AMUSEMENTS.
Last night Lincoln was favored with the best
comic opera of this or of many seasons. [
Mr. De Wolf Hopper
](n00849) and his company
played [
"Panjandrum"
](n00765) to a packed and crowded house at the [Lansing](n00066) last
night. To say that there were four curtain calls at the end of the first act
and six recalls in the middle of the third shows the feelings of the audience.
The feelings of the critic are somewhat hard to control and one is sorely
tempted to do what the audience did do, give way completely to admiration. "Panjandrum"
is a better comic opera than [
"The Fencing Master"
](n00763) because it is funny. An
opera should be comic or romantic, it should not just hang upon the ragged edge
of either. The music is lively and unobtrusive and the libretto is as inane
as possible. The opera is absolutely without plot, characterizations and
situations, but the attitudes are charming, particularly the one in the barrel
the one on the barrel, the ones at the palace, in fact, all those in which [
Miss
Fox
](n00772) and Mr. Hopper were together.
Mr. Hopper is not a great singer, but he is a
genuine comedian and he has the good sense not to try to play tragedy because
nature made him for comedy. He has the comic instinct and immense proportions
and a few little tricks of the voice that of themselves would make a great
comedian. When big men are funny they are excruciatingly funny, much more so
than little men, there is so much more of him to be funny. Every portion of
Mr. Hopper's very extensive frame can twist itself into fun, pure and simple. Above all he has eyes that can do anything.
Miss Della Fox is as indescribable as she is
audacious and as delicious as she is audacious. She is little, very little
beside Mr. Hopper's
[awful](n00075) bigness, and captivating, and in the fullest sense of the word, she is chic. She is undoubtedly the most popular woman on the stage
just now. When [the "Dramatic News"](n00852) was rash enough to publish her picture
they sold out all their issue and by the constant demand of the public were
forced to reprint the picture in the next issue. Many actresses have in them
all the elements of success, but Della Fox has success, which is quite a
different thing. She has the dash and natural flippancy of a comedienne. She
carries mirth in her face and has laughter hidden away in her eyes. She has
only to move her foot and the house feels happy, she has only to wink her eye
and it laughs, she has only to faint on a barrel and hundreds of people are
carried away by convulsions of laughter. She has a sort of personal magnetism
of mirth about her. There is nothing really pretty in her face, yet she was
bewitching as a blonde, fascinating as a brunette, and because of her vivacity
altogether lovely.
The chorus was strong and all the members of the
company sang well, with perhaps the exception of [
Miss Grace Golden
](n00853), who sang
several tremulous solos on the subject of love. The scenery was beautiful and
the costumes gorgeous. From [
Carmen
](n01470) down operas with the scene in Spain are blessed with fine opportunities for rich costumes, and Borneo is still more alluring.
[
Miss Ida Fuller's
](n00856) dancing was the most beautiful ever done on the Lansing stage. The effects, cloud drapery and color were dazzling and superb. As for the company, compared with [
Marie Tempest's
](n00756) company they are so far superior that
[
Miss Post
](n00810) and [
Mr. Steger
](n00802) could not find them with a telescope. Even the chorus girls could sing and were pretty. When a comic opera furnishes pretty chorus
girls it has reached the highest degree of civilization and christian charity
that a comic opera can attain.