The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 10, 1903, Page 46

THE €AN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 10, 1908. Edw st the cheap bete noire—for a month, . raw- lance basin on e br his six feet som g of kness draped & armor, and ve a Don Quixote e recognized from Toboso to sco. True, there is none of manticis the deliciously thusiasms the gentle Don Stevens at home, but how he k the part! Perhaps—who is the role designed for the & his coming two years with asco? But we anticipate. thought cl . Christopher ewise O Gemini! and all what a comic opera could be buflt rdid old Don, with & Mo- & Wagner of *“Die or Verdi of the he handle! Beau- ) years ago gave ht be done with “The Knight of hard Strauss such about the spl & Ross Meiste Spanish is Cervantes, y concerning him- 2 & la Ibsen—by way « s thing will be ¢ wever be hoped while ens is st usly blooming, for to have en amusing time,” self, as I happened upon is, par excel- f tradition—the mime enance & rather melancholy a in which , “The his conception a warm discus- at some of the of losing tragic op- part, while the rest of defended your conception.” Stevens began, eye dispensing s—many of the: of a part differs from heaven knows how, g r for & moment stop elves if the actor may not about it than they 1dying the character perhaps longer, it that he can get, en't reasonable to suppose that at he does is done at least intelligent- Now ‘Telephone’ mean. He is ss man, ebout like myself— te, loves his wife, loves his s his children. He is mot e, not given to the more or less d speech that we see gs and fit to stage. when he hears princes on the ¥ by the way, end the murder of his wife &nd child over the ‘phone he can only ex- press his horror in the dumb, unpracticed words of his kind of man. pleyed him that way. But some of nted the sock and buskin s2id T had missed great s. I think not.” It is & frightful story.” I commented. “Yes, and 1 had all the horrors of it mance”—with a reminis- 5. Pven at the rehearsal the used to sob end shriek. I think are not fit for stage presenta- Stevens concluded. His pale, seemed to gather a ash In the remembrance, and gray of his gardb added ness of things. Then 1 savingly remembered his Wang @nd the Marquis Imari and took heart very imprc different stuff from ‘The Geisha,’ 11 saw you—you do so many * I suggested. me the seesaw artist,” 11l unsmilingly. “Munsey cal Btevens owned. W ning engineerin the actor unex- edly replied, and after a permissive nod from me lighted his cigarette. “I 100k to the stage after the Apaches broke me in business down in Arizona, and etopped on it because 1 couldn't get tell about the Indians,” I said, for- the dampness. vens smiled in solemn sort nereally and said: “It was Jowle, and they were putting up when the Apaches happened The fort was a comic opera sort € n guns among forty people there was a stable- that proved a treas- fortifications of it—it was and then fought among he guns. The gunless then nselves with sausages, and the s with Limburge @ gone too fa I laughed. emiled again. s practically true, just the he mournfully averred. *I did erything through the Indians and came up here end went on the comic opera, as I ‘sung a little It happened—luckily or not, ke to put it—that the barytone Alice Oat Opera Company, then t the California Theater, fell 1l position and went East with the tever story that your first public appear- - drawled Mr. Stevens. “I had been foisted by a loving parent upon the church social ever since I was so high (gravely measuring off about two of his #ix feet) to the tremendous interest of everybody concerned except the public. And I had been brutally dragged from the Joys of tally-ho and hockey to ‘sing for the ladies.’ So I was not unused to mak- ¢ an exhibition of myself.” hose early joys were in California, I “l am a native son,” with inobvious pride in the fact. “That is why I am here now. We—my wife and I—came out particularly to see her mother and min who both live here.” 5 “It was not for ourselves alone then?” “Ob, 1 should prefer to lve in Calitor- oo — - i ACEEE & 27, Bttt ;vm«w.mumh 2 RIS e L e T LS S R Sl e e e et A nia if I could make as good living hers,” Mr. Stevens remarked, with what in him must be counted exceptional enthusiasm. “Did your early Tivoll history here come after the Alice Oates period?” I re- verted. “I had a Tivoli of my own in Portland before then,” the barytone-comedian-tra- gedian-manager replied, Grand opera, t00?"” *‘Satanella’ was the ‘grandest, he quaintly put it, and gravely blew out & coiumn of smoke that touched the cell- ing—as long as the amazing note he used to convulse us with in “The Geisha.” “There are more things I don’t know about you, Mr. Stevens,” I hesitated, then plunged: “You have done serious k— the ‘legitimate.’ ™ “Would you ecall Hamlet serious, or Tago?” with mild enjoyment. “You might safely mention the Shakespearean reper- toire as among my experiences. You see, 1 was with W. E. Sheridan at the Cali- fornia here in most of the Shakespeare plays. Then I had three years with Augustin Daly.” “That must have been delightful.” “With Daly? Oh, no!” and Mr. Stevens became here almost decided. “There was no enjoyment in an engagement with Daly, so far as Daly went. He seemed to be happy only in humiliating you. You never knew where you stood with him. After you had had some little triumph with the public and the critics you would think to yourself, ‘At least now he must be pleased,” but he would show his pleas- ure by giving you the part of a footn:an in the next play. To get on comfortadly with Daly you had to be absolutely ser- vile—to sink your manhood completely. Even then you got nothing but an uncer- tain peace.. He always reminded me of a Mephisto. There was the case of James Lewis, a comedian that all the New York managers were fighting for. But Daly had so impressed his personality upon Lewis that be was afraid to leave bim, and he died at Daly’s.” “It must have been pleasant, though, tc be among all thoss clever people,” I ventured. “Yes,” Stevens granted. “And it is a rather pleasant professional record to have made to have succeeded James Lew- is when he died, and a satisfaction also to have been concerned with the highest and best of American dramatic art.” “Daly, at any rate, was a distinguished producer of plays.” “Exceptionally ®0,”” he granted again, “and a tremendously clever coach. Look at Ada Rehan. He taught her every ‘if,’ ‘and’ and ‘but’ of her art, and when he dled she died. Once or twice he permitred her to try out her own conceptions— wouldn't give her a word or hint on them. I give you my word they were most ex- traordinary failures.” Then we got talking of the difference in values between the Magda and the Mrs. Tanqueray of Mrs. Campbell, whom Mr. Stevens believes to be the Rehan of Pinero so far as “The Second Mrs. Tan- queray” goes. “Women are not unusually analysts,’ he decided. “Mrs. Campbell's Magda is her own, her Mrs. Tanqueray Pinero's, which accounts for the difference.” “And whose are her Beata and Aunt Jeannie?’ was my next question, lost in space. “One of my pleasantest experiences was with Charles Frohman,” the actor went on, this time without catechism. “I have been with Frohman in the Empire Stock Company for four years and only left him at Christmas. My only trouble there was that being versatile and get- ting a large salary, Frohman was com- pelied to use me In parts not always suitable.” - “That will not happen when you go with Belasco next season?” Then Mr. Stevens’ six feet all wakened up, to the tune of a Belasco dithyramb that must have made that manager's left ear burn even in New York. “It is the actor's dream to get with Belasco,” he said. “He is Daly’s only successor, an ab- solutely independent manager. He has the most artistically beautiful theater in New York to begin with. He spares no expense to make his productions perfect, carrles the thing even to extremes. If a gold cup is called for, the cup must be gold, not gilded. His ways with his actors are wonderful. In this, the great success of the last season, ‘The Darling of the Gods, for example, he first fell in love with the character of the War Minister. Before the play was finished he was hunting round for the man for the part. Then when he had him, the role was fitted, smoothed, patted over every little characteristio knob the man had— even to his size. So throughout the entire cast.” “What part are you designed for first?" “Mr. Belasco has not yet said, but I know it will fit,” the actor sald con- tentedly. “It seems to my inexperience, Mr. Btév- ens, that you should be pretty well satis- fled with the profession.” “You think so0?” he queried, and again faded into dejection. Then dismally, “I have everything I want, I suppose—" ““Well, what more—"" “Oh, there comes a day when they say you are too old,” he anticipated, “‘some younger man will come and kick you out and where are you then?”’ “There is no need of crossing a bridge until you come to it.” I wedge into the situation, “and you people of the large salary should be prepared for the rainy day.” It is so easy to talk! ““What does the large salary mean?” he asked in return. ‘“You have say $200 a week. Your season is mostly only thirty- five weeks in length, eight of the weeks in your own home in New York. That is §7000 a year. Now, out of it you buy ail of your wardrobe, there are your hotel i, EDWIN STEVENS, FAR-FAMED AS A COMEDIAN, TALKS LUGUBRIOUSLY OF THE CAREER OF AN ACTOR. TR R e o o P R o RY LS, w3 E U7 ., Sadee, B AT RS RERT [ 50 o _ bills and entertaining. About the hotels. One's health in the profession is one's dominant care. When that goes, every- thing goes. It Is your chief asset. There- fore you cannot economize on your hotel at the expense of your stomach—if you can't eat you can't work, and who can eat in the cheap hotels? If Stuart Rob- son had not been sent on the one-night stand route by his managers, with all its terrors of cheap hotels, he wouldn't be a dead man to-day.” ““So bad as that?” “All of it,” with doleful enthusiasm. Then there’s the entertaining. We stage folk are thrown with people who have every luxury-of life, and any one of gentle instincts, any pride, and the habit of reci- procity will not permit all the entertain- ing to be on one side. Then we inevitably form somewhat luxurfous habits. If my millionaire friend leaves his automobile with me for six or seven months while he goes to Europe, it's likely I shall form the auto habit. The only thing is that if I wanted it, I'd get it. I haven’'t got a pointed chin for nothing,” and Mr. Btevens stroked the end of what he had humorously termed his “battleax counte- nance.” “There is a way of managing by put- ting a little by every week—I've done it by insurance. You'll let the meat bill go by, but the insurance is ltke a jackpot— you've got to put in again to make good. © “So you don’t advise the stage as a means of livelthood?” With depressing solemnity Mr. Stevens rose to remark: “No. When any one asks us—my wife and I—whether to take to the boards or not, we say, ‘don’t,’ emphati- cally, don't.” And I'm still ‘:vnd.-dnf why? David Belasco, in - announcing his theatrical plans for next season, says that he will make a spectacular produc- tion, entitled “Humpty Dumpty,” at a New York theater that will outshine any- thing of the sort that has been done here. The project will involve an outlay of $300,000. This and ‘““The Truth Tellers” will be ihe manager's greatest productions nex® year. The spectacular play will be done about the holidays. Mr. Belasco plans, too, the production of ‘“Macbeth” next season, with Mrs. Leslie Carter as Lady Macbeth. . . Kirke La Shelle has made arrangements with the Neill-Frawley (California) stock company for the production of “The Bon- nle Brier Bush” and Augustus Thomas’ “Arizona” in Australia this summer. Mile. Dolores Concerts Mille. Antonia Dolores will arrive here from Australia on the 15th inst.,, and our musical public are awaliting with great in- terest her concerts in this city. Rarely has a singer made so many friends and admirers as has this clever young artist, and with each trip here her art has made wonderful strides. To-day she is consid- ered one of the great concert sopranos. Her programme for her first concert is particularly Interesting and includes * Prayer” from Puccini’s “La Tosca’ “Shadow Dance,” frgm Myerbeer's norah”; recitative and aria, “Let Me ‘Wander,” by Handel, besides songs by Rosa, Scarlattl, Buononcini, Rubinstein, Liza Lehmann, Paladile, Massenet and others. By speclal request the artist will also sing “‘Lo! Hear the Gentle Lark,” by Bishop, with flute obligato played by Louis Neubauer of the Tivoli orchestra. Robert Clarance Newell, the well-known planist, will play a number of novelties, including variations on an original theme by Pachulski, and numbers by the young Russian composers Grodzky and Arensky. This concert, which will be given on ‘Wednesday night, May 29, at the Alham- bra Theater, will be for the benefit of the building fund of the California Club, and the ladies of the club are using everx ei-~ S regards novelty and distinc- tion of Interest the last cert of the Twentieth Ce Club, May 2 con- was well the high level ) fairs have so far rea Half of the programme was g over to Walter Ha: Thorley, wh peared In the double role and planist, and with curlously differ- ing success. Mr. Thorley’s cholce a plano subject fell upon the Schumann G. minor sonata, which struck me as being peculiarly forelgn to his genre. Romantic of the romantics, without t» pliant fancy, fervor and lofty tendernees that distinguished his gentus, Schumann can be made pecullarly uninteresting and 80 becomes in Mr. Thorley's hands. Not only on the side of sentiment are the planist’s Schumann readings lacking. That other so characteristic Schumann, him of the gripping rhythms and mll tant phrase, becomes hers a colorles: even characterless person. Pu poetry, passion, in short, tle wanting in Mr. Thorley tions, and what i{s Schumann where these are not? Apart from planistio virtues, the playe: sincere, his planism admirab unsentimental in outline, an t academically correct. Thers was not a dropped