Due South; or, Cuba Past and PresentBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
Due South; or, Cuba Past and Present
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Cuba
The celebrated Tacon Theatre faces the Paseo de Isabella, and is built
on the corner of San Rafael Street. It is a capacious structure, but
extremely plain and unimpressive in its exterior appearance. It has
five tiers of boxes and a spacious parquette, the latter furnished
with separate arm-chair seats for six hundred persons. The entire
seating capacity of the house is a trifle over three thousand, and the
auditorium is of the horseshoe shape. The lattice-work finish before
the boxes is very light and graceful in effect, ornamented with gilt,
and so open as to display the dresses and pretty feet of the fair
occupants to the best advantage. The frescos are in good style, and
the ornamentation, without being excessive, is in excellent and
harmonious taste. A large, magnificent glass chandelier, lighted with
gas, and numerous smaller ones extending from the boxes give a
brilliant light to this elegant house, which is one of the largest
theatres in the world. The scene is a remarkable one when tier upon
tier is filled with gayly dressed ladies, powdered and rouged as Cuban
women are apt to be, in the most liberal manner. The parquette is
reserved for gentlemen, and when the audience is assembled forms a
striking contrast to the rest of the house, as they always appear in
dark evening dress, and between the acts put on their tall black
beaver hats. These audiences have their own special modes of
exhibiting appreciation or applause, when captivated by a prima
donna's or a danseuse's efforts to please them. At favorable moments
during the performance the artist is showered with bouquets; white
doves are set free from the boxes, bearing laudatory verses fastened
to their wings; gentlemen throw their hats upon the stage, and
sometimes even purses weighted with gold. Tiny balloons are started
with long streamers of colored ribbon attached; jewelry in the shape
of bracelets and rings is conveyed over the footlights; in short,
these Spaniards are sometimes extraordinarily demonstrative. A furore
has sometimes cost these caballeros large sums of money. But we are
describing the past rather than the immediate present, for the
scarcity of pecuniary means has put an end to nearly all such
extravagances. The Havanese are peculiar in their tastes. While Miss
Adelaide Phillips was more than once the recipient of extravagant
favors on the Tacon Theatre stage, Jenny Lind did not pay her
professional expenses when she sang there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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