Theatres, Music, and Fashion.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2082, 6 September 1875, Page 2

Theatres, Music, and Fashion.

A LETTER FROM PARIS.

(by our own corbespondent.)

Paris, July 10;

THEATEES

Folies Dbamatiqtjes. — Oublier le Monde, a comedy- bouffe in three acts, by Messrs Chincholli and Rigaud. Like a fewother theatres, the artistes of this.have formed themselves into a co-operative society, to keep the house open during the ordinary two summer months it remains closed. Thanks to the weather, the attendance is at prevent about what it is in December. The name of the piece —"To Forget the World "—does not announce much, is not pleasant, but these objections do not prevent the play from being amusing. M. Beaupanard is discovered by his own wife, who is by nature an attorney, to be ia intimate, relations with the spouse of Becquencuir ; his defence is, crass ignorance that she was married. But Mme. Beaupanard is not the daughter of an attorney for nothing ; she has the code at her finger ends, and like a Bengal tigress, seeks Becquencuir, and causes him to prosecute her husband, and so well that the latter is sentenced to three months'imprisonment. After purging his contempt of the lavr, Mme. Beaupanard celebrates the return of her guilty husband to the conjugal home by a fete, and welcomes him with open arms ; the unfortunate man is not more astonished than the assembled guests; he nearly loses his head, when his wife; relates the state of anxiety she has been in during the long three months, lest he was not well fed, cared, and lodged, and her fears that he might be watched by some ferocious gaoler. The husband quietly remarks, that all this uneasiness might have' been avoided, by not casting him into prison. For his future guidance, she councils him how to act henceforth : first, as an attorney, and second as a wife. Beaupanard, who is secretly thirsting for vengeance, acts on her instructions so well, that lie elopes next day with Mme. Becquencuir, and his wife, exasperated at his incorrigible infidelity, decamps with Becquencuir—it is the sole vengeance that rests to that woman of law. Their daughter Berthe profits by the general confusion, runs away with young Gastbn, in order to avoid being married to old Godex. All the fugitives meet at Trouville, and at the same hotel; husbands take back their wives, and Berthe secured Gaston for better for worse. Some long scenes take take place, the result of inexperience on the pait of the authors, but there are others eminently comical; one for example, where Gaston swears by all the gods to punish Godex, and pursues him, disguised as an organ-grinder, ever turning the same tune, assassinating him with it from morn till night. Recognising her lover in this wandering minstrel, Berthe elopes with him, when the orgaii of coune is discarded; but only for a time, for Godex avails himself of it aud pursues in turn the lovers with a monotonous air, till fatigued like Mantilini, to find his life, " one demd horrid grind," he throws the instrument .away and resigns himself to fate. TheAplay was well received and will have a fair run.

Paiais.Royal.—" Id Medor I " a farce in one act by M. Verconsin. This house is accustomed to bring out only screaming pieces, and the difference between the good and bad productions, is only that of relative'degree of laughter. The present play moves a little stiffly and the dialogue is somewhat deficient in fantasy. M. Malicorne/is a free and easy John Gilpin, who honors the opening of the sporting season by setting out in a canvass costume, with witl* game bag, gaiters, dog, and fowlingpiece. He was never known to kill a cockrobbin. To catch a train, he enters an omnibus, and by some unexplained cause his gun goes off, penetrates the roof of the vehicle, and wounds a voyager more- uncomfortably than seriously. The accident has spoiled his sporting inclination, so he returns home. His wife had an assignation with a lover, and has only time to conceal Don Juan under a bed. But it is just the bed on which Malicorne throws himself to slumber away his trials; halfsleeping, he hears a noise, and believes it is his faithful dog, so calls him with an " id Medor ! " letting his hand negligently hang to be licked, and rewarding the supposed Medor by a pat on the head. The manner in which Don Juan imitates the barking of Medor, and licks the hand that might have slain him, is inimitably droll. Don Juan is at last Released, siad Malicorne is made to believe he is hiding from the vengeanoe of an obnoxious neighbor of Mahcorne's, whose wife he has compromised. This theatre has revised the Deux noces de BoisjoU by Messrs Chivot and Duru,

the most buffoon of buffooneries. It 1 turns upon a case of compulsory bigamy, where Boisjoli is forced to marry two wives', and to find himself between his? "tw,p fathers in-law, as between Charybdi3 arijl Scylla. It is a perfect cure for the heartache.

