Show The Grand Duchess Notwithstanding the extremely unfavorable un-favorable condition of the weather there was a goodaized audience at the Theatre last night the occasion I of the presentation of the Grand Duchess by Prof A C Smyths juvenile troupe In order to appreciate appre-ciate fully the great labor attending the getting i up ol tbia piece by ohiO dren u IB necessary 10 rememoer what a difficult and intricate opera the Grand Duchess is it is no Pinafore of easy jolly flowing melodies but a genuine opera with acting and singing which to give properly requires ability pt a high order In the piece given last night while melody is abundant all the beauties of harmony are worked up which can only be given so as to bo understood by accurate reading of the numbers Besides this Pinafore Pina-fore can be played in an hour and a half or two hours while the Grand Duchess requires three and a half to fuur hours Some idea of Mr Smyths undertaking may therefore be bad In view of these things the performance last evening was a genuine success and possessed of merit apart from the wonder created to see so difficult a piece performed by such young persons The lines i and business were well committed I I and no hitches ensued from this cause or from any other and what II was more surprising than anything else was the manner in which the petite performers kept in tune a I thing of great difficulty to persons with cultivated voices and accustomed to public singing They also kept good time and the whole performance was meritorious and reflects the greatest credit on the gentleman to whose patience and untiring efforts its perfection is due A noteworthy and particularly pleasing feature of the entertainment was the march in the third act by two companies soldiers the orchestra playing while the Liliputian warriors went through the drill The entire third act was especially good Little Miss Maggie Freeze sustained the leading character admirably appearing ap-pearing periectly at home and showing marked improvement since her last appearance Without de ring to slight any or to be too general gen-eral it is simply necessary to class all together and say they did surprisingly wellThe The situations were well gotten up the characters as a rule veIl dressed and the orchestral part beautiful Mr Smyth had the orchestral numbers num-bers so arranged as to make a succession suc-cession of the most beautiful airs and is a very attractive feature of the entertainment The applause was frequent loud and long all through A matinee performance will be given this afternoon and the little ones should be allowed to go and witness wit-ness the entertainment |