Bateman French Opera: Barbe-bleue

“Barbe-Bleue” to be withdrawn after 8 Oct.

Season concludes “not a day too soon.”

“‘Barbe Bleue’ will be played at Niblo’s Garden for only four nights longer—the season coming to a close on Thursday next. The matinée on Saturday last was, of course, injured by the weather, but the evening performance was in every way excellent. All the artists were in capital spirits—notwithstanding their double day’s work—and excelled themselves.”

“The last performance of ‘Barbe Bleue’ by Mr. Bateman’s admirable company will be given to-night, at Niblo’s Garden. The occasion will undoubtedly draw out an immense audience, for the opera, which is so clever and amusing in itself, has been presented superbly, especially in the two leading parts. The admirers of Aujac and Irma are numbered by the thousand, and will rally in force, and take pleasure in paying their last tributes to these artists in the parts by which they have become famous.”

“The extraordinary successful season of opéra bouffe at Niblo’s Garden ended last night. Mr. Bateman’s pluck in opening the season there in midsummer, when, according to the stereotyped phrase, ‘everybody was out of town,’ has been rewarded beyond even his own sanguine anticipations. For three months every representation of ‘Barbe Bleue’ has been witnessed by crowded houses. Yesterday evening Blue Beard and his six wives, including the inimitable Boulotte, King Bobeche, Queen Clementine, Princess Hermia, Princess Saphir, Popolani, Alvarez, Count Oscar and the whole glittering throng of nobles, pages, guards, peasants, Mexicans and Bohemians (with Mlle. De Rosa as the central figure of the delicious salutatory anachronism of this admirable opera), bade farewell to the frequenters of Niblo’s Garden. The village in Brittany, Blue Beard’s castle, the palace of King Bobeche, the alchemist’s cave and the royal wedding scene, all dissolved and passed away ‘like the baseless fabric of a vision.’ After the first act Mr. Bateman was enthusiastically applauded while he made the following speech:— 

Ladies and gentlemen—I appear before you in response to your generous invitation, to perform what I feel to be a difficult task—that of adequately thanking you for the kind and constant support with which you have honored the performances of the opéra bouffe company during the summer season at Niblo’s Garden. The difficulties of a summer season are not few, but it has been my privilege to find you at all times and in all varieties of weather with smiling faces and in great numbers, as tonight, giving aid and encouragement to my undertaking. Not only of my own account but also on the part of the ladies and gentlemen of my troupe, whom I represent, I have to offer acknowledgements; and I have moreover a duty to perform to them, for I should be unwilling to let the occasion pass without warmly testifying to the zeal, the promptness, and heartiness with which they have seconded my efforts for your entertainment. In all my experience as an actor and as a manager it has never been my fortune to deal with more cordial and agreeable associates. If I could remember all their names I should be glad to express to them individually my sense of their merits, but as that is impossible, I will only say that all the good will and earnest endeavor that you have seen in Mlle. Irma and M. Aujac have been equally displayed by every member of this troupe in his particular sphere. As they are about to leave you for a short time I ought perhaps to tell you where they are going. They start tomorrow for the West to take the place of the other branch of my company—little Mlle. Tostee and the rest—who will be among us in New York again next Wednesday. A few weeks later the entire company will be united and at your service.”

Merely mentions that the last performance of the opera took place on 10/08/68.

“The last performance of ‘Barbe Bleue’ was given at Niblo’s Garden last evