I must
confess to having appeared on the stage in an Eton jacket and
collar at the age of twenty-four, as the schoolboy in Peril.
Russians are extremely clever at parody. Two brothers Narishkin
wrote an intensely amusing mock serious opera, entitled
Gargouillada, ou la Belle de Venise. It was written half in French
and mock-Italian, and half in Russian, and was an excellent skit
on an old-fashioned Italian opera. All the ladies fought shy of
the part of "Countess Gorganzola," the heroine's grandmother. This
was partly due to the boldness of some of "Gorganzola's" lines,
and also to the fact that whoever played the role would have to
make-up frankly as an old woman. I was asked to take "Countess
Gorganzola" instead of the villain of the piece, which I had
rehearsed, and I did so, turning it into a sort of Charley's Aunt
part. Garouillada went with a roar from the opening chorus to the
final tableau, and so persistently enthusiastic were the audience
that we agreed to give the opera again four nights in succession.
I was at work in the Chancery of the Embassy next morning when
three people were ushered in to me.
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