The French ambassador, who has also been searching for the Czar, finds the real one by telling him the story of a Russian defeat which causes him to betray himself. The Czar, who is now anxious to go home and crush out the rebellion, seeks for some means to get away without the knowledge of the Dutch and the English. Finding out by chance that Ivanoff has an English passport, he secures it, and gives Ivanoff another paper which he is not to open until an hour has passed. During this time Ivanoff is enjoying the public reception, which suddenly is interrupted by cannon reports. The gateway of the port is opened, showing the Czar with the Russian and French ambassadors sailing away. Ivanoff opens his paper, and finds that his companion was the Czar, who has given him a good situation as well as his consent to his marriage with Marie, the burgomaster’s niece.
The leading numbers of the first act are the carpenter’s spirited song, “Grip your Axes”; Marie’s jealousy song, “Ah! Jealousy is a Bad Companion”; the humorous aria of Van Bett, “Oh! sancta Justitia, I shall go raving”; the long duet for Van Bett and Ivanoff, “Shall I make a Full Confession?” and the effective quartettes in the finale. The second act contains the best music of the opera. It opens with a mixed chorus of a bacchanalian sort, “Long live Joy and Pleasure,” which after a long dialogue is followed by the tenor romanza, “Fare thee well, my Flandrish Maiden,” a quaint melody, running at the end of each stanza into a duet, closing with full chorus accompaniment. A sextette, “The Work that we’re beginning,” immediately follows, which, though brief, is the most effective number in the opera. The next number of any consequence in this act, is a rollicking bridal song, “Charming Maiden, why do Blushes,” sung by Marie. The last act has a comic aria and chorus, “To greet our Hero with a Stately Reception,” and an effective song for the Czar, “In Childhood, with Crown and with Sceptre I played.”
LUDERS, GUSTAVE.
King Dodo.
[A musical comedy, in three acts; text by Pixley. First produced at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago, May 27, 1901.]
PERSONAGES.
King Dodo I. Pedro, Court chamberlain. Dr. Fizz, Court physician. Mudge, Court historian. Sancho, an innkeeper. Bonilla, prime minister to Queen Lili. Lo Baswood. Lopez. Diego. José. Unio. Queen Lili. Angela, the King’s ward. Piola, a soldier of fortune. Annette.
[Courtiers, knights, ladies, etc.]
The scene is laid in Dodoland and the South Sea islands; time, the present.
“King Dodo,” though usually set down on the programmes as a comic opera, strictly speaking, is a musical comedy, or comedy opera. Its plot turns upon the efforts of King Dodo to find the elixir of youth. His adventures carry him from his own kingdom in the land of nowhere in particular to the South Sea islands and back, a few absurd love episodes adding to the humor of the situations in which he finds himself. The old King is enamoured of the Princess Angela, and to secure her he determines to find the fountain which will renew his youth. His Court physician has failed in the attempt; but Piola, “a soldier of fortune,” claims to know where the fountain is, but demands that when he finds it he shall have the hand of Angela as his reward. The King reluctantly consents, and starts with his whole establishment to find it. The wonderful spring is discovered in the land of the Spoopjus, and there King Dodo also finds Queen Lili, who promptly falls in love with him, because her ideal for a husband is a man full of years and experience. The King, however, accidentally drinks from the fountain, and is transformed into a child, whereupon the Queen rejects him. As the waters fortunately work both ways, when Dodo is thrown into them by conspirators, he becomes himself again, and the Queen devotes herself to him anew with such assiduity that they are united. Pedro and Annette and Piola and Angela also improve the occasion to get married, and all return in great glee to Dodoland.
The musical numbers in “King Dodo,” are all of a light, catchy kind, their success depending much upon the sprightliness of the performers. The most popular are the “Cats’ Quartette”; “The Tale of the Bumble-bee”; Piola’s song, “I’ll do or die,” which is accompanied by a stirring chorus; the melodious “Zamoña,” sung by Angela and chorus; a drinking-song of a spirited sort by Annette and chorus; “The Eminent Dr. Fizz,” sung by the doctor himself; and “The Jolly old Potentate” and the topical song, “They gave me a Medal for that,” sung by King Dodo.
The Prince of Pilsen.
[A musical comedy, in two acts; text by Pixley. First produced in the Tremont Theatre, Boston, May 21, 1902.]
PERSONAGES.
Carl Otto, the Prince. Hans Wagner, an American citizen. Tom Wagner, his son. Arthur St. John Wilberforce. François. Mrs. Madison Crocker, an American widow. Sidonie. Edith. Nellie. Jimmy.
[Tourists, students, flower-girls, sailors, etc.
The scene is laid in Nice; time, the present.
“The Prince of Pilsen,” the latest, and in many respects the best, of Mr. Luders’ productions, like most musical comedies of the prevailing kind, has but a brief and somewhat incongruous story. The first act opens during the annual flower festival at Nice. The proprietor of the Hôtel Internationale learns that the Prince of Pilsen will reach there on the morrow incognito, and determines he shall be received with all the attentions due to his rank. He employs a band of musicians to escort him from the station to the hotel, and hires flower-girls to strew his way with roses. Hans Wagner, a German-American brewer from Cincinnati, and his daughter, who go to Nice to meet the brewer’s son, an American naval officer, arrive on the same day. The brewer is mistaken for the Prince, and he and his party meet with a brilliant but somewhat surprising reception. He can account for it in no other way than that his greeting as the Prince of Pilsen is a tribute to the excellence of his Pilsener beer, and accepts it complaisantly. When the real prince arrives, however, with a company of Heidelberg students, he is ignored, and even has some difficulty in securing accommodations. The Prince, however, does not declare his identity at once, but waits for an opportunity to expose the impostor who is trading on his name. He accidentally meets the daughter, and after some conversation with her is sure that her father has not intended to deceive and is not responsible for the mistake. He decides therefore to continue the rôle of private citizen, and is the more confirmed in his decision when he finds himself falling in love with the brewer’s daughter. This enrages the brother, who challenges the Prince, which leads to the arrest of both of them. In the second act all the complications get straightened out. The real Prince marries the brewer’s daughter, and the brewer himself takes home the American widow, Mrs. Madison Crocker, as his wife.