note, a misplaced accent, nor a scamped phrase from end to end of his performance. Mr. Thorley’s deficlencies as a planist mposer gather interest from his very genuine and important gifts as a composer. He here proves himself to be possessed of a virile fancy, temperament, poetry, gorous a dramatie genius and thorough ship. The composer was T two groups of one very badly sun by Signor Wa the other charmingly handled by Mrs. Northrup. Of songs, the dramat! ne, “Der T the Lessing text), is b d most important. ItAs very stiff affalr, but n rendering was ab inadequate. wretched English was n the least of his sins. F it was quite evident a remarkable song, st the musical t g to the gloom and gran Of the other two bas: basso happily len Gifeln, and Schone,” the first s grace distinctive, the second seem usual lyrical value—y mains after the singer's per: Mrs. Northrup, who st Flynn in the soprano day’s notice, aca usual spirit and ite little Iyric is Blume,” the first of her song neous, vocally grateful and c effective. It has something of th quality, and its text is well by the composer himself from He successful, though more ambi ‘Where'er I Go,” with its rather forced dramatic vein; but the whole series of ter songs shows Mr. Th as a composer of quite exceptional m The club's efforts for the afternoon con- cerned themselves chiefly th the naive old “Passion Musik’ of Heinric! “the father of German m at Kostritz, Saxony, 1 telligently annotated programme info ed one. Very clearly are the later 3 del and Bach foreshadowed in this sturdy forerunner of theirs, with his stern purity of contour and pervading devotional at- mosphere. As to the rendering of the work, under Wallace A. Sabin’s iIntelli- gent direction, there was a good deal to be desired. The most beautiful effort of the kind that it has béen my pleasure to hear for somse time was that of the little chorus that Oscar Well gathered together at Hearst Hall a few weeks ago. Most- ly amateurs, these singers, too, in the Barnby Easter hymn particularly, but throughout their programme, they achieved & finish, a rare beauty and just- ness of result that must have satiafled even the exacting baton of their leader. It is the ideal to which the Twentieth Century Cludb is striving and in part has already attalned. But there will have to be & much sterner degree of attention to the leader before this desirable goal is reached. No more than a conductor may & chorister keep his head burfed in the score, and this grave mistake was made by not a few of the singers, with the inevitable consequence of shipshod en- semble and careless attack. But thers was evident In the work the same charm- ing freshness, spirit, earnestne: ence that have befors marked forts and that are the dest warrant for the club’s future. Of the solo roles Mr. ‘Wedemeyer rather ponderously but ef- fectively sang the part of Jesus—surpris- ingly a basso, Mr. McMillan was useful and sincers as the Evangelist (tenor), and Miss Wheeler conscientiously handled the part of Judas. The other choral numbers were “To Us is Born Immanuel,” and “Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming,” by M. Praetorius, 1609. A spirited and® temperamental ren- dering of the Tartin! violin senata in G major by Mrs. Robbins and Mrs. Lathrop completed the interesting afternoon. @ irimiiiieiieinni i fort to make the affalr a tremendous suc- cess. On Saturday afternoon, May 23, Mille. Dolores will give the only matinee concert that she will have time for on this trip, and on Sunday night she wiil give a grand farewell sacred and special request concert. Requests for an ar- titular numbers for that night d be addressed to Will L. Greenba care Sherman, Clay & Ce., where boX- office for the sale of seats for her pear- ances will open Monday, May 1 Mlle. Dolores’ first programme will be as fol- (c) *“Per La Glort Plano, variations sur une Theme Originelle, Op. 1 P: ulskt Recitative, a Seuls Enfin’” Aria, “Plus grand dans mon obscurite’ eee.(“La Reine de, Saba™) Gounod Mile. Dolores. Dol eee...S. Bennett .-A. Rubinstein .Liza Lehmann ) (c) “Oh, Tell Mi Valse, ““Dinorah’ Mile: Piano, (a) Barcarole (b) Basso Ostinat ““Preghiera i To: (a) “Chanson Ru: (b) “Serenade du Pas Mile. Dol “Ride of the Valkyrie eiihass 3 veevnees. Wagner-Taussig e Wander G. F. Handel special _re- 2o Bishop Louls Neubauer Piano, “obiigato by I Mme. Eugenia Mantelll, the well-known contralto, is to make her first visit to Cal- ifornia this month, appearing in a series of operatic recit such as those which she has won fame on three co: tinents. She will appear in costume m excerpts from a number of the famillar operas, such as “Carmen,” “The Barber of Seville,” “Samson and Deiilah,” “The Husuenots,” “Faust” and “Mignon™ -