Show r CARLETONS NANON j A Jlclifflitlul PerformanccJUr Oih Little Speech 1 It needed no advance puff to draw out Ii a big audience at the Theatre last night to witness the performance of Nanon I by the Carleton Opera Company as the remembrance of the success that the company scored hero in the fall of 188o was sufficient guarantee for this Had anew a-new opera been the bill it is doubtful doubt-ful that more than half as many persons would have been present pres-ent as the remembrance of Mondays nights performance would I have been a big drawback but the public knew what to expectthey knew the opera and they knew the artists who were to handle it and were therefore justified in expecting a genuine treat Carleton himself shows to the very best advantage in this piece and he shows good judgment in keeping on his repertoire as the leading opera The music and acting are both well suited to his style and he seems to know just how to handle both in the most winning manner The part of Nanon which was done so admirably before by Miss Vincent was of course given to Miss Rice and although but little could be expected from that ladys voice the opera did nov suffer much by the change Miss Vincent sings the part to perfection but Miss Rice is such an ideal Nanon that her vocal defect de-fect can readily be overlooked She has the same charming rollicking way which won the hearts of all the boys when she first appeared here and nothing more was expected of her Greenfelder Miss Wisdom and the rest of the company were up to the mark and the opera went off with all the smooth vim which first won for it the high favor of the Salt Lake public The little speech which Mr Careton made at the end of the play was in questionable ques-tionable taste If the gentleman was wronged by the accusations of the morning morn-ing paper which charged him with fraud a card in that sheet or in all the papers would have set the matter right But this was not what Mr Carleton wanted His darling Erminie had been adversely criticised and knew that the only way to make things right was to work an old plan of his which he has often of-ten before used so successfully on a Salt Lake audience No matter what the occasion oc-casion is Mr Carleton makes it a point to come before the curtain in his pretty stage clothes and thank the publicfortheir warm reception their generous patronage pat-ronage and the flattering compliments compli-ments they extended to him He has a happy way of making an audience think that he loves each and every one of them and they in turn say aint he sweet and all is smooth sailing The scheme worked to perfection last evening and not only was the audience blinded but even the Trombone with the sore remembrance of that little incident of 1884 looks out through the wool that Carleton drew over its eyes and practically practi-cally apologizes If anyone thinks that Carleton made his speech for any other purpose than to counteract the bad uu pression made by Erminie he is badly fooled Yesterdays DEMOCRAT said nothing I against Mr Carleton or his troupe but it did say and repeats it now that Ermi nie is the thinest thing in the way of a comic opera that has yet bepn palmed off on a Salt Lake audience In his speech Mr Carleton tried to make the audience believe that THE DEMOCRAT had made insinuations of dishonesty against him What we did say was simply I sim-ply this which we say again and in which we are backed by at least two thirds of Monday nights audience It will be noticed that it is simply an expression ex-pression of the publics idea of the matter mat-ter The failure of Miss Vincent to appear was the cause of general regret and a great deal of censure Carleton claims that she was obliged to go through to Denver on account of sickness but the public world prefer to think that it had been duped That paragraph contained Carletons version of the matter and the public version oPthe matter and because the latter does not agree with the former he gets on his ear and makes one of his soft little speeches THE DEMOCRAT neither said nor inferred in-ferred anything against Mr Carleton yesterday but since he presses the matter let him answer this In his overwhelming anxiety to do justice to his Salt Lake patrons why didnt Mr Carleton announce in Monday Mon-day evenings papers the fact of Miss Vincents inability to appear In the same said o a to do the square thing why did the gentleman fail to decide de-cide that he could not produce Drum Majors Daughter until he discovered that the public would not stand being gulled It will be sad news to William to learn that his softsoap speech did not work on every one iu the audience If anyone can prescribe a remedy for this mans wondrous selfconceit he will do an everlasting ever-lasting favor to those who purchased seats in advance N f ced |