Life — October 11, 1900 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

Modern Vice. E is a siren of so dazzling mien, That to be courted needs but to be seen. Vv But, wooed too off, we find the pace o'erwarm, ‘And cry, ‘Close up the town!" and vote Reform! The Opera and a Few Words from Cap'n Dan'l. T the Metropolitan Opera House was done “ Faust” *% in English. There were no De no Eameses, no any- bodies except persons who were supposed to sing and act the parts well. They did sing and act fairly well. They did what they had to S do sufficiently well to raise the ques- tion of whether doing what is called “grand opera” is worth doing at all, The simple reason for this question is that people who sing “Faust” in English are not patronized by the persons who make ust,” in French and combined Italian, a most fash- fonable amusement. The merits of grand opera, considered simply as grand opera, seem to have little to do with In other words, grand opera seems to be in America an institution whose merits are to be gauged only by the social importance of the persons who patronize it. The house, although well filled, was not a fashionable one. There were few evening dresses, and the persons who came were not the persons who make prosperous what is known as the “season” of grand opera. This “ grand opera” question is one that will bear a lot of honest investigation by persons who think they know something about the present state of culture among the American people. So long as “grand opera” is confined to the mysteries of a foreign language and foreign customs it is likely to have a certain vogue. Make it familiar by using the English language, and perhaps the American will realize that grand opera is, after all, only a grand bluft to make the common people aspire to pay large money to hear what they do not know anything about. From the artistic point of view the per- formance given by the new company at the Metropolitan was far from bad. Mr. Shee- han's Faust was sung truly and sweetly, Neither Miss Strakosch as Marguerite nor Mr. Whitehill as Mephistopheles were cal- culated to set the world on fire, but each brought energy and originality to bear on roles made difficult by precedent. Technical description of what they did or did not do with their voices would be beyond the limit of our space and might bore the reader. The general impression remains that ‘ Faust” was competently sung and acted at the Metropolitan for persons who wish to hear in English a great story set to great music. ° ° ° AP'N DAN'L MARBLE (loquitur): That sorter re- minds me of a feller name’ Herne—I disremember his fust name, but I think it was Jim—who kem down here to Sag Harbor and put in some time talkin’ to an’ lookin’ at us folks. He wan't much to look at, but he was an’ acter an’ he hada good many brains—more'n the Lord allows to most people, an’ a good many more'n He usually allows to acters. Well, this feller Herne, he sizes us all up an’ down an’ crosswise, an’ then he goes back to New York an’ puts us allin a show, I seen it when I went to York to buy some new- fangled hardware for the “Kacy,” an’, by gosh, he got us pretty near right. He even calls his show ‘Sag Harbor," after the ol’ place we all love so well. He got himself up to look an’ talk like me, an’ I'll be darned if he didn't make me think I was listenin’ to myself talk out « one them phonygraph machines you drop a nickel into, an’ lookin’ in one o’ them big lookin’ glasses they have all over the drinkin’- places in York. You know us folks down here on the Bay don’t move so fas’ and talk so fas’ as they do in big towns, an’ I noticed the people in the aujence got a little bit tired listenin’, but, by gosh, sir, it was us, an’ no mistake. You wouldn't think us folks, leadin’ a natural, simple kind o’ life, would do anythin’ to make a show out of, but I'll eat all the shavin's in the shop if he didn’t take the story of Ben and Frank Turner an’ little Marthy and make a play out o' it that makes you laugh most the time, but sometimes takes holt o’ your heart and makes your Adam's apple go up an’ down like the walkin’ beam o’ that reliable steam-bout, the never-on- time Antelope. He's got Freeman Whit- marsh down to the life, an’ darn if the folks in York didn't laugh at him more'n we do here. (Car's Dax'L muses a moment as he readjusts the nicotine poultice that he keeps next to an aching false tooth.) This feller Herne’s got a couple o' dotters, mighty smart gals, an’ pretty, too. He's got ‘em in the piece for Marthy Turner and Janie Caldwell, an’ you'd be surprised, sir, to see what good mimics them two young girls is. The one that plays Marthy’s boun’ to mount to somethin’ some time. Then he's got a woman name’ Mrs. Sol Smith, who gets herself up to look like old Mis’ Russell, an’ I'll be jiggered if you could tell her from the real thing, reminiscin' 'bout Cap'n John an’ all, An’ there's a young feller name’ Lionel Barrymore—seems to me I seen somebody o’ that name play a robber in a show once—who acts just exactly like Frank Turner did durin’ that trouble he had with Ben an* Marthy. I s'pose Herne thought it was a good joke puttin’ in all about me an’ ’Lizbeth courtin’, but I don’t think it’s very modest repeatin’ all that business about the baby ‘fore a lot o’ young folks who don’t know us. (Car'y Dan’, again readjusts the poultice.) Now, then, us folks down here may not be worth makin’ a show about, but we're human, ain't we? An’ we have feelin’s an’ do: things an’ are Americans, an’ other Americans can understan’ us, can’t they? Now what proves I'm tellin’ the truth when I say Herne's a smart feller is that he takes us—folks we all know about, an’ not a lot 0° Frenchmen and Eyetalians we don’t know about—and puts us on the stage as we are, an’ he ain't afraid to hev people who know what we are come an’ see whether he's done it right or not. An’ I tell you, sir (here Cavs Dan'L puts his hand over his mouth and chuckles quietly), them folks in York did laugh at Freeman Whitmarsh—an’ me. Metcalfe,