April 5, 19 2 3
MUSICAL COURIER
64
AMUSEMENTS
pCKERBOCKER THEATRE B'wKiee3s8'hw^'|ts^eanti;'.58:15
Pop. Wed. Mat. Entire 1st Bale. $1.00, 2d Bale. 50c., Orch. $2.00 Henry W. Savage offer• The Comedy with Music Sensation
“The CLINGING VINE”
with PEGGY WOOD and a Brilliant Singing Cast
Book and Lyrics by Zelda Sears	Music by Harold Levey
Warametmt SPlclares^
Theatres under the direction of Hugo Riesenfeld The RIVOLI BROADWAY AT 49th ST.
“The Nth Commandment”
by Fannie Hurst
A Cosmopolitan Production Riesenfeld’s Classical Jazz—Rivoli Concert Orchestra
BROADWAY at 42d ST.
The RIALTO
66
The Go-Getter”
by Peter B. Kyne
A Cosmopolitan Production Riesenfeld’s Classical Jazz—Famous Rialto Orchestra
B’way at 51st St. “Subway to Door” EDW. BOWES, Mng. Dir.
CAPITOL
World’s Largest and foremost Motion Picture Palace
Beginning Sunday, April 8th Goldwyn !3resents
RUPERT HUGHES’
"SOULS FOR SALE”
With Eleanor Boardman, Frank Mayo, Richard Dix, Barbara LaMarr, Mae Busch, Lew Cody and 35 FAMOUS STARS OF THE SILVER SCREEN
CAPITOL GRAND ORCHESTRA
Erno Rapee, Conductor Presentation» by S. L. ROTHAFEL
we said above, Evelyn Herbert was the one who was Completely satisfactory. The feature picture was Mabel Nor-mand in Suzanna.
The Rialto.
There was much of interest in the program at the Rialto last week, which opened auspiciously with the 1849 overture of Mortimer Wilson, the composer and Joseph Littau conducting the Rialto Orchestra. As a program note stated, “The thematic material of this work is drawn from the songs, routs and reels popular during the middle of the last century. Done into sonata form are ten of these colorful melodies, most of them being familiar even today. Among the tunes treated are O Susanna, The Bowld Soger Boy, Currack’s Rout, Love Not, Captain Keeler’s Reel,
I ve Left the Snow-Clad Hills, The Rout, John Anderson, My Jo, and The Isle of Skye. The regular Riesenfeld Classical Jazz, which followed, offered an interesting contrast in the matter of American music, emphasizing particularly the ■ difference in rhythmic treatment. Michael Mischakoff gave the last movement of the Mendelssohn violin concerto in E minor, playing it very well and scoring decidedly with his audience, to judge from the enthusiastic applause. Frank Robbins’ sonorous baritone was heard to advantage in King of the Vikings (W. A. Phillips), for which he was aided by appropriate costume and settings. Instead of the Barnet release, Through the Great Lakes to the Sea, which was scheduled, the scene from the last act of Camille, as given by Sarah Bernhardt, was shown in memory of the great French artist. The feature picture was The Leopardess, with Alice Brady in .the principal role. It is an excellent picture with some very thrilling moments. “Snub” Pollard, in a Pathe comedy, Before the Public, and the regular Rialto Magazine, without which no program seems complete, made up the remainder of the program.	rr\ ״
The Strand.
. Picture fans had it all their own way with two feature pictures at the Strand this week. The first was The Little Church Around the Corner, with an excellent cast. The scene was the coal mines and deals with the tragedy of a cave in. It was very well done. The other feature was Douglas MacLean in a delightful comedy, Bell Boy 13 For the feature prologue, George Reardon, baritone, sang The Little Church Around the Corner. Undoubtedly one oi the most popular numbers on the entire program was the singing of Eldora Stanford, soprano, who was heard in the familiar Sweethearts, by Victor Herbert. In her quaint Dutch costume she added a charming setting for a lovely voice and fully earned the enthusiastic applause which marked her work. From the same work Walter Vaughn, tenor sang The Ivy and the Oak, and Anatole Bourmann and Mile. Klementowicz gave a wooden shoe dance•	_________ May Johnson.
jVTme. Cahier Under New A4ana^ement
Mme. Charles Cahier, internationally known contralto has recently completed arrangements to appear under the management of the Universal Concert Bureau. Inc., of New York. Mme. Cahier is at present in the Middle West having appeared as soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Indianapolis on April 2. The artist’s visit to this her native city, after a lapse of several years occasioned much festivity. She was met at the station by a committee of prominent citizens and officials, headed by the Governor of Indiana, who escorted her to the State House where reporters succeeded in getting a photograph of the singer with the_ Governor. Later ceremonies included the official presentation of the keys of the city to Mme. Cahier This engagement marks also her second appearance this season as soloist with the Cincinnati organization.
funeral, requested Mr. Hackett to be a guest of the city and to be with the officials who attended the funeral. The greatest theatrical figure of international fame has passed with Mme. Bernhardt.
