HERR BANDMANN AND THE "PRESS" CRITIC.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2192, 5 March 1881, Page 2

HERR BANDMANN AND THE "PRESS" CRITIC.

To the hditor of the Olobe. Sib, — I have road with some astonishment the very violent letter of Herr Bandm&nn in your contemporary the “ Frees” of this morning. Thinking I might have omitted to notice something in the “ Press” criticisms which would justify such strong language, I re-read them, but failed to find it. I happened to be in Dunedin when Othello, with Herr Bandmann as the Moor, was produced. So far from the Dunedin criticism of bis performance being so favorable as Herr Bandmann would lead us to believe, it was far stronger and more outspoken than anything that has appeared in the “ Press” here. The following extracts from the “Otago Daily Times” will prove the truth of my remarks. I am, yours, &0., PLAYGOER. Christchurch, sth March, 1881. Othello, as drawn by Shakespeare, is one of the noblest men in the world—frank, generous, resolute, loving and trustful in his nature, slow to believe in baseno-.s and deceit, holding honour in higher estimation than life : every shade of his character is presented in quick succession in the stirring scenes of his history. Herr Bandmann sees in Othello all these attributes, but his passion occasionally carries him away, and the nobility of the character is lost in the extravagance of the dross. Frequent change of pitch in the voice is too freely indulged in by Herr Bandmann, and its constant recurrence takes away from the dignity of hia delivery. It was in the scenes with lago and Dosdomona iu the third and fourth acts that Herr Bandmann rose to his highest, and in these the intensity thrown into his acting was terrible to witness. Othello's determination to be more satisfied ere he suspects his wife was grandly expressed, and Herr Bandmann’s delivery of the linos — “ No, lago; I’ll bob before I donbt; when I doubt, prove ; And, on the proof, there is no more but this— Away at once with love or jealousy!” was superb. Again, in the same scene, a powerful picture was drawn of the fight Othello has with himself before he can stoop to play|the spy, or admit to lago that be suspects his wife, culminating in the delivery of the linos “ Farewell, farewell If more thon dost perceive, lot mo know more; Set on thy wife to observe.” Could Herr Bandmann have kept himself up to

the level of hie acting in these scenes, his imperaonation would have left upon the mind an S* °- f P ra -t pow f 5 bat he forgot ocoaBionally the intensity and repression of Othello's nature, and burst into wild paroxysms that spoiled an otherwise splendid delineation. As B P~ns as these wo may mention the line Farewell! Othello’s occupation's gone,”

, ~ Ab, Desdemona ! away ! away ! away!” both of which were simply shrieked out in the wildest manner. His frequent hysterical fits of crying, too, were out of place, and in the last scene especially his utterances wore at times almost maudlin, an impression which the meaningless swaying to and fro of his body helped to confirm. Much of the weakness of Herr tsandmann’s representation may be attributed ,j, P Cir support ho received from Mr Reynold s lago.