Dejtazet. — Les Fees de Beranger, a fantastical piece in four acts and nine tableaux. This theatre is an example, like so many others, that there is no bad season,'- except for bad' plajs. After finishing with the heroines of Paul de Kock, Beranger's t? Fairies," Lisctte, Fretillon, Roger Bontemps, the King of •Ifoetal, &c.,' defile on the stage. r**The Poet himself, in white hair, holding a vine branch for a walking stick, js represented, sings a song and disappears, which comes tip r': 'to; Eugene" Pelletan's Berangery "a shooting,star." .Thepublic,however,: show that the star '.is always present, not large, but brilliant for them, and that the poet sans facon, and the philosopher without bitterness lives in hearts he has left behind. "With Beranger for a frame work, and a selection of pretty end numerous actresses to represent his fbes, to sing and to dance to his songs, a successful spectacle has been produced, LYRtQUE Deamatiqtte.— La Tour de Londres. A successful, but old five act drama, by Messrs. Nus and Brat, has been revived at this theatre. Being full of robberies,;; murders, executions, and love-crossings, the, -public had the worth of their money in sensations. Each spectatress was presented with a rose, but, in return, was expected to contribute something for the Toulouse Relief Fund. "■ If the roses are roses, they W'll bloom," says an Italian-proverb ; in the present case they bloomed with the perfume of charity. The Tower of London was first produced in 1855, and relies principally . upon its two masked headsmen, which recalls the " Catherine Howard " of Dumas, or the '•" Dux Cadavres" of Soalie. The scene is laid during the time of Cromwell and Charles 11, afad though, the former be treated as a bandit, and the latter as bravery, &c, itself, the republican spectators, so concialiating have. they : become, never indulged in a protest; a coach and six is driven through all the verities of history. The great Douglas has been condemned to be executed, and the two headsmen appear, masked and in long red robes; one of the executioners is his intimate friend, Lord Murray, who accepts the post, in order to save him, but learning the Douglas has sedflced his sister he has no more compassion, .and does not know if he or bis companion have used the axe ; he is suspected of having done so, becomes a prey to remorse, is thrown into prison, condemned to be executed, when the other headsman avows it was he decapitated Douglas. -There are some things iiew in the piece ; Douglas is as like Charles I. in make up as one drop of .water resembles another; then the royal arms of France are made to do duty in Wesminster Hall, for those of England, and the background of the Tower is represented by the most refreshing Alpine scenery, which must gladden the inhabitants of the Minories. /London has made wonderful improvements of late, but has not yet succeeded in transporting a ridge of the Alps. These blunders ought not to occur now-a-days, when Paris has become the suburbs of London.

Theatre Fjransais,—A grand benefit was given at this house on behalf of the distressed at Toulouse. Among the various attractions afforded, was Moliere's " Malade Imaginaire," with Mile. Barretta in the r6:e of Angelique. This chief comedy »f Moliere is both amusing and terrifying ■; it is at once gay and dramatic. The plot is that ct an old and not bad man, who labors under the mania to believe himself an invalid, and takes so many drugs that he is surprised he does not burst. He has married for second wife a kind of adventuress, whose object is to enjoy his wealth as soon as possible, endeavoring to secure all by compelling Angeliquo to take the veil. The notary seconds her efforts so far as he can do so. The moribund feigns death, and soon the widow puts her hands under his pillow to obtain the keys, &c. Her next step is to thank heaven for being relieved of a disgusting burden, who seemed to. contain an apothecary shop in his stomach, and whose whole duty in the world was to cough and to expectorate. At this moment the corpse sits up in the bed, requests the wife to go softly, and asks, is that the way she lores him. When it comes to the turn of Angelique' to witness the assumed death of her father, she indulges in such grief, as to cause him to sit up and thank her. Malle. Baretta forced the dramatic note, forgetting that at the theatre, truth is nothing but the vraisemblance all; such as it seems, not according to nature, but to the disposition of the assembled spectators. It was thus Moliere wrote his comedy, in the end to make honest people laugh, and to carry away with them the idea of the humorous. However, Angelique is a proof of the various manners in. which the character of woman may be represented; every, painter clothes the same model according to his conception; thus Michael Angelo would make of it a Sibyl, Raphael a Virgin, and Vinci a woman. Moliere is unrivalled as a painter of woman.