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DEATH STORY TOO GREWSOME FOR EXPERIENCED
THEATER MANAGER AND BILL IS WITHDRAWN
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BT LLOTD K. LOKEBCAN.
NEW YORK. May iO. (Special.)
It Is about time for managers to
make their annual trips to Eu
rope la search of novelties, but many
of them confess that they doubt
whether the game is worth the candle.
There was a time, not many years
Bgro, when foreign plays were almost
eure money-makers. That period has
passed away, and the - up-to-date pro
ducers are pinning their faith to a
Crreat extent upon American authors.
The majority of the plays that have
succeeded this year have been the work
of American dramatists, who have
written about American life and in
cidents, and the belief i3 that the same
will hold true next year.
It is safe to predict now, however,
that "nasty" plays will be barred. It
Is true that "whit$ slave" dramas paid
last season, but only for a short time,
and many producers who took up the
fad toward the end lost money.
What is wanted are pood clean dra
mas and good bright comedies. Any
of these that come along are insured a
welcome and managers now thoroughly
realize it. "Within the Law" and
Potash and Ferlmutter" are two ex
cellent examples of the kind of amuse
ment that the New York public is wlll
lngr to see.
Musical comedy haa. on the whole,
had a bad. season. Perhaps the rea
son is that the public prefers to do. its
own dancing these days. Another ex
planation is that one musical comedy
is the same as another and that we are
tired of looking at them. Anyway, mu
sical comedy is an expensive luxury and
"angels" are' getting harder and harder
to lind every season. And a musical
comedy without an "angel" Is usually
destined to a speedy death.
Out of the West (San Francisco, to be
exact! has come a playette which
breaks all records for shortness of run.
It is called "Electrocution" and was
presented at Hammerstein's Victoria
Theater on a Monday afternoon and
closed before the evening performance
"rang up."
John Barry, a newspaperman, wrote
It. Out West it was called "Hanged."
I believe, but when brought to New
York it was changed to lit our style of
capital punishment. Its purpose is to
aid the propaganda of a society opposed
to executions.
The scene is laid in the execution
chamber of & prison. It is daybreak
and a prison aid enters to. prepare Vr
the electrocution of a man who kilted
his wife in a lit of jealous rage. The
lights are tried and salt and. water
mixed to saturate the sponges which
conduct the killing current. A prison
guard and a doctor talk at length about
the last hours of other men who have
died. Then other officials and report
ers enter. The brother of the dead
woman expresses satisfaction that the
-fearaWe?' Car- wsS
slayer is to pay tne penalty, after
which the priest enters, followed by
the trembling victim, repeating the re-
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sponses. He is led to the chair and
strapped in, with all due formality.
The executioner starts to turn on the
current, but at the last moment his
nerve fails him and he cannot start
the power. The warden seelfs for a
substitute, but every man there re
fuses the Job. even the brother of the
murdered woman. Finally a citizen
steps out of the crowd and volunteers,
because, he says, lie believes that per
sons condemned by the courts should
die. He steps to the switch and dark
ness descends upon the stage as he
turns on the current.
The acting was effective, but the
playette was too grewsome for the
audience. Even Mr. Hammersteln was
affected and in broken-hearted tones
ordered that "Electrocution" be with
drawn at once. And it was.
Douglas Fairbanks and Patricia Col
linge, both Broadway favorites, have
taken the plunge into vaudeville and
are appearing in a specially written
sketch entitled "All at Sea." The ac
tion takes place in the wireless room
of an ocean liner. Fairbanks is there
as the wireless man, in order to be
near his sweetheart, who is going to
Europe with her wealthy father. The
operator is worth $10,000, but stern
papa declares he shall never wed his
daughter until he has increased that
amount to an even $100,000. After all
this has been explained telegrams be
gin to arrive by wireless, announcing
that the father's business enemies are
at work to ruin the financier while he
is on the ocean. - All of these messages
are more or less incomprehensible to
the audience and all are extremely im
probable. The operator triumphs by
answering these communications with
such acumen and experience that he
makes another fortune for the financier
and also increases his own wealth to
such an extent that he can truthfully
say he is worth $100,000.