The Enchanted Cottage.
Sir Arthur Pinero essayed a work quite different from The Second Mrs. Tanqueray and The Gay Lord Quex, by which he is familiar to New York audiences, in his The Enchanted Cottage, which opened at the Ritz Theater, Saturday evening, March 31. It is the story of a vitally alive young man whom the war has left misshapen and neurotic, and who, seeking rest from a world that has become “abominably normal,” hides himself near a small village where dwells a young, woman of splendid character but obviously “plain.” They marry merely for companionship and cannot understand that the world is not aware of the change which love has made so apparent to them. The work is classed as a fable, with Love is Blind as the text. It is well acted by a capable cast, one of the outstanding performances being that of Gilbert Emery as the blind Major Hillgrove, friend and advisor of the young couple and innocent abettor in their make believe. Katherine Cornell did some splendid work as Laura Pennington, and in the second act—in which the characters are as Love sees them—she is pretty enough to satisfy even her often reiterated wish to be beautiful. Ethel Wright as Mrs. Corsellis, wife of the village vicar, and Winifred Frazer as the shallow and unsympathetic mother, gave noteworthy performances.
The Rivoli.
The writer went to the Rivoli last Wednesday evening for the second performance, and through very good luck heard Mr. Riesenfeld himself direct the Tschaikowsky overture of 1812. The orchestra under Mr. Riesenfeld’s guidance seemed to play better than we have heard them in a long time. There was a certain spirit about the entire performance that was fine. A special stage effect created by F. W. Buhler, of the Stanley Theater in Philadelphia, added considerably to the finale of the overture. At various times the large motion picture theaters have scenic effects created to accompany the big symphonies, and it must be stated that full credit in this instance must go to Mr. Buhler, as his lighting and staging were effective.
This was followed by Mr. Riesenfeld’s classical jazz. It quite brought down the house. He gave it rather a new twist. As a background, he had arranged some very alluring jazz music, and with the aid of a spotlight and the screen, he created what a man behind us said was “the showing up of the music burglars.” The first number played by the pianist was a phrase from Chopin’s Fantasie. The next was from Faust, the third from Tosca, and the fourth from Madame Butterfly. After these phrases the orchestra swung into Avalon, Broadway Rose, and The Vamp. (We have forgotten the first one.) It was tre-tremendously amusing.
The soloist was Helen Yorke, who sang La Villanelle. She was in exceptionally good voice on Wednesday night and did some very artistic work which the large audience was quick to respond to. We have not heard Miss Yorke in some time, and it was with considerable interest that one noted the splendid singing she is now accomplishing. There was a little dance number interpreted by three Riesenfeld soloists, entitled Three Little Maids. It was well danced and received a round of applause.
The feature picture was Grumpy, with Theodore Roberts as Grumpy. It was decidedly the most interesting William De Mille production seen in a long time.
The Capitol.
Last week another one of S. L. Rothafel’s operatic impressions was offered—Carmen, with Jeanne Maubourg, Desiree La Salle, Evelyn Herbert and Frederick Jagel as the principals. Mr. Rothafel apparently is making no attempt to follow the opera. He is merely giving an attractive background and featuring the main solos. In the case of Carmen, the impression started with the Carmen prelude by the orchestra, with David Mendoza conducting. The first scene showed a street filled with men and women in gaudy Spanish attire. Mme. Maubourg, in an elaborate fourth act costume, sang the Habanera. In the second scene Mme. Maubourg again sang, this time the Seguidilla. She made little or no attempt to dance, but Doris Niles and Thelia Zanou danced sufficiently well to make the scene interesting. The fourth scene showed a very dark background, with Mme. Maubourg seated at a table and Jagel by her, singing the Flower Song. The fifth and sixth scenes presented a rocky shore with a beautiful ocean lying just a few feet away. Again quite different from the opera! The most artistic number of the entire program was the singing by Evelyn Herbert of the Micaela aria. The next scene was an interpolated dance to music by Lacone. This we could not understand, as the usual Carmen ballet is very beautiful, and strangest of all was the introduction of the Toreador Song as a finale. One can understand thoroughly what Mr. Rothafel is trying to do, and we admit that he does it well indeed, and in most cases it is infinitely fine, but, since he is going into a field with which New York audiences should be thoroughly familiar, his singers should at least be adequate and the scenes should have something of operatic tradition.
