The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 25, 1904, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 1904. 19 fore, from stepping the stage to for profes- But had not be- oungster walk onors in the as- ndrew Bogart. e of nerves in s Lor Serenade” was the only the intended t e e ly the needful esture. The singer as And I won- i him if his com- eep or deeper. I won- debut the In nd a very well ng mar hen I went to see and critics another fame- 1d elected to chat. ting yawns and a dropped into ght and that ev: p—the singer is mansion— act. He e had been had been And he ymore ry as- It square, oked out 1S to put every- You talk away from you » blocks off. But i And py was the tone h to have own town, and is over. bout?” I asked. the singer replied. me. I really t—and got in. Not that t ant to do the work t with delightful aid. They came for Arth Cunning- srrupted, “just Mr. Bogart? ed to take a a tenor part , and talking rytone Th { as he is iboarded hed as he confided at he is “just between. T was a bary- tome, « t the voice went ng up,” I added, re- art concert of not so ) a pure barytonal pro- I think so,” he agreed. I reminded him then that we had had one “De Reszke of light opera” at the Tivell, the basso, John Duns- mure, and sugge: that we were perhaps going now to have the other. ¢ he recalled, with a twinkle merry brown ey Jean was a barytone once, wasn't he? There's every hope for me!” “You began splendidly last night He exclaimed then, standing up to it, shaking back his head and squar- ing his broad shoulders: ‘“Honestly, 1 proud to have made a hit at the voli. It counts. If you make a hit there you can get anything in New York, for example. And even in London, Paris and Berlin they ask ‘What of the Tivoli?? Then I'm very glad to have appeared first in my own town—my own town.” “You were taught here, too, weren't you?” “Indeed I was. I'm entirely Ameri- can-taught,” Mr. Bogart subscribed— “that is, with the exception of five or six lessons I had from William Shake- speare in London. Francis Stewart taught me all I know. I studied with him both here and in New York.” “You didn't like Shakespeare, evi- dently?” “Not much,” the singer confessed frankly. “But everybody was talking about him then—it was the fad—and I thought I'd try him. He was quite kind, told me I could go right ahead then and make a success. But im- agine Mr. Bogart's judgment of Mr, Shakespeare is evidently not of the most respectful. “So you don’t pose as a f.akespeare pupil?” I asked. “Hardly; but”—he laughed—"I could tell you amusing things of some people that do. I asked Shakespeare once about a local contralto here who went to London and returned, adver- tising herself as his pupil. Shake- speare id: ‘Let me see'—tapping his brow—let me see. Yes, I think I did have some one of that name. es. She took one lesson. Oh, and I think she owes me for He dilated les then upon the defense- 1ess of the teacher in such cases ossiped freely about his fellow- ers here, for Andrew Bogart is sestro list. He waxed en- by the way, over one small his, only 15 years old, for prophesies a future with a al. “A high B that would ar the roof off” is one of her assets, ne to have the oppor- g it. ed to ask, hight was your actual fi the operatic s shortl war I requested, “if rst appear- - on stag “Not ¢ > the singer replied. He ged over to the fireplace, the shelf of which was decorated with photo- graphs, and took one down. I mo- ti s as he did so— C women among them. T by the way, c that hung over ant corner. And 2 Stein baby with s filléd nd their ger's experi- ake with Sav- lled—though not at all “I had good luck in meeting tell you a little afterward eeting managers— come in!” I vouchsafed. vage at Clifford Page's a great musician for he interrupted himself to say and ed, “I call Page a really great musician. He has done five operas—not been heard of because the librettos were But he’s landing now and that 1 be one more for California! Any- Savage was looking at one of the s at his studio and at Page's ad- vice I just ble poor. wil wa ope in down there. (It was a little different from waiting one's turn with fifty or sixty others, as you have to at Savage’s office.) But I sang for him and he offered me right away grand opera leads. Funny part of it s he thought I w a tenor. It was fault. I and ang the ‘Pagliacei’ ended up on a big B flat” “And then?” Then I told him I didn’t want to go nd opera yet awhile,” he “went looked up, youthfully. modest, “Of course I knew I wasn't dy for grand opera and shan’t be for ars yet. However, it ended there for a whi Then one day I went to re- mind him of myself. It's rather ter- rible, you know, that office of his— sometimes maybe fifty waiting appli- ca But I sent in my card, saying on it ‘this is Andrew Brooke that you heard sing at Clifford Page's studio.’ * ndrew Brook: I interrogated. “Oh,” the singer blushed, “I took the name of Brooke when I went to New York—thought if I failed none of you here would be the wiser. But Savage sent for me immediately and fired all the rest—poor things. He asked me: ‘Can you pack up and leave New York to-night? In two weeks I want you to appear in New Orleans with “King Dodo.” That will €ive you a week to travel and a week to study.’” “Rather breathless sort of arrange- ment—" “He's a breathless sort of person,” said Mr. Bogart, who is Sweetly, maybe lazily, anytbing else. “But I couldn’'t take the part. It was too high. And I couldn't make a bluff at the grand opera if only because you have to be definitely something, either tenor or barytone. There isn’t a part to fit me, only maybe that silly part in ‘Lucia.’” 1 told him to possess his soul in pa- tience until the full tenor gamut ar- rived and then asked: ‘“What should Jou like to do?” In very sober, earnest and in the deeps of his barytone the singer said: “I'd like just once to sing ‘Pagliacci.’ Parts of it I can sing now, but I could not sustain the thing through, It stays Xhigh up most of the time,” “But Savage is ready when you are?” “I think so,” the Californian said. “Savage is a fine fellow. He doesn’t know everything about music by any means, but he knows what he likes and takes you if he does like you, right on the spot. There’s no make believe writ- ing your name in a book and telling you to come round again in a week or two. He's yes or no. Those Thurs- day tryouts in New York! They're frightful. Hordes of applicants wait- ing on the managers. You sing. They don’t listen. They whistle. The ac- companist stops. They pretend to put your name in a book. They tell you to come round again in a week or two. You know they mean nothing. They know you know they mean nothing. Yet the miserable stream goes on. It's going yet. The trouble is,” and the singer stopped his dramatic recital to slap the arm of his chair.for empha- sis—‘‘the trouble is that the managers don’t know. They prefer to take the bad, old person “with a name to risk- ing anything on their judgment. They are wise usually, for they haven't any.” “But the Tivoli came to you,” I in- terrupted. “Now, am I to say the Tivoli knows —" laughed their latest recruit, and as he told me again how happy he was going to be over his successful debut when he was less tired, when the beam was out of his eye, when the terror of the thing had left him, when this and that and the other happened, I bade him good da FAMOUSBENGREET WILL SOON ARRIVE WITHHISCOMPANY Ben Greet and his company of Eng- s will begin next week an en- P \ent at Lyric Hall with the mira- cle play, “Everyman,” that was such a ature and sensation of the last dra- nat season. Following “Everyman” will be a week of comedy, the reper- toire to be selected from the following: Comedy of Erro Twelfth Nigh! Nothing,” “As You of Venice,” “Masks he Stoops to Con- A short tour of the State then rvenes between another series of comedy and miracle play presentations. In the meanwhile there will be the pro- duction of a morality play by Professor Gayley of the University of California, entitled “The Star of Bethlehem.” The Greet company includes the following members, the charming Everyman, Constar Death, John as well as Agnes Scott, Daisy Robinson, Helen Alice Harrington, Sybil Thorn- Blind, Maurice Robinson, . Goodwyn, Frank McEntee, Leonard Shepherd, Percyval Aylmar, Sydney Greenstreet, Frank Darch and Ben Greet. e Three new plays are on the pro- gramme for this week. The Grand Opera-house, perhaps most importantly, has a pastoral drama, “York State Folks,” that is heralded as better than and in the same class with “The Old Homestead” and “Shore Acres.” Mr, Ackerman has secured the original company with the play, that will run for the forthcoming fortnight, begin- ning with this afterndon’s matinee. & e To-night Ralph Stuart, who as a ro- mantic actor made a very favorable impression during the Republic Thea- ter’s scant days, will bring to the Cal- ifornia a romantic drama, By Right of Sword,” in which he has achieved con- siderable success in the East. Bl . “Captain Barrington,” a revolution- ary druma by Victor Mapes, produced last season at the Manhattan Theater Charles Richman, is the third of tha trio. The play will be put on here for the first time to-night at the Majes- tic Theater' by the Majestic stock company. A = ‘The Serenade” is revived in splen- did fashion at the Tivoli, and this evening begins its second week. . . . “Miss Mazuma” begins its second week at Fischer's to-morrow evening. The piece is beginning