The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 18, 1903, Page 46

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1903, W three radically nd their men- d to pre- her own tears s the clouds Clearly is the base greate tempera- £ that phe. rainmaker makers is James nks in knit and athletic. He is possessed of strong opinions con- bulk and is simply ;/J LRANCEY G5 LIZARR ..... TWO PRETTY MEMBERS OF A LOCAL STOCK COMPANY WHO DURING THE PAST WEE T SORROW AND WHO HAVE MARKED SUCCESS IN THE HEAVY RAIN- MORBID PLAYGOER MUCH SWE FALL FROM MANY SYMPATHETIC EYES. ss”; not disinctined the probability or lack of prob- ined in the lines of the dra- vhose have sup- ally with role to being just to be Bostonian and made her Me” as rears In more, Oper Davidson stock theater in he was with H. Sothern at Daly’'s Theater in New The King’s Musketee and the Sword.” Then she the Egyptian girl, in th Theater, Quayle during which e Sword of the fistress Nell” and Cella in It” Miss Block says that ining was at Wheat- School in New York. man, her pre croft’s Dramatic Her favorite role is that of Maslova in ction.” tarr says that she first appeared company four o t'to New York ue In the Murray Hill stock com- ven before a Ban Francisco au- ce at the Alcazar. 1 am an only child,” she says. “My father is dead. I felt, like any girl, that sld like to do something to support myself. I started in the Bond stock com- 1 with a small part in Albany, in city I was born. Before going into ompany I had appeared in two ur plays t here I am talking about myself. o not like to do that, for it sounds ego- tistical. After the engagement at Albany 1 went to Frohman's stock company in New York, I was three years with the M Hill stock company. You see there is nothing to tell.” In the comparatively short experience of Miss Starr she has played as Phyllis Lee in “The Charity Ball,”” as the horsey girl in “Hearts Aflame,” as Wilbur's Ann Girl I Left Behind Me,” Lisbeth * Sybil in “The Dancing plicity Johnson in “Lovers’ Lydia Languish in “The Rlvals” b= g to hear the three principal in the cast discuss the Lady Bountiful death scene. They calm- ly dissected various phases of Pinero’s play. Seldom is a chance afforded for such frank expressions for the benefit of the public that never goes behind the Starr, who as Margaret dies on said quite simply and directly he was always affected by the death he was frequently moved to real tears by it. It produces fatigue from which she would suffer if she were not turally robust. She believes, she says, that the audi- ence prefers to be sorrowful. Sad books catch the popular fancy. Sad scenes on scene the ge bring out the deepest applause. The deepest weeper is—the matinee girl! She b likes to ery! The first striking and impressive cir- cumstance in the death scene tn “Lady Bountiful” is that the surrountings all indicate poverty. The hero, who was s turned his back married, from the daughter reared in 8 of d L s , a poor gir of a riding ma ter. To them a child is who has been jll for some downstairs to-day for » The bankrupt and feeble of the bride, an old and broken man, ppointed with the world, says in a shaking voice that “it will be like times.” The tearful mother of the wife and the hero-husband perform all the premonitory, little offices of love to make the room more cheerful for the in- alld. They procure the favorite roses from their scanty funds. They place fruit in a dish. The scanty cushions of the house are ered and tucked and patted to make the chair the wife is to sit in seem the softer. When all is r the husband brings in the w n hletic arms and places her in the cushioned chair. The family welcome her. The I 3ounti- ful enters. She oses of th husband and the others aing them away for a time and so the way clear for contributing her large share to the at- mosphere of foreboding The sick wife has been jealous of her. Still is, although she declares to the con- trary She must have the Lady Bounti- her rich attire and in the bloom of ealth stand before her that she may, even in this time of iline e why Lady ul had been loved by her hus- d in his earlier days. Lady Bountiful to her, She draws the feverishly con- —which she reads aloud to the audience—to be given to him by the Lady Bountiful in the event of. her own death. In this she writes that no shadow of her is to come b en the husband and Lady atiful wh e is dead. ‘Often I have a sleep that is not really a sleep,” she says brokenly. “It may be some time so deep that when they come to me I shall not wake up.” Lady Bountiful kisses her, takes the letter, then devotes herself to the new baby in the cradle. She takes from her own neck a costly chain and locket and places the chain around the neck of the baby for a ke sake. She has added about all the gloom she n to the situation so far as m ing mental condition for the audlence is concerned. Then the final scene between the hys- band and wife is prepared and moves for- ward. There is some preliminary conver- sation that leads toward the climax. The pillows are rearranged in the chair for the comfort of the wife. She will lie there and hear Donald talk to the baby, she He will sit where she can see him. From the programme the audience knows that there is a death scene. But Donald must get a pipe to smoke while he talks to the baby. Lighting a pipe is slow work. Finally Donald sits by the cradle and turns it so that the baby can see a clock that has suddenly begun a very loud ticking. The wife looks on and smiles. The hus- band talks cheerily to the baby about the better days to soon come to them all. He is absorbed in this talk—and in smok- ing! : “How loud the clock ticks!”’ denly exclaims. The wife has changed her position. The sleep deeper than sleep” is upon her. Her outstretched hand falls rigidly on the table beside her and remains motionless. Her face becomes drawn and dead. The irrevocable facial change has never been more closelv mimed. Donald goes to her swiftly and touches her hand. ‘“Mag,” he says, hoarsely; “Mag, don't leave me like this.” Then he throws himself down beside his dead wife and his head is on the ta- he sud- ble, pillowed on his outstretched arms while he sobs. Darkn 1lls suddenly on the scene. Darkn: darkness an ing for a few and ‘then a flasn of light, then momentary light alternat- onds, and then the cur- tain finally falls on the scene. “It 1s wrong gays Mr. Durkin, the husband in this scene. “It is not nat- ural. The first impulse of the husband under the circumstances would be to call for assistance. The next would be to find out whether the wife that he loved was really dead. He would not take It so casily for granted. Oh, yes, he loved his wife at the end, although he did not at the beginning. He had learned to love her. He was grieved at her death, deep- ly so.” 1d what say you, Miss Starr; how could the hushand so soon conclude that you were ad—just by touching your hand once Simply because ** said the young lady with the blue eyes, “my hand was cold and rigid when I let it fall on the table.” In this the argument for and against the lines of Pinero, or it may be the edict of the stage manager for what appears. The point has not been lost on the audi- ences of the week. The element of prob- ability in this regard may now form a theme for some after-theater disc m— thereby prolonging the agony! Do actresses haunt hospitals to study death scen How did Miss Starr learn how to counterfeit reality in death so nly? have never seen any one dle,” she said. “If my face really looks dead on the stage I am glad of it! I never studied death, but I think of it a great deal.” More disquieting to the public, to whom sham is made to seem so actual by the stage people, may be the fact that Mr. Durkin and Miss Block, who appear on the stage to have been long-time lovers, dif- fer radically in opinion as to whether Denald was really in love with Lady Sountiful at first. “I don’t think that he was,” says Miss Block decidedly. “Yes, he was,” says Mr. Durkin with equal decision, ““Then why did he not return to the old life when she invited him?" “He wished to go. He couldn't then, for it was too late, for he *had promised to marry Margaret.” ““Then he never loved Margaret?’ *'Yes, he really loved her.” “‘Then,” inquires Lady Bountiful, “how could he ever have married Lady Bounti- ful after the death of Margaret?” “He has been away for years. Seeing her in the old chapel, where as children they had knelt together, the influence of the old time was on him and the old love for her took possession of him strongly.” Lady Bountiful is silenced, but does not look convinced. - Doings of Stage People in the Everyday World — e A correspondent of the New York Mail and Express describes a Bayreuth audi- encg in an unconventional way, but the sketch may be pleasing to readers. Omit- ting any discussion of the musical fea- ture, the writer says that a feeling of awe crept over him even before the opera be- gan. “And how the audience contrasts with a Metropolitan gathering. It has truthfully been sald that the courts of Europe could not summon more splendor and wealth than the Metropolitan on a gala night. At Bayreuth only a low mur- mur of conversation is heard, the one topic being the opera itself—whether Kraus is. going to sing or not, whether Ternina is the best Kundry, and the like. K HAVE CAUSED THE Where are all the diamonds, fuss and feathers characteristic of a New York audience? They are conspicuous by their absence. The vast throng is composed of music lovers assembled to dfink in every note, and not that they may be seen. Many a poor student has denied himself or herself the necessities of life to be able to realize the ambition of hearing Wag- ner's greatest opera. The men are dressed in their business suits, the women in theif ‘tailor-mad with flannel shirtwalsts, but they are all perfectly happy and greedy to hear every word and note. The opera may b ged as well, possibly even supg as well, in New York, but Manhattan cannot hope to reproduce ‘the atmosphere of the place and the crowd.” P P The version of “Old Heidelberg” ir which Richard Mansfield is appearing in New York as Prince Karl Heinrich is the same that ran in F and and on the Continent. It is in five acts. The role of Mansfield is that of a Prince who after a youth choked with the etiquette and flunkeyism of a small court, having com- pleted his educatio goes to Heidelberg to take doctor degree and enjoy a Ereath of life. Here he falls in love w a fraulein, and sentiment and comedy rise out of the romance. One scene prepared fer the New York production shows Heid- elberg with the colorful life of the stu dent corps. Nearly one hundred students app and the action is enlivened with the old German songs of the university men, De Wolf Hopper is arranging material for a little volume, so says the Chicago Tribune, t will deal with the hotel landlord. “In the book, which will be en- titled ‘Landlords Who Have Met Me," he will give some important recipes for one- night stand coffee, and various rules and regulations for proper conduct in hotels in small towns which have been impressed upon his mind. The Pullman porter comes in for a share of description under the general title of ‘landlord.’ Slippery elm towels, the unerring whisk broom and early morning calls are mentioned among the joys of life in a Pullman car.” & e The Chicago Chronicle tells of three young European musicians who have come to Chicago to study music in the windy city. This reversal of ail musical precedent is accounted for on the ground that they have followed a favorite violin teacher in London. Two are from London and one from Berlin. They say frank- ly that when they proposed to come to America to continue their musical edu- cation their fellow pupils in London were greatly astonished and did not belleve them to be in earnest. . = s “The Proud Prince,”” a play by Justin Hutnley McCarthy, in which E. H. Soth- ern is playing in New York, is based upon Longfellow’s poem “King Robert of Sicily.” The poem tells how Robert was for his impiety transformed from King to court fool and in rags suffered many hu- miliations before his pride was humbled. The lack of a love story in the poem has been supplied by the playwright. (R Eleanor Robson has two new plays, a dramatization by Israel Zangwill of his own book ‘“Merely Mary Ann” and an original pldy by Mrs. Humphry Ward and Louis N. Parker, entitled “Agatha.” An act has been added to “Merely Mary Ann” to solve the question left unan- swered by the book, “Did he marry her?” Rk oA New York has an idea of great utility to the people from outside towns who come in to attend theaters. This is a large placard placed at the theater en- trance giving the time of departure of thie various theater trains on the subur- ban railroads. Nearly every railroad in New York has its theater traims. — HERE is some richness in the an- nouncements for the Lamou- reux concerts in Paris, to be conducted by Chevillard. Bee- thoven the 1s aroun which the w t ors will b gathered, but A sym for the first time. Two peet y Dukas and Gu; Mozart, ! econd Be poems will y Lisat, the and “Org and “Death and ansfiguration,” by Richard Strauss. The second or al suite on Namouna' will e Te 1. Wagner will be nte act, in concert form, of * Yie Gotterdam- merung.” Berlioz will be remembered by “The Damnation of Faust” and “S phonie Fantastique.” The modern sch will be represented by works of Br Be Hermann, Fe gartner, De Greef, Hubermann and dames Jeanne Raunay, Katchowska and Taliero-Delacroz. A season of s wiil be a feat X weeks of Italian opera n Italien, de in Italian and suppor artists that could be se this form of musical art has not ished in Pari As an odd cireu it may be noted that the Parisians look forward as to a novelty to the perform- ances of Boito's “‘Mefistof and P chielli's “Gioconda, neither of which has been given at the Opera Marie Geistinger, the comic opera singer and actress who died recently in Austria, once the reigning operatic star in Vienna and also favored by Offenbach for the spirit with which she sang some of his sprightly music, was equally successful in comedy and tragedy. She toured the United States as late as 1597. On September 13 seventy-five years had elapsed since the arrival In Berlin of a young man who was destined to revelu- tionize planoforte music—Frederic Chopin, at that time 20 years old. His father had sent him to Berlin in charge of Professor Jarocki, and the trip from Warsaw by stage had taken five days. He remained in the city two weeks, and never had oceasion to return to it. He had oppor- tunities, however, to meet Mendelssohn, Spontini, Zelter and other prominent mu- sicians of the time during his brief so- journ. The music he heard—Handel's “St. Cecllia,” Spontini's “Cortez,” Cimarosa’s “Secret Wedding," etc. — has long since disappeared from the repertory. Thers were many things about Beriin which he liked, but the women he did not admire at all. “It Is not true,” he wrote to his sister, “that the Berlin women dress with taste; undoubtedly they like to adorn themselves, but I am sorry for the beau- tiful material wasted on such puppets.” Richard Strauss’ symphon expects to complete this known as “Sinfonia Do last work, er,” for sc orchestra, wi be performed in cognition of t sity rec Ph. D. almost will be York nex the m s at or i will need at w an n's book of r Wings, has acts and se se of New Y of J. 8. T f the soloists, the contralto, and violinist, also acc wonder vitation to t the march coronation b ture to Goldmark’s Hearth,” introc to “Parsifal” and her new w ordica will Wd arias a few piano accompaniment for er y afternoc of excell “Lorna Doon by Nevin, and s Mme. Katharine Fisk, the great c and Franko, the solo violinist. night will be under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Music C first time one of the Ric tone poems, “Don Juan will be pre- sented. Other numbers on this programme will be the “Dream “Haensel and Gret The Dance of the Sunfeast” (American Indian), by Whller and other great works. Mme. Fisk will sing the beautiful aria, “Softly Awakens Pantomime{’ from My Heart” from “Samson and De 3 and “A Summer’s ht,” by G Thomas, with violoncello obligato by Pau Miersch. Nahan Franko, the violn s loist, will play “Theme and Variations by Corelll. The same programme will be played at Stanford University on Tues. day afternoon, Oetober The Friday matinee will be the farewell concer: amy an immense programme will be rendered with Nordica and Franke as solofsts, O, Wednesday night the entire organtzation with Nordica as sololst, will anpear sf the Macdonough Theater in Qakland.