The _divertissement_ held its place in the programme for a considerable time, but was in general character hardly up to the artistic tone of the Alhambra’s past; and the production of “Psyche,” a classic idyll in three scenes, of which the dramatic action and dances were by Signor Alfredo Curti, and the melodious, and always expressive music was by Mr. Alfred Moul, came as a welcome relief to the banalities of ragtime, the more so in that it provided a fine opportunity for another striking success by Mlle. Leonora, whose statuesque grace was particularly well displayed by the classic beauty of the setting provided for her. “Femina,” another fine production by Signor Curti, gave Mlle. Leonora opportunities, of which she fully availed herself, more especially in her own national dance, and Mlle. Britta achieved a marked success both as dancer and actress. Since then the more recent influx of Russian dancers to the Alhambra, in “The Dance Dream,” invented and produced by Alexander A. Gorsky, and notable for superb mounting and the fine dancing of Mme. Catrina Geltzer and M. Tichomiroff; then the exquisite “1830,” and since then again, another superb production of a new version of “Carmen,” produced by Mr. Dion Clayton Calthrop, and with some especially fine dancing by La Malaguenita and other Spanish artists, all offered us fresh and delightful examples of the enterprise of the management responsible for them. We must, however, leave any further consideration of the many notable examples of Ballet at the Alhambra, which during the past two or three years has been mainly given up to the _Revue_; and must now turn to the Empire where an extensive series of always artistic productions have provided those who witnessed them with many interesting and happy memories. CHAPTER XXXIII THE EMPIRE 1884-1906 Before it opened its doors as a regular theatre, with the late H. J. Hitchins as Manager, on April 17th, 1884, the Empire had “played many parts.” The site had been occupied by a royal residence which became in time a picture, or exhibition gallery and a café chantant, before being burnt down in 1865. Then the late John Hollingshead and some friends proposed erecting a theatre on the site, but the scheme fell through and the ruin remained ruinous for some years, until it became for a time a panorama of Balaclava. Then a theatre was started, to be called the Pandora, but did not get finished under that title. Finally it opened as the Empire in 1884, with “Chilperic,” a musical spectacle in three acts and seven tableaux, founded on the opera adapted by H. Hersee and H. B. Farnie, with music by Hervé. The production included three grand ballets invented and arranged by Monsieur Bertrand. The sensation of the third act was a “midnight review and electric ballet of fifty Amazons, as invented by Trouvé, of Paris (being the first time where three electric lamps are carried and manipulated by one person, with the most startling and gorgeous effect).”