Mr. Fairbanks was his usual agile
and cheerful self. Miss Collinge never
looked prettier and . the audience
seemed satisfied with the offering.
Hazel Dawn, the Salt Lake girl who
won fame in "The Pink Lady," is now
under - the management of John C.
Fisher. She will be starred next season
In a musical comedy called "The De
butante." The book and lyrics are by
Harry B. Smith and Robert .Smith, and
the music by Victor Herbert. In the
offering. Miss Dawn will have an op
portunity to play the violin, as she did
In "The Pink Lady." In the support
ing company so far selected, will bo
Alan Mudie, Will West, William Dan
forth, John Park, Stewart Baird. Zoo
Barnett, Maude Odell and Sylvia Jason.
The first performance will be given on
September 28 at the National Theater,
Washington. ...
The famous Knickerbocker is the
latest of Broadway theaters to go into
the motion picture field. Beginning
Monday, the house will have as its at
traction "Cabiria," which has been
brought to this country by Werba and
Luescher, formerly producers of "The
Spring Maid," and other big attractions.
JAN SIBELIUS, FINNISH COMPOSER, TO
PLAY IN THIS COUNTRY FIRST TIME
Great Musician Will Appear at Unique Festival in Norfolk, Conn. Andreas Dippel Orchestra Plays in New
York in Fall Boston Opera Company Plans Visit to Frisco Mrae. Schnmann-Heink's Daughter to Wed.
BT EM1LIE FRANCES BAT'ER.
BW YORK, May 30. (Special.)
constitutes the entire musical in
"Next season! Next season." This
terest, and one might go further and
say the drama is in the same category.
All the music of Interest in the world
is the activity- in London and Paris,
and most of the artists are either those
who have been with us all of last sea
son or those who will come next sea
son. This is said, not forgetting the fes
tivals, which will close in a blaze of
glory in Norfolk, Conn., at the most
remarkable festival of all which will
serve to bring Jan Sibelius, the great
Finnish composer, to America, for the
first time.
The unique part of this festival is
that it is purely a personal affair of
Carl Staeckel, a music lover who gives
these festivals with the same lavish
hand as. though they were expected to
bring in hundreds of dollars at the
box office, when, as a matter of fact,
the audience is there by courtesy of
this ardent music lover and by his In
vitation only. Sibelius sailed May 19
on the Kaiser Wilhelm and will make
no other appearances.
Amato has been a sensational figure
among the festivals. He has filled a
great many of these engagements,
notable among which were the Cin
cinnati festival, where be sang upon
two occasions, and the Buffalo festival,
where, contrary to a hard and fast
rule that no soloist should be engaged
for two successive seasons, Amato was
one of the greatest features . of the
event. .
Mme. Hempel was heard there for
the first time, and the German prima
donna made a sensational success. One
of the most satisfying of the Buffalo
offerings was "Samson and Delilah,"
which was sung by Kathleen Howard,
of the Century Opera Company; Lam
bert Murphy, of the Metropolitan
Opera Company, and Louis Kreidler, of
the Century.
Andreas Dippel announces definitely
now that he will run a season of 35
weeks in New York, beginning Octo
ber 6, at the Forty-fourth-street Thea
ter. He will have the last-ten weeks
of the season at the Century Opera
house, where he will have his per
manent offices throughout the year.
Mr. Dippel probably has heard every
singing actor and actress and a good
many that could lay no claim to the
latter title, in New York, but he en
gaged only 26 women for the chorus
and very few principals.
The men's chorus is more difficult
to assemble. Mr. Dippel says:
"I have not found many men who
were willing to go into the chorus, and
while I may be compelled to draft my
chorus from abroad, it is not due to
any feeling -against American singers,
but the fact is that a position of this
sort does not offer American men
enough returns to pay them to go into
it. I want the American girls to feel
differently about my choruses and I
have found that many of them are
willing to take it as they would take
a training school.
