Music: Herbert Revived

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A transplanted washerwoman wears ''a Paris cremation," a doubtful diplomat describes a rare piece of carpet as "hard to beat."

These sorry sayings and many akin could be heard any night last week on Broadway. They were occasioned by the comic opera Sweethearts, first in a series of Victor Herbert revivals.†

The never-never land of Zilania is the scene for Sweethearts; a disguised princess (Gladys Baxter), the heroine given the Sweetheart waltz to sing; an heir presumptive (Charles Massinger), the hero ("Every Lover must Meet His Fate"). Both careful performers, they did well with tunes that are still fresh and crinkling.

But no manner of effort could infuse life into the lives, or still the resentment that Herbert could not have had a collaborator as worthy as Sir Arthur Sullivan's.