Life — March 10, 1887 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

*LIFE- Miss Gertrude Griswold, who has studied in Paris, made | her first appearance before a Metropolitan public in “ Lor- raine.” She was nervous, as the solemnity of the occasion and the réle she interpreted fully justified ; but, in the language of the non-committal, she made a favorable impression. Mme. Cottrelly is always welcome, and her appearance as | captain of the royal pages was no exception to the rule. Alan Dale. community will declare that the sum of their suffer- ings is complete, and that henceforth they will have no more of the Court of Louis XIV. as a subject for comic opera. The man has been found, I believe, who can eat eighty con- secutive quails in forty consecutive days. And yet the poor, plump quail is no enemy. Let the energetic curiosity-monger try and discover the man who can consume forty of these modern comic operas “in as many consecutive years, and I can promise him a large | patronage. Now “ Lorraine" in French must have been very nice. The Court of Louis XIV., of course, became entirely subor- dinated to what we, in our prudishness, must not understand, | though I have not the least doubt in the world that our intel- ligence in all matters is as great as that of the French. If we had been in Paris, we should have laughed and enjoyed “ Lorraine.” The ladies would have cried “shock- ing!” and laughed; the gentlemen would have jocosely dug one another in the side, and laughed. The passage across the Atlantic Ocean, however, robs a French opera of all that rendered it amusing abroad. The vasty deep takes away its flavor. It is ready for American | production, as insipid as a boiled potato; as recklessly whole- ‘some as roast mutton, and as ruthlessly and relentlessly nourishing as rice-pudding. All that American managers can do under these lugu- brious circumstances is to revel in the fact that they are highly pure, and attempt to enliven matters by a topical song, which is always received with uproarious enthusiasm. | Colonel McCaull’s production at the Star Theatre of | “ Lorraine "—music by Rudolph Dellinger, libretto by Oscar Walther, and adaptation by W. J. Henderson—is, of course, interesting, as Colonel McCaull puts his operas on the stage regardless of expense, and has drawn together a company individually and collectively artistic. Mr. Henderson has ‘done some clever work. He has flavored the boiled potato, injected a dash of garlic into the roast mutton, and syruped | the rice-pudding. Dellinger’s music is tolerably fascinating. The air, “Oh! Sweet Land of Provence,” will surely become popular. It is pretty and whistlesome, and fully as sentimental as the song in “ Mignon” which describes the land where “je voudrads vivre, aimer et mourir,” and which the Paris organ-grinders gloat over. Then the love song in the first act, and the duet | in the second, are worth listening to and remembering. Miss A SOUVENIR OF THE “WILD WEST.” Soldene sings a kissing song, which is inappropriate, and | 7ymmy: HALLO THERE, YOU OLD BUFFALO! I'VE CAUOHT De Wolf Hopper a topical rigmarole, which seems to please. | wim, FRED! Hooray! comicbooks.com