to go smoothly and new features of interest have been added. . * . “The Wizard of Oz” begins to-mor- row evening'the second week of its en- gagement at the Columbia. S R The Alcazar revives this week “Sol- diers of Fortune,” for the fourteenth week of White Whittlesey's engage- ment. A pleasing feature of the late productions at the Alcazar is the com- ing forward of Miss Kugene Thais Lawton, who is doing some very promising work. . . “The Danites,” that the Central re- vives this week, will doubtless attract many. It is one of the most familiar and picturesque stories of the gold- seekers’ days in California, and will PHOTO B G.ABRONSTRLUP be strongly cast and elaborately staged. . . . Two Tivoleans have gone over the Orpheum, John P. Kennedy . and Carrie Reynolds, who will appear this afternoon in a musical comedietta en- titled “Captain Kidd,” the music to which was written another Tivo- lean, Melville Eilis. This is the vau- deville debut of the two performers. Urbain and Song. athletic virtuosi, headline the week’s bill. . . . Pete Baker, monologist, appears at the Chutes this week, following Australian triumphs. sizenite There is much interest in the forth- coming engagement here of James T. Powers in the production of “San Toy,” that has made several attempts to get here and not yet succeeded. Powers will be seen in his original role. George Fortescue appears in the cast and there is a lhO‘nughly competent company promised® The company is under the management of John C. Fisher of “Florcdora” fame. i asile George Ade's play, “The County Chairman,” will be seen here in No- vember. sl e » Milton Nobles’ new one-act comedy, “The Days of '49,”" will be interpreted by a cast of six. The four principal roles are played by Dolly Nobles, Mary Davenport, Allan Bennett and Milton Nobles. The scene is set near San Francisco and the period is 1870. It is a complete scenic production, for which everything is carried by the company, down to the smallest “prop.” This is certainly a vaudeville departure. s n) Charles Cartwright, the distinguished English actor, wiil be seen for the first time in this country during the autumn in support of Mrs. Fiske, with the Man- hattan company in one of the produc- tions that will be made by Harrison Grey Fiske at the Manhattan Theater. Bl Miss Margaret Wycherly, who was for some time at the Alcazar Theater in this town, has secured the rights to all' the plays written by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. Her opening play will be “The Land of Heart’s De- sire,” followed by ““The Hour Glass™” and “Kathleen Ni Hoolihan,” the first two of which she produced at the Al- cazar last season. Mr. Yeats is at present at work on a new play that she will also include in her repertoire. Eoston will be the scene of her open- ing nights. 53 % Season tickets as low as $175 for the three concerts are among the good things™ promised by Manager Green- baum for the Josef Hofmann recitals ol next week at the Alhambra. The sale of seats opens to-morrow morn- ing. CALIFORNIA GIRLS ARE GAINING FAME IN THE WINDY CITY Two notes from Chicago concerning Californian girls re-gh me this week. Miss Adele F. Davis, formerly a pupil of the Paul Gerson Dramatic School, to, + I | | | | i xfififif’ ./éo - - —+ l CALIFORNIAN WHO HAS FOUND ROAD TO FAME. | - — has been engaged as reader and violin- ist with the Philharmonic Ladies’ Quartet of Chicago. Miss Belle Claire Chamberlain is the other. This accomplished young woman is otherwise engaged—to Dr. C. Hoyt, a graduate of the Rush Medi- 1. College of Chicago. Miss Cham- berlajn’s good teaching and clever pianism. ‘has been missed in local musical circles. . o ‘What willk' doubtless prove the first of a long series of musical affairs will be given at the Greek Theater, Berke= ley, on Wednesday night next. A “moonlight concert” has been ar- ranged. by Manager Will Greenbaum, to begiven by “the crack band of the service,” the United States Third Ar- tillery Band. It includes thirty-five men and ‘the programme will be de- voted chiefly to Wagner, Flotow, Ros- sini, Herbert and Edwards. The en- tire proceeds will go to the University Settlement Club, that is in need of funds, the admission to be 50 cents. The big amphitheater will be illumi- nated by electricity for the first time. RS TR oY Fritz Kreisler has been honored by the London Philharmonic Society with the Beethoven gold medal. He is the fifth violinist to receive this un- usual honor in more than ninety years. . . The Sousa. band will celebrate its twelfth birthday to-morrow, Septem- ber 26, with*a remarkable record of achievement. During these twelve years the band has played some 7000 concerts in 80 different cities and towns of Europe and