THE DEBUT OF AN EMINENT TRAGEDIAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 3

THE DEBUT OF AN EMINENT TRAGEDIAN.

Teabs ago— never mind how many, for I speak of the famous Miss Homer* and of opera, and both woman and music are unabated ; years ago, then, I was a dweller in Cork, and the old city was all excitement and delight with the visit of an opera troupe — a won- j derful opera troupe for those days, and eminently acceptable even for these, the charming Miss Eomer, aforesaid, -was the prima donna the renowned Englishman Leffler, was the bass, and tne equally, renowned Scotchman, Wilson, was the tenor. Several operas had been given, among them The Mountain Sylph, Somnambula, etc , and then Fra Dia volo came on the managerial tapis. There were Zerlina, \ Giacomo, Beppo, Lord and Lady Allcash, the dashing Fra himself, but no Lorenzo ! "No Lorenzo," sighed Miss Romer; "No Lorenzowhew!" whistled Wilson; "No Lorenzo! — an octave lover — diapasoned Leffler. Trio — Opera can't he done.'"' "Stay," cried the manager ; ' ' there's a young fellow engaged in the company who has a pretty tenor voice and who might be able to struggle through it." Trio (desperate)— " Can he act?" "Don't know. He hasn't had a chance yet. He's only twenty; been with me but three weeks, and has not yet trod on my boards or any other." Trio (contristezzaj — "Oh! — Ah! just so! Thanks. Impossible." "Let's! do it without Lorenzo," ponderously suggested the bass. "What! Cut out my lover — my gallant officer ! Never ! " cried the prima donna. "Suppose we hear this young man sing, Wilson," said she. " Do," said the manager, " there are two things in his favor — he is deuced good-looking and he knows music." Trio (animatoj — "Bravo, bravo! We'll hear him." The "young man" was immediately summoned, the state of affairs explained, and Wilson asked him to sing a song for them. " Chance is the rough stone which decision carves into the image of a god," says a French philosopher. Our young man seized his chance, and sang with steady voice, the old ballad " The Rose of Allandale." Trio con spirito — " Good ! excellent ! " and though the impromtu tenor did not exactly carve the Rose of Allandale into the image of a goddess, the made enough of the " chance" to have the score of the opera immediately put into his hands, and with Wilson at the piano, he, without a moment's delay, commenced his study of Lorenzo — six lengths of dialogue, a song, and many pages of difficult concerted music ; and four nights after the Corkonians applauded a capital Lorenzo. Well, the "young feller with the very pretty tenor voice" who struggled through Lorenzo was not destined for the lyric stage after all. Inclinations, stronger than chance, wedded him to the tragic muse— play-going Great Britain assisting at the ceremony. The stripling lover has been changed into the great tragedian, the "pretty tenor" mellowed into the "big manly voice," and the " young fellow who had never trod any boards," transformed into the hero of a thousand theatres — Baket Sullivan.