The fortnightly masquerades at the Royal Opera House are more popular
than ever with light-hearted Londoners. Now that the autumn season of
opera is over, the whole of the large house is available for the
accommodation of the merry throng of dancers who flock to Covent Garden
on alternate Fridays, and the additional space afforded by the stage and
its surrounding area is beautified by scenery from the near East. The
competition for the prizes for the best and most original dresses is
apparently more keen than ever, and the march past of competitors is
certainly one of the sights of London.
“CINDERELLA” AT THE EMPIRE.
The name of Cinderella certainly is just about now one to conjure with.
The phenomenally successful “Catch of the Season” is none other than our
old friend in modern dress; at Drury Lane the most attractive pantomime
is “Cinderella,” and now the management of the Empire have produced a
beautiful _ballet_ in five scenes, which present for more than an hour
twice a day a series of some of the most beautiful and striking effects
that have been seen for many a long day.
The one and only Mademoiselle Adeline Gênée is the most delightful and
dainty Cinderella, and of all her artistic triumphs she has enjoyed none
greater than the present, and she is well supported by Mademoiselle
Zanfretta as the fairy godmother, Mr. W. Vokes as the _décavé_ Baron,
and Mr. Fred Farren as the Baroness. “Cinderella,” produced as a
_matinée_ on January 6th, speedily found herself in the evening bill as
well as in daily _matinées_.
The _revue_ “Rogues and Vagabonds” has proved a great attraction, thanks
to the extremely clever mimicry of Mr. Arthur Playfair and Miss Marie
Dainton, and the performance of Miss Sibyl Arundale as Harlequin. Miss
Arundale has a genius which seems to be incapable of being misplaced,
and whether she play “Lady Molly,” “Nanoya, the Cingalee,” “The Gipsy
Girl,” or Harlequin, she is invariably a great artist.
With the _revue_ written up to date, there seems no reason why it should
not remain a prominent feature of the Empire programme for a long time
to come.
The Barber-Ritchie cycling trio is one of the cleverest turns at the
Empire, and certainly it seems unlikely that proficiency in cycling can
well reach a much higher development than this. Unless our memory fails
us, we were thrilled some months ago by seeing Mr. Barber loop the loop
on the Empire stage, and Mr. Ritchie is, we hope, none other than our
old friend the Tramp Cyclist, whose grotesque disasters and stock of
superfluous collars caused us so much merriment a little time ago. We
hope that the Barber-Ritchie combination will be visible in London for
some long time to come.