San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

March 17, 1900 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW 13 at the concert to be given next week by Farland the banjo Virtuoso. Miss Alice Newton's pupil of Ida Valerga appeared at the Music Teachers' Association last week. Her name was accidentally omitted from my notice. Illness prevented my having the pleasure of greeting Miss Saidee E. Walsh at her concert at Maple Hall last week when she was presented to the public by Joseph Greven, but I am told that she was well received and made an excellent impression, and that her voice is one of flexibility and power. Miss Lilly Roeder and Messrs. Betts and Callender also participated in the program of which Habenara from Carmen was considered one of Miss Walsh's best numbers. * Miss Ella McCloskey and Lilly Roeder sang at the vesper service of the Unitarian Church, Alameda, last week. Miss Elizabeth is organist and director of the choir. — Mary Frances Francis. The Theatre Franchise Successful Entertainment The National Union Social and Literary Club gave a pleasant entertainment at Odd Fellows' Hall on Thursday. Musical selections were given by Sichels' orchestra, recitation Mabel Richardson, soprano solo Belle Livingston, specialties Geo. Hammersmith, tenor solo Wm. O'Brien, solo dance Rosine Dennery, Xylophone solo with orchestral accompaniment J. Casad, the program concluding with comedietta, To Oblige Benson, with Messrs. H. G. Leffman, K. McLeod, F. Rhodes, Mrs. Ciprico and Miss Hope Mosher, in the cast. — Mary Frances Francis. Coquelins Generosity It is expected that the Comedie Francaise destroyed by fire last week will be back again in its old home before autumn. The company will be temporarily housed in the Theatre Odeon, the shrine of classical drama in the Latin Quarter. The difficulties in providing houses for both Comedie and Odeon troupes have been solved by the spontaneous offer of the elder Coquelin, who came to the rescue and offered his play house, the Theatre de la Porte St. Martin, for one month free of rent. This offer was all the more generous in view of Coquelin's historic quarrel with the Comedie Francaise and his leaving them altogether. Twenty-Second Invitation Musicale and Hop GIVEN BY THE Mckenzie Musical Society ODD FELLOWS' HALL, Seventh and Market Sts Thursday Evening, March 22, 1900 For invitations apply to J.W. McKeniie, 524 Eddy St. The fa mous theatre of Pat is is no more — only the memories clustered about the ruins and the great actors of France, whose highest ambition was to be numbered in its personnel, remain to France and to the world that has an interest in the great part that theatrical art plays in the life of to-day. The Theatre Francais, the government theatre of Paris, supported by a large annual state endowment, was the home of the Comedie Francaise, the oldest and greatest theatrical troupe, and with the largest repertoire in the world. The Comedie Francaise was organized in 1600, during the reign of Henry IV, first monarch of the house of Bourbon. Fifty-eight years later, during the time of Louis XIV, the company was under the superintendence of Moliere of the public were lined with memorials or scenes from the works of those who have contributed to the value of the French drama — expressions of appreciation which indicate how highly the past of this theatre is esteemed by the public and the State, The famous gallery of busts of bust of Dumas fils and the statue of Talma are also destroyed or badly damaged. A like fate has befallen the superb statues of Mile. Mars as Comedy and of Mile. Rachel as Tragedy. Perhaps sadder still to relate is the terrible havoc made by the flames in The Theatre Francaise as it looked before the fire. the archives and library containing invaluable theatrical records of the last 200 years, and the registers wherein were noted day by day every incident of the Theatre Francais, the receptions, cast and success of each new play, the register beginning with the journal of La Grande, the fellow actor of Moliere, and continuing with scarcely a break to the present day. Mile. Henroit was the only victim to the flames. She became confused, and rushing blindly about became a victim to the flames. Side Lights Interior Showing the Grand Staircase until his death in 1673. After the troubles of the Revolution, their theatre was a special object of Napoleon's favor. It was he who, on the night of the burning of Moscow, sent the decree constituting the players the Societe des Comediens, to be endowed by the state and under its supervision. To be of the Comedie Francaise is the goal of ambition of all serious actors who speak their lines in the French language. The annual state subsidy of the theatre was $48,000. The Theatre Francais was more than a mere playhouse. The spacious and dignified halls for the convenience all eminent actors and actresses who in the past have honored the Theatre Francais is now lost. A large portrait of Rachel, by Gerome, is burned. So also are the famous portraits of Mile. Clairion as Meda, of David Garrick, of Mile. Mars and of Adrienne Lecouvreur. The portrait of Moliere breakfasting with Louis XIV is destroyed. Two of the best works of Houdon, the bust of Moliere and the lifelike seated statue of Voltaire, the bust of Jean Jacques Rousseau by Caffieri, the sitting statue of George Sand, the superb head of Dumas the elder, with the negro blood fully apparent in his thick lips; Carpaux's Another American musical attraction which is looked for next year in London is the Alice Nielsen Opera Company, Frank L. Perley, its manager, having postponed the engagement from this season until next, because of the prevailing depression now on in Loudon. A Stranger in New York Company that has been touring in Australia under the management of Ed Cook, got in Friday of last week and left Saturday for New York. They report business having been big. In Los Angeles a fine new theatre is one of the improvements the city will welcome in the near future, if the source of the scribe's information is reliable. The building will be erected on Broadway between Third and Fourth streets, and is to cost close to half a million. The same informant says that the gentlemen who propose making the investment will offer the management to Harry Wyatt. — Los Angeles Western Graphic.