America, travel- ing 400,000 miles by land and sea. Sousa will be heard here shortly and will be warmly welcomed. He has been absent from the local concert field for nearly two years, during which he has taken in an extended European tour and his first long vaca- tion in many years. Mr. Sousa will bring his usual large band, splendid scloists and will offer interesting pro- grammes. & e Henry W. Savage will follow the traditions of Bayreuth when he pre- sents “Parsifal” here. The perform- ance will begin at 5:30 p. m. and trumpeters will notify the audience in time, so that all may be seated at least filve minutes before the opening straing of the prelude. Mr. Savage has engaged a large orchestra of over sixty musicians, which will be direct-. ed by Walter H. Rothwell and Moritz Grimm. Mr. Rothwell was the as- sistant of Gustav Mahler at Hamburg and comes from the Netherlands Roy- al Opera at Amsterdam, where he was the principal conductor and artistic director. Mr. Grimm was the musical director of the opera-houses at Stettin and Halle. Andre Benoist will be the "assistant conductor and will have - charge ‘of all the music on the stage. The costumes for “Parsifal” have ar- rived from Germany They were made in - Berlin from designs made at Bayreuth. si7e!l e Mme. Melba has been singing into a recording machine for the benefit of the British public of years to come, and Mr. Blackburn, the able critic of the Pall Mall Gazette, was provoked thereby -to this outburst: Above ‘all the singers now before the public -Mme. Melba seems to rise superior, in-the matter of absolute phrasing.. That which phrasing in the vocal art really means is the clear understanding of tempo. combined with a sort of undulatory knowledge of the ‘precise swing of the music which - originally occupied the com- poser’s brain, but which at the same time ‘is not’exactly subject to strict law..- As.a rule Melba's attention to time is one of-her most finished qual- ities,- but -where a composer allows a certain amount ‘of tempo rubato, she takes admirable advantage of the fact and thus by a sort of twist the tem- perament makes you at the same time thoroughly understand her originality. Herein lies, as I have hinted, to a great _extent the beauty of her phras- ing, inasmuch as it is supported at all times by contrast in her personality compared. to the steady and effectual beauty of her voice. She never allows you to forget by any piece of coarsely dramatized phrasing the sheer vocal value of her production, and at the same time she never allows you to feel that she phrases monotonously, because, like the festival days of the year,” her manner (in Shakespeare's phrase) always delivers up to you ‘The captain jewels of the carcanet.” “One . of Melba’'s most extraordinary gifts is her capacity for instantly real- izing the right pitch of any phrase in any song. With many singers, who are admittedly quite at the head of their profession, there is a certain amount of difficulty in wheeling through the great open spaces of the scale; thus to fly from E flat in the lower register to B flat in the higher soprano register with perfect ease is naturally not at all a ‘matter to be lightly undertaken. That famous vocal device which is known by the Italians as ‘portamento’ never enters into any of Melba's ef-* fects; she never knows what it is to reel from note to note with the inter- space of endless quarter tones, but with a wonderful command of ear’ she rises from point to point without any interval of what may be called the compromise of difficulties. It is here that her musical ‘attacco,’ as the Itali- ang have known it, is so extraordinary and in these days is so incomparable. It may be just possibly urged, as some have said, that all these things come to Melba for. her own part as if they were merely spontaneous gifts. I thor- BY BLANCIE. PARTINGTON — oughly disbelieve such a theory, for no dogma seems to me to smack so as- suredly of truth as that which pro~ claims that great work is never accom= plished save by extraordinary industry. Sometimes it occurs to me that the sheer facility with which she is able to put the enormously fine quality of her gifts deceives many a critic into sup- pesing that this is all easy enough werk. They forget, I imagine, the deep truth of that famous adage: ‘Ars est celare artem.”” . s = It seems that another American girl has captivated London playgoers, this time Miss Eleanor Robson, who in a play by a Londoner, Israel Zangwill, ‘Merely Mary Ann,” won an extraodi- nary success this month. /The New York Herald printed the following ca- blegram concerning the event: LONDON, Friday.