Show AMUSEMENTS II THE OPERA COMPANYAn operatic oper-atic first night in a musical city like deal even Salt Lake means a great though it does come in the heart of the Lenten season last night the wealth brilliance fashion and beauty of the city was crammed between the four walls of the theatre to greet the Ta vary company the crush around the doors from 730 to 815 was terrific and the heat throughout the whole night almost unbearable But crush heat and bad ventilation went as nothing to ventaton an audience hungry for a taste of opera and eager to sit in admiring review on itself and plenty there was to admire The buzz of commenting that went on between the acts was vastly more devoted de-voted to the charming toilettes of the night than to the achievements of the singers What the audience counted up in money i is hard to say probably prob-ably twelve to fourteen hundred dollars dol-lars would be somewhere near the correct cor-rect figures I of The Tavary comoany is made up so many widely varying elements that I it is difficult to fix its exact place in the roll of ooera organizations In seeking for something with l whlch to compare it the mind halts at a middle place between the EmmaAbbott company com-pany and the Emma Juoh organization Mr Charles H Pratt manager of the Tavary company who was one of the partners of the Abbot ppn > any has labored to organize a company much on the same lines as that enterprise he of course has found no woman of Abbotts personality anclDTpopularity and we very much doubt if he ever will but in his organization as a whole notably in his tenor Guille in his soprano Thea Dorre and in his orchestra chestra he has aimed a notch higher than in his former venture I is not pleasant to have to say of an organization organiza-tion headed with the name of a prima donna that that prima donna is not its primo attraction but it is the truth that Guille and Rorre made the undoubted un-doubted hits last night tbe first named for his electrical rendition of high Bs and Cs as the melancholy tenor in Lucia and the latter fpr her passionate and dramatic rendition of the heroine In Mascagnis tragic opera Perhaps the highest sort of praise we could be stow on Guille is that his singing quite made the audience overlook < every dher drawback As for Dorre she was all that could be picturesque and true to life with a tendency force her voice perhaps but with a warmth and color immensely true and artistic Madam Ma-dam Tavary had the Unpleasant task of singing Lucia against the recollection recollec-tion of Di Murska Gerster and Emma Abbott She has a voicg wonderfully trained and its trills and runs were rarely executed far Jas as as technique goes but truth compels us to say it lacks in warmth and sympathy and is rather hard in quality The crucial scene the mad act and the execution of the exquisite duett with the flute were excellently rendered and the singer won a recall The great sextette too had a hearty encore For the other characters in Lucfa it can be said that the bass work of Signer Abramoff was very good and that the baritone work of Mr Henry was fair why on earth however was so much of his music cut out notably the duett with his sister and the great vengeance ven-geance duett with the tenor The Alice was distinctly weak The gen tleman who sang Arthur was named jn Lucia as Avery and in Rusti cana as Stephens whatever his name he has some good notes and fills the part of Arthur well but not the voice or ability for the tenor role in the other opera the Lola of Madame Ro manl was thoroughly good and the Alfio of Mr Schuster thoroughly bad Why place this gentleman in such a role with Mr Henry on hand and with his loads in wih Lucia so considerably lightened The chorus was both good and indifferent in places in the Rus ticana it was not satisfying The orchestra did some beautiful work and was twenty men strong The leader showed himself an excellent musician and the exquisite inter mezzio which divides the opera instead of a curtain fall in Rusticana was beautifully done This afternoon I Travatore will be the opera with Lichtu as Seonora and Payne Clark a Maurico Tonight Verdis great opera of Aida will be heard for the first time here with wih Guille and Tavary in the principal roles NELLIE MHBNRY The sale for The Bicycle Girl opens this morning HUGH ARDThe advance sale for the Sunday night testimonial to Mr Ward who appears for the last time in the Grand company tonight indicates that there will be a big turnout turn-out of his friends tomorrow evening |