Life, 1884-12-04 · page 11 of 16
Life — December 4, 1884 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Bad Segar" - Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes operatic pretension and audience reactions. The cartoon "Combination No. 2" depicts two figures labeled "An Unimportant Negro" and "Combination"—likely caricatures mocking opera performers or attendees. Below, the text skewers operagoers' affected responses after performances. Various characters claim ignorance or boredom despite professing enjoyment: a father finds the music keeps him awake, a cynic's foot falls asleep, the eldest daughter pretends deep appreciation of "subtle modulations," while the youngest simply gets hungry and wants oysters. The humor targets the hypocrisy of opera audiences who pose as cultured while experiencing discomfort or indifference. The final joke about getting conductors Arditi and Damrosch to collaborate "in their back hair" appears to be nonsensical mockery of operatic pretension itself. The racial caricature in the cartoon reflects period attitudes but appears secondary to the primary satire of opera-house affectation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AN UNIMPORTANT NEGRO COMBINATION A Dudeling:1 say, it’s awful pokey, isn’t it? They ought to | ‘liven up that last act a bit with some good variety business, and then these lager-bier singers are no good, anyhow. With Pauline Hall for Venus, now, and Jarbeau as Tannhaiiser, and Lilian Russell for Elizabeth and a good chorus of girls | and Bonfanti in the ballet, it would be a different thing alto- | gether, would n’t it? ACT III. CENE, so the libretto informs us, is the same as scene II, act I, that is to say the exterior of Castle Bunthorne. The owner of the real estate seemsto have improved it since we saw scene II, act I, for he has blasted away the rocks from which he whistled for his collie. Tannhaiiser and Queen Elizabeth have a duet and then she goes away and dies in a | hurry. The twenty love-sick bachelors appear disguised as pilgrims. Tannhaiiser wishes for Venus, who appears with a bodyguard of Naiads, Sirens, Nymphs and Bacchantes and sings “ The girl I left behind me!” But in vain. Tann- haiiser has an engagement to stop and see the Torchlight Procession bearing away the remains of Queen Elizabeth to Castle Bunthorne for the wake. So he is saved—saved ! COMBINATION No. 2. Chorus. Sainted forever through all the spheres (src), She, who through love thy salvation attain'd. Bles'd is the sinner sav'd by her tears, Now he the heavenly gate hath gained. 5 (CURTAIN, ] AFTER THE OPERA. IS OVER. The Father of a Family (sarcastically): \ don't know but that I might get to like the opera in time—if it wasn’t for the music. Somehow it will keep me awake. The Cynic with a sense of humor: 1 don’t know whether it was the music or not, but my foot 's asleep. The Eldest Daughter (enthusiastically): 1 don't know when I've enjoyed myself so much! The subtle modula- tions and intricate harmonies of the music lift up my soul ! The Flower of the Flock; 1 don't know how it is but Wagner's operas always make me so hungry. Let's go to Dorlon’s and have fried oysters and coldslaw. The Dudeling: 1 don't know how it is nobody ever thought of it before, but it would be a big scheme if you could only get Arditi and Damrosch to go cahoots in their back hair. AZ. comicbooks.com