"Whatever the remainder of the com
pany may be, the ensemble must be
flawless, and I have engaged some of
the best church singers in New York
for the chorus. They have been per
mitted to retain their church positions
and to attend their rehearsals as they
see fit and they appreciate the benefit
from the practice which they will
have. I want every one of them to be
able to take a small part from the be
ginning and they shall have .small
parts. In other words. I will not make
up a chorus that could not take princi
pal roles if they were needed there. I
hope to advance them as can only be
done in the case of an institution
which is to become permanent, as I
hope to have this become."
The orchestra he has made up In the
same way. using many men from the
Philharmonic Orchestra who will be
excused for the purpose of attending
to their orchestral concerts, but who
upon all other occasions will be mem
bers of the Dippel Orchestra. The
company was incorporated in Albany
as the Dippel Opera Comique Company,
and among the incorporators were
Otto H. Kahn, Mortimer Schiff, Philip
Lydig and other equally well-known
capitalists and patrons of music
The conditions surrounding the Bos
ton Opera Company have changed com
pletely since this organization has be
come an established success In Paris.
Henry Russell Is now booking and ar
ranging1 his company for touring." It
will not return to Boston until Janu
ary, and it Is likely that plans will
materialize by which the entire organ
ization will go to Australia, returning
by way of San Francisco during the ex
position festivities. Mr. Russell has
just engaged Eleanore de Cisneros, the
great American contralto, as a member
of the company while in Paris.
A young recruit to the Boston grand
opera from light opera and musical
comedy is Cecil Cunningham, whose
last appearance In light opera was
made in "Maid of Athens." Miss Cun
ningham crossed for Europe on the
same steamer as Henry Russell, and
she. was asked to sing one afternoon
by some friends on board. Result: An
engagement by the Impresario of the
Boston Opera Company to take effect
at once in Paris.
Campanini's season in Chicago will
not differ much from the arrangement
of last season. It will open November
23 in Chicago " after a three" weeks'
session in Philadelphia, Ten weeks in
Chicago will be followed by another
four weeks in Philadelphia, with the
usual visits to the Metropolitan in New
York.
The engagements already announced
include Bonci, .Maria Barrientos. the
Spanish coloratura, who was to have
appeared here with Hammerstein;
Heinrich Hansel. W'agnerian tenor,
Edyth Walker, Marie Kousnezoff, the
Russian soprano, now singing with
Russell in Paris; Louise Edvina, Llna
Cavallieri, Alice Zeppilli, Miss Kvan.,
Beatrice Wheeler, Margaret Keyes,
Rosa Ralsa. Mme. Schumann-Heink,
Muratore, Marcou. "Whitehill. Ruffo,'
Sammarco, " Hinckley and Huberdeau
and others.
CampaninI stated when he sailed that
he would go to Bayreuth this Summer
for the purpose of inducing Siegfried
Wagner to come to Chicago to conduct
a series of Wagnerian operas which
he expects to give on Sundays.
The Bayreuth performances will open
July 22 and run until August "0. Dur
ing this time there will be seven per
formances of "Parsifal," five of "The
Flying Dutchman" and two of the
"Ring" cycle. The conductors will be
Siegfried Wagner, Michael Balling and
Dr. Muck. Mme. Schumann-Heink and
Margaret Bruntsch, a, California girl,
are among those engaged.
Dr. Muck also is to conduct at the
Mozart festival, to be held in Salzburg,
and, notwithstanding rumors to the
contrary. Dr. Muck will return to the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. This
great conductor has been announced
as identified with every opera-house in
Europe, when as a matter of fact Dr.
Muck Is happier . at the baton of a
great symphony orchestra than at the
head of any opera-house In the world.
Lombard 1. the well-known Italian
impresario from San Francisco, paBsed
through New York this Week on his
way to Milan, where he will meet M.
Constantino, the tenor, and Marchetti,
who will together arrange a. company
for next season to play locally in Los
Angeles and later to make road tours
of opera in English. The only engage
ments that have been rati fled here are
those of O. Picco, the Italian baritone,
and Constanino. Picco Is one of the
best of the baritones now available.
In arranging his plans for next sea
son John Philip Sousa is planning for
10 weeks at San Francisco, beginning
In. May.
2 - .