signor Guarro the musical director 000 Nellie McHenry follows Scalchi putting put-ting in Friday and Saturday evenings and Saturday afternoon with her new I farce comedy A Night in NewYork The skit is by that bright writer of bright burlesque H Grattan Donnelly and will doubtless draw well especially especial-ly as the matinee js to go to popular prices Miss 1Y Henry is assisted by 1 I 1 I o IIj 4 I drs I L rf J T NETTTF MLHENltY such well known people as John Webster Web-ster William Hafford Billy Barry J Hays Miss Mait Raymond Miss Milred Connors Miss Viola Raynore Miss Rosa Crouch daughter of the late Professor Pro-fessor Crouch who was the composer ot Kathleen Mavpurneen J Kenny and others 000 The Chimes wound up an altogether altogeth-er unprecedented engagement from the standpoint of local attractions at the theatre yesterday afternoon and evening even-ing The matinee though was so heavy that 200 or more handsomely dressed ladies had to take seats in the second gallery and the receipts were j considerably ahead even of the first matinee on Thanksgiving day At i i night there was again a very handsome 1 audience one quite phenomenal considering 1 con-sidering that it was the sixth before which The Chimes had been presented f j pre-sented in this city The popularity of I the work is due of course to two causes cheap prices and cleverness I of presentation not often found in amateur circles Opera such as this company gives at prices which tax no i 1 ones pocket makes a strong appeal to the public and not only attracts a class which does not make a habit of attending at-tending theatres but draws the same ieople over and over again For the resentation very little new Is to be aid except that throughout it bore vidence of having been done until the ople were thoroughly familiar with L The chorus has never acted nor remembered In his time he supported Mary Anderson as leading man and when Edward Booth and Lawrence Barrett starred together Mr Buckley played with them and with marked success His Mark Anthony was widely wide-ly commended After William J Florences death ho took the part of Sir Lucius OTrlgger with Joseph Jefferson Jef-ferson in The Rivals His last public pub-lic performance in New York City was about five years ago in Nat Goodwins company in The Gold Mine He was a great athlete and his fine physique was known to most theatre goers He had a stroke of paralysis of the face while he was playing the > r V + x r S tjS h 7 I = TIME SCALCHI sung so well and the applause it won I was thoroughly deserved The semi I chorus in the fair scene was especially I and Fisher good while Misses Savage I and Messrs Goddard Spencer Pyper I and Campbell emphasized the hits previously I I pre-viously made It would be hard indeed in-deed to find six people in amateur ranks who could better sustain roles like those in The Chimes than the half dozen named 000 Next week will see the reopening of the Grand and the real darkey will be plentifully in evidence The attraction is Harry Martells big southern production pro-duction The South Before the War This play is entirely different from anything of its kind that has been produced pro-duced The combination of darkiesbig and little numbers 50 people The performance embraces a great variety of music camp meeting scene buck and wing dancing singing by four quartettes with a chorus of 40 voices a genuine cake walk which creates I continuous laughter and a pickaninny band of 17 little darkies a carload of scenery depicting a cotton field in full bloom Frog island and the old Mississippi I Mis-sissippi steamboat Robert E Lee will all be shown and to those of the younger generation who have often heard what a plantation was in antebellum ante-bellum days this play will give a very I realistic idea 000 The death of Ned Buckley in New York during the past week of paralysis paraly-sis removes from the stage an actor who was at one time known as one of Americas most popular juveniles and leading men He was ever a great favorite fa-vorite in Salt Lake where his rendition r rendi-tion of such roles as Dave Hardy in I Esmeralda and Douglas Winthrop in Young Mrs Winthrop are still well I leading part in In the Ranks in Montreal Sincethen he had several strokes and for two years he had been absolutely helpless Mrs Buckley has been a most faithful attendant at his bedside and she is left physically prostrated pros-trated by his death He leaves one son and two daughters all members of the profession of which he was so distinguished dis-tinguished a member o 0 What to do next is the problem which is already agitating the Salt Lake Opera company Professor Weihe states that their preference lay in the direction of A Trip to Africa but they found that the libretto and parts could not be secured for less than 125 which with the elaborate costuming necessary rendered it out of the question ques-tion The Geisha was thought of but George Lask of the Tivoli wrote demolishing de-molishing that idea stating that his house had to pay royalties of 5000 for six weeks rendition to Augustin Daly this is the trouble with anything new or novel the terms are simply