—Never before in theatrical history did a young American girl step so completely into London’s affections as did Miss Elea- nor Robson in “Merely Mary Ann” at the Duke of York’s Theater last night. Miss Robson's managers wisely muz- zled the press agent and let the young actress win her way almost unheralded on the opening night. The result was a demonstration such as few London favorites ever received. There were a few critical moments during the evening. The London gal- leryite has a way of making his wants known that must be fearfully discon- certing to a foreigner. During the scene where Mary Ann tells the quaint story of her vigil by her mother's deathbed there were some howls of “Speak louder!” Miss Robson's face flushed, and although the scene was in a measure spoiled, she held courage- ously to her part. At the end of the act there was a storm of approval, and at the end of the play the audience stood applauding for tem minutes. Miss Robson had London at her feet. The Daily Telegraph says: “The success last night was not Mr. Zang- will's comedy, but its heroine, or rather the actress who played the heroine.” “Miss Eleanor Robson, who won all our hearts,” in a similar vein writes the critic of the Daily News. “The ‘whole performance was a triumph for Miss Robson from first to last. Her impersonation was absolutely above criticism, and any success which the play will undoubtedly achieve must be attributed largely to her.” The Daily Mail says: “Her success last night was thoroughly deserved. She has power, sympathy, a moving voice and all the gifts that go to the making a great emotional actre: Miss Robson, without the doubt, will become the idol of London playgoers without exception.” The other papers credit the Ameri- can actress with an extraordinary first night success. In the audience were Lady Tama Ar- rold, Sir Arthur Conan Do and Lady Doyle, Mr. and Mrs. Waltes Crane, Professor Ayrton, F. R. S., and Mrs. Hertha Ayrton, Anthony Hope, Sir Squire Bancroft, the Earl of Yarmouth, W. S. Gilbert, Mrs. Madeline Lucette Ryley, Baron Ernsthausen and Mrs. Brown Potter. . - - The ordinary acting version of Hamlet is that prepared for his per- formances by Kemble, and naturally everything was subordinated to the leading part. The play was first printed in 1603, but as the edition is full of palpable errors and even of ab= surdities, it is supposed to have been hasiily prepared by a piratical pub- lisher eager to take advantage of the popularity of the drama. In 1604, just 300 years ago, there was pub- lished the edition that has been the basis of all subsequent ones and this so far excels the other that Shakespear- ean scholars think it must have been issued under the direct supervision of Shakespeare himself or printed from his manuscripts. This is the version that Ben Greet’s company of English actors is to present, practi- cally in its entirety, in the Greek thea- ter of the Unliversity of California on Saturday, October 1. The company, which made up largely from that that played “Everyman” in the®East last season, includes, besides Mr. Greet himself, Mr. and Mrs. Crawley, Agnes Scott; Alice Harrington, Daisy Robinsen, Sybil Thorndike, Helena Head, Leonard Shepherd, Eric Blind, Percyval Aylmer, Maurice Robinson, Sydney Greenstreet, Sam H. Goodwyn, Frank Darch and Frank McEntee; but for the performance of Hamlet they will be reinforced by about forty of the most talented amateurs among the students of the university. AR S Charles B. Dillingham fis completed his organization of the Louis Mann company by engaging Dorothy Revell as leading woman. Miss Revell is an American girl, but is comparatively unknown in this country. She served a short apprenticeship in several New York productions and them went abroad to study. As a school girl she lived in France and, having a thorough knowledge of the language, she soon obtained a position in Paris. It was at a performance of “Les Affaires Sont les Affaires” (“Business is Business™) that Mr. Dillingham noticed her. As- tonished to hear she was an American, he promptly engaged her. In “The Second Fiddle,” Miss Revell, who, by the way, is a beautiful woman, in fact, so beautiful that it is announced her appearance alone will create a sensa- tion, will play the part of a French operatic prima donna. The first pro- duction will be in Buffalo Monday night. T Charles R. Bacon, formerly man- ager of the Bostonians, has b??n‘ap- pointed manager of Henry W. Sav- age's English Grand Opera Company. This company will begin a season in Brooklyn and will go to the Pacific Coast. e Frederick Warde and Kathryn Kid- der are meeting with considerable success in the Wagenhals & Kemper production of “Salammbo.” It is-said that Mr. Warde appears to much ad- vantage as Matho and that Miss Kid- der's Salammbo ranks with her per- formance of Sans-Gene,