Mme. Maubourg ■sang at the Metropolitan many years ago. Since that time she has been in one or two Broadway production of the musical comedy type, and this occasion at the Capitol was the first time we have heard her since 1915. The Capitol made a great deal of the fact that she was ‘of the Metropolitan Opera Company.” We see no reason why, when a singer is engaged for the Capitol The-ater, the fact that fifteen years ago he or she was connected with that organization should impress the Capitol audience It should be sufficient to say “of the Capitol Theater,” which organization can produce and create its own artists, and they need have no fear of arv audience.
Mr. Defrere, who sang the Toreador Song, however much operatic experience he has had vocally, is not nearly so good as are many of the voung people, “discovered” by the Capitol organization. Frederick Jagel has a lovely voice, but not for a role so exacting as Don Jose, and, as
On Monday of last week, at the Provincetown Theater, Sandro Botticelli, an Italian renaissance play by Mercedes De Acosta, had its première. Basil Sydney played the title role and Eva Le Gallienne the principal role. The literary merits of Miss Acosta’s play are seriously questioned and the prominence given to its première was due no doubt to the social position of the authoress, both in America and Abroad. With her large following of prominent personages the play will have something of a run. The reviewers all agreed, however, that Miss Le Gallienne was good.
On Tuesday evening, at the Morosco, a play, The Wasp, by Thomas Fallon, had its first showing. Our information regarding this production is second hand, but we have implicit faith in our reviewer who was present at the opening performance, and the verdict was that of the many suggestive and obscene plays this season this surpassed them all. Some of the reviewers are falling short of performing their honest duty to the readers of their papers. They so camouflage their opinion regarding some of this impossible stuff that is being produced that their readers are misled, while on the other hand there are those who many times find “art” in some of these “objectionable” plays. The New York daily papers for the last weeks have been filled with the accounts of sordid happenings right in this vicinity, and we feel this is sufficient, and object seriously to having such phases of life depicted on the local stage under the guise of entertainment. When there are so many fine men in charge of our theaters, and who for years have stood for decency in their productions, it is deplorable that newcomers into the field are permitted to produce some of the plays which have found their way to the local theaters.
On Saturday night of last week, The Enchanted Cottage had its première at the Ritz. This is the latest play by Arthur Wing Pinero.
Last Week of the Moscow Art Players.
The engagement of these imported artists has been in its entirety a financial and artistic success, and it is with regret that our theatergoing public sees them go. It is understood that they will have a short season in some other large cities, and Mr. Gest has promised to bring them again next season.
Sarah Bernhardt.
The death of the divine Sarah, at her home in Paris, was received in New York with genuine sorrow. Bernhardt was loved in America and particularly in New York, where she always enjoyed tremendous success. On the Friday evening that the news was received, many of our most prominent managers and stars expressed themselves in no uncertain terms regarding their loyalty and appreciation of Mme. Bernhardt. David Belasco had known her since her first visit to America in 1880. He spoke of her in most affectionate terms. Augustus Thomas paid a glowing tribute to the one whom he considered the most dominant figure in the history of the theater for two generations.
Lee Shubert once conducted her tour in America. It was at the time when he was fighting the theatrical syndicate, and, as all remember, Mme. Bernhardt toured the United States appearing under canvas tents. Mr. Shubert said that in this entire trip she never refused to do .anything that would add to her great popularity here. Jane Cowl, who is playing at the Henry Miller Theater in Romeo and Juliet, announced Bernhardt’s death from the stage and asked the audience to rise as a tribute to the memory of the great actress. E. F. Albee, the head of the B. F. Keith Circuit, ordered every Keith-Orpheum theater in the country to observe a few moments in her memory.
James K. Hackett, the American actor, who has been in London for the last year, was appointed to represent various English and American theatrical organizations at the funeral held in Paris last week. When this was announced the city of Paris, which had charge of Mme. Bernhardt’s
Pi■
ELEANOR ZIFF,
coloratura soprano, who has been heard as principal soloist in many churches both here in New York City and Brooklyn. She has also made a successful concert tour through the East and throughout many cities of the West. Miss Ziff was a former member of the Metropolitan Opera chorus. Many times of late she has offered special programs from the W J Z radio station, Newark, after each of which she was the recipient of many flattering letters expressing delight with her singing. Miss Ziff was heard on April 3 from station W E A F, New York City.