prohibitive prohibi-tive and not till an opera has had a great deal of the first bloom worn off it in the east can it be secured for presentation pre-sentation by amateurs The company are now discussing The Queens Lace Handkerchief Madam Favart Oli vette The Black Hussar Nell Gwynne and several others An immediate im-mediate choice will have to be made if the company accepts Manager Bur tens invitation to play Washingtons birthday 000 Madame Tavary has been telling the eastern papers why she quit opera and went into vaudeville She says Now you will want to know why I stopped I I will tell you It was our chorus people peo-ple They aggravated too much I could not stand them They were the cause of my quittlng grand opera f I could have remained with my company forever but for them she said My last season of grand opera lasted weeks Think of that I was favorably known here and abroad and had beenchosen to sing i3va and Elizabeth Eliza-beth at Bayreuth It was all these chorus people They are slouchy and without vestige ambition Like doss that tri to tear the hand that feeds them they haVe no thought of others They are jealous qf each other of their star of every one The manager who pays them fs their worst enemy They know no duty toward him and seemingly seem-ingly no desire save to ruin him When there is a big house they figure up what < it amounts to and grow mutinous muti-nous They think of his gains but not of his risks nor of his losses and they become sulkY Often through spite they spoil a performance They gather in their little clans and eat sausage drink beer and breed mischief That is all they have to do If they had consciences con-sciences they would have to walk around the block once or twice before drawing their salaries There is nothing noth-ing In their lives except German beer Like the lower animals they have no thoughts beyond getting up eating breakfast drinking eating luncheon idling eating dinner drinking doing a little work and then going to bed The musicians In the orchestra are just as bad I had my own company for three years I could stand the work and the travel but not the choruses At rehearsal I would tell them one thing arid at once they would do another an-other As to slouchiness ah we would give them the best of costumes so that the effect would be splendid and they would come in like sheep half asleep with their wigs all on one side their faces badly made up and their clothes gaping at every button Their shoes needed blacking and their hands cleaning clean-ing They had no pride none In cases where they appeared as soldiers the effect ef-fect was disheartening My manager carried hundreds of trunks of costly armor and when these fools got into it they looked I simply absurd They seemed lost When there were scenes where there was no singing only the chorus to look at as in the intermezzo in Cavalleria Rusticana or the throne scene in Tannhauser the sight offended the eye Pleading did no more good than scolding anil fines only provoked pro-voked anger And the next morning the papers would come out and comment com-ment savagely upon the disreputable looking chorus It drove me out of the businessit drove Emma Juch outIt drove Grau out Qpera is dead and the Germans have killed it American choruses are so very different dif-ferent They are composed of ladies and gentlemen who have their hopes and ambitions and are willing to work for them An American girl would sooner be dead than badly dressed They always look Chic neat and natty They are full of life and dash and go I have often seen comic operas and envied the Stars for their choruses You cannot get Americans to sing grand opera I had threeor four in my en itre company but even these showed the difference in nations If I gave an American woman and a German one a new costume at the same time you would think that I had been unfair when they were returnedthe one spotless spot-less and the other unfitfor use When a gentleman from this Country got a spot on his coat he did not rest until it was scrubbed off They know what is required of them and quickly and quietly they do it But the rest faugh 000 Harry Corson Clarke in addition to settling down as a married man will soon blossom out as a theatrical proprietor pro-prietor He expects to head his own company in the near future and has already written to Salt Lake to learn what the chances are of putting in some time at the Grand < 5 > < S > 0 The holiday brought prosperity to the Lyceum as well as to the theatre and it is pleasant to record that Mr Lind says matinee of Shylock as well as his night performance of Richelieu went to full houses While there was not the crush that was witnessed at the theatre the audiences were the heaviest of the week and though the total receipts of the seven performances will not mount to a dizzy height they will probably yield a profitas the oup i I porting company is not an expensive r l one Mr Lindsay played in both pieces with his accustomed strength and I vigor 0 < 5 > < S > I Last Monday night in San Francisco I saw the opening of the Columbia the 1 Baldwin and the California under one s management that of