The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 13, 1900, Page 9

COMBINATION OF THE THE DUKE OF REIC] AND FARNNY ’A‘*E AC BERNHARDT, wit n,” Rostand’'s latest has subjugated Paris. author, the very in volume and inten- succeeding perform- e, Europe, Britain and are flocking to Paris der and experience the e fin de siecle stage. ngements are being fected, and the best talent produce the play else- Continental Europe, Great America. season ended, Bern- Coquelin will star the h “L’Aiglon” and ppearing in each > ANOTHER is assured, but how “L’Aiglon” out- de Adams, for i Will the pathetic ng son of Napoleon, mn and acted, uccess presence even she enthusiasm in Madrid, B n, or even New Y as done in Paris? ct carries an swered by French- kely provoke n outside of s made to great Bernhardt h woman. How from _the ned Parisian hich is whole sutside of the \ig incomparable Sarah Bernhardt, who re- ft r arnates the Duke of Reic and 1 self incapaple perfect art analyze. One Her impersonation of i»';ulh E ears to m The Staging. scenes and most dramatic n the order in which The Count nished to find that the rs which they used in previously clad in were transformed into »es of the grand army. rk of Flambard, a_vete n of the empire, who, disguised as a domestic in order to be near the son of his master, made the transformation wakening the youth from ization of METTER- e chamber in the grenadier, hed in his old hinders Metter- from entering. 1E GRENADIER— Duke has started for France after a her, and on the battlefield of Wagram, the scene of his father's most glorious victory, he is surprised by Metternich’s soldiers and po- lice. Flambard. not able to survive the it o tand's downfall of his hopes and unwilling to fall not new to Bernhardi, in into the hands of the Austrians, stabs sortunities were given her himself. The Duke is left alone with him, tation of forces, of whose and as he addresses the dying man and h the Duke reposes d cap-a-ple and cl rm ., worn by victor; u nich, ste Vhile the interpretation of F d's rk was for the mani 3 l'\;ostapd — €’Aiglop — Berphardt. THE GRAND THEATRICAL MARIE LOUISE OF AAPOLEON T CENTURY aments him darkness comes on. The bat- eld on which he stands becomes fiilled rious clamors, the voices of the up in protest to his ears mbition of his father. It is e of glory, but nothing can ol. A shout arises of pereur!” and the cries of the E drowned in the rolling of ns and the wild plaudits of the peo- DEATH OE THE DUKE OF STADT—The " last scene is very btit hardly capable_of arousini itself. Yet Rostan dramatic. The unfor- Napoleon Iz expiring in the arms of his m . In his he seizes . the one decorated by Prudhomme, which had been given to him as King of Rome by the city of Paris. As his life spark goes out he has the Hun- garian General Hartmann, in full uniform, ad aloud to him the act of his baptism, alling to the audience the glorious s of KFrance's proudest days. The result can better pe imagined than de- scribed, . What the Critics Say. From the very first the dramatic critics were unanimous in recognizing the high, poetic and dramatic value of the play. Yet they differed much in their measure of the work and its author. Some de- clared it inferfor to “Cyrano de Ber- * “while others pronounced “L’'Alglon” quite superior to that wonder- fully successful production. Bernhardt herself, with the well-ma- tured experience of thirty-elght years of histrionic study and triumphs, well quali- fied to measure “L'Alglon’” with the scores of other plays that she knows as no one else does, is most ardent in her praise of the young author. “Admirable! Wonderful! My relations with him fill me with gratitude. He is the master and 1 am the instrument. I thank God that he has let me be alive now to interpret a part at least of what his great genius will pro- duce. If Rostand were to die it would be a calamity to mankind, for he is ging a new period in the drama, a n. wholesome period.” This was when' she was yet studying and rehears- ing the play. The functions of the critics are now void. The great Parisian playgoing public has rendered its verdict. THE SUNDAY CALL. harvests In the man: nelds tEat ““Cyrano™ opened to Rostand's sickle. The Stor§y of L’Aiglon. “My birth and my death. [ DEATH OF THE DUKE OF R AS ACTED BY SARAH BERANHARDT IN ROSTANDS NEW DRAMA There is my And “L'Alglon” is rushing to reap golden whole story!” was the pitiful wail of the Lemaire Says of Bernhardt. Hippolyte + «Tt 15 very difficult to judge - this role, outside of the in- comparable Sarah Bernhardt, who reincarnates the Duke of Reichstadt.” ® L o i e {ll-starred son of the g!‘w Napoleon as he lay on his death bed at the age of twenty-one. As far as it concerned the historlan or affected the course of events of his own time he spoke most truly. He came into the world when the star of his father, the ‘“‘Great Eagle” among men, THE DEATH OF THE GRENADIER ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF WAGRAM - NAANE OF THE MOST STRIKING SCENES OF was well in its zenith. Thot he EICHSTADT mixnc have an heir to his throne that ambitious, imperfous father had enacted the great- est individual wrong of his life—put away the unfortunate Josephine and wedded Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. 9 His hopes were realized. A 801 Was bOrn @uimiiviniuiniefuiniuinininininlnlnmininini @ ;3;'111;7; on March 20, 1811. It was a day of - Sarah Bernhardt Says of Rostand. Many have been the tales told of the childnood days of the voung King of Rome passed in Paris, and of the Tre- semblance, in feature and manner, to his father, but these have little to do with the moving tale which Rostand has put n_play. The dramatist takes up the tale at a later period, and deals not with the King of Rome, or Napoleon II, but with the Duke of Reichstadt, whom he calls “L’Alglon” (The Little Eagle). The action of the play lies at the Aus- trian court of Vienna, whither the mother of the young ng was sent, with him, at the instance of the allled powers, after Waterloo. His father went a prisoner to far-off sea-girt St. Helena, and the King of Rome went to a virtual imprisonment Under the eye of the astute Metternich, at Schonbrunn, the palace of his good old grandfather, Francis Joseph. Four days after Waterloo his father, in a last vain effort to stay the resistless tide that had “I thank God that he has let me be alive now to be the interpreter of at least a part of what this great genius will produce.” 1 OO Y ] his stead with the title of Napoleo To this the a’ £ eyt attention tha had proclaimed and crowned hi “name,” however, still had its was as hated as ever, and t as far as possible for t of the Emperor of th from Paris to Vienna ing but now {3 B el and as the gran Austria took u created for him by ! was reared on graves of th he had been known befor: while importa person the atten- was a non- outside w historian. He entity as far as the affected, and Mettern should 3 to make him forget the pas sometimes came dimly back to be at the suggestion of his mother. On one occasion old, he sald to his grandfa did I not have pages leve you had, my Emperor. “And s it not t called the King of Rome?" the answer from 1 the child pieasan recollec The boy had his tu proper age an the science, for which he evinced considerable neared his of Napoleon, Emy £ tr of Marie_Louise, Archduche: born at Paris. March 2, 181 his cradle with the title of In the flower of his age, end the qualities of mind and be posing stature, of noble and countenance, of an exquisite gra guage, remarkable for his aptitude for military instruction he was attacked by a cruel phthisis. and a most carried him off in the chates ROSTANDS NEwW DRAMA LAIGLOAN. overwhelmea him and his ambitious )eror at Schonbrunn, near Vienna, 234 of dreams of empire, and save to his son July, 1832." something of what he had purchased at “ilv birth and my death. There is my such fearful cost to France and humanity, story.” abdicated the imperial throne, in favor of Scant foundation for the play that has his son, whom he proclaimed’ Emperor in most moved France during the century.