" Mozart and Gounod wrote these with a full knowledge of the
method of interpretation and the persons who had been trained for
that purpose--the performers fit the music and it fits them. This
opera-ballet is also more in accordance with tradition before the
time of Noverre.
Neither do the "popular" and curious exhibitions of Loie Fuller strike
one as having a classic character, or future, of any consideration,
pretty as they may be.
The operetta or musical comedy has given us some excellent art,
especially at the end of the 19th century, when Sylvia Gray, Kate
Vaughan, Letty Lind, Topsy Sinden, and others of like _metier_ gave us
skirt and drapery dancing.
This introduces us to the question of costume. That commonly used by
the _prima ballerina_ is certainly not graceful; it was apparently
introduced about 1830, presumably to show the action and finished
method of the lower extremities. If Fanny Ellsler and Duvernay could
excel without this ugly contrivance, why is it necessary for others?
At the same time it is better than indifferent imitations of the
Greek, or a return to the debased characteristics of Pompeiian art, in
which the effect of the classic and fine character of the material are
rendered in a sort of transparent muslin.
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