Friedlander Co who are also proprietors oil the Frawley company Their success or nonsuccess will mean a good deal to Salt Lake which must in future depend for its amusement largely on their policy I pol-icy in regard to bringing eastern at 1 1 t tractions across the continent 000 The uncertainties of the theatrical profession could not be more strikingly illustrated than in the career of A M Palmer once the head of the famous Union Square company and the manager man-ager who brought out The Two Orphans Or-phans in the United States Mr Palmer Pal-mer used to be a very rich man but it is different with him now He Is working work-Ing for Richard Mansfield on a salary One of the luxuries indulged in by Palmer in his palmy days was a divorce di-vorce and a court order to pay his ex wife 250 a month He has just been successful in having this alimony cut down to 100 a month Mrs Palmer was divorced from her husband in 1883 and had been separated from him for nine years prior to that time She lives abroad At the time the divorce was granted A M Palmer was one of the wealthiest and most successful of the New York managers Since then I fortune has been less kind to him and in his affidavit asking for the reduction he alleges that he is 75000 in debt and receives a weekly salary from Mr Mansfield of 150 which is his sole source of Income Mrs Palmer that was is said to have saved about 20000 out of the money she has already obtained ob-tained from her former husband The reduction was granted by Justice Andrews An-drews of the New York supreme court last week 000 Lyceum theatre week of Jan 3 the Lindsay company will play The Merchant Mer-chant of Venice Monday Tuesday and Wednesday Damon and Pythias Thursday Friday and Saturday and Don Caesar de Bazan for Saturday matinee 000 The Portland Oregonian says Arrangements Ar-rangements are nearly completed for a combination of all the theatres between Portland and St Paul under the control con-trol of the Northwest Theatrical association asso-ciation of which Cal Heilig of Portland Port-land is general manager < S > 0 < 3 > The Salt Lake Dramatic company which recently produced Harvest will soon be seen again in J Pilgrim Simpsons Broken Ties to be preceded preced-ed by a new romantic play Fennel Miss Ruth Eldredge and Miss Claire Ferguson appear in this production Stage Whispers Charles Hoyts new comedy A Day and a Night had its initial presentation in Detroit last week Otis Harlan played the leading role Stuart Robson opened in The Juckllns Monday night in San Francisco The play was received favorably but not with great enthusiasm Letters of administration were granted last week to John Drew on the estate of his mother the late Mrs John Drew The estate is worth about 3200 Nat Goodwin has postponed his prom ised production of Nathan Hale Ho may well hesitate before taking a plunge into the heroic or romantic Julia A Herne daughter of James A Herne appeared last week in Washington as Heen Berry in Shore Acres replacing re-placing Marion Cullen at several performances perform-ances The Denver Stock Opera company pro duced Erminie last week the American Theatre Stock Opera company New York Continued on Page 15 DRAMATIC AND l RlCI Continued from page 11 opened in Tho Queens Ldce Handkerchief Handker-chief Nat Goodwin was seized with a sudden illness and had to take a night off in New York last week v Maude Odell for a numberof years a member of the Lyceum Theatre company com-pany will originate one of the leading roles in Joseph Arthurs ndw drama The Salt of the Earth The report of Kathryn Kidders failure is a matter of regret Few actresses had her pluck and courage in producing plays a fact fully attested by her presentation of Madame Sans Gene The Christmas number of the New York Dramatic Mirror is this year a beauty in design and makeup but we would say its contents are hardly up to the standard 1 set by the Mirror in previous years i A welcome bit of gossip comes from London that Robert Taber the husband I of Julia Marlowe is in high favor with Henry Irving Mr Taber has long had a good reputation for staging plays and Mr Irving is using his valuable services in the production of Peter the Great the play written by Mr Irvings son which will be put on before long in Lon donMore More than passing interest should at tach to the appearance here in The Sporting Duchess of Mr J H Stoddard says the St Louis GlobeDemocrat It may not be generally known but Mr Stoddard has turned his 72nd yeqr and is still hale and hearty Just at present Mr Stoddard is cherishing perhaps one of the pleasantcst dreams of his life Every day finds him building newer hopes around his appearance next season In Ian MacLarens Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush The turning of the public Interest to the simple Scotch stories like this one I and The Little Minister In which Miss Maude Adams has made a success as a star has been commented upon Per haps no actor before the American nub lic Is so fitted as is Mr Stoddard to at tempt the broad dialect of the Scots He comes from that country and studied his profession in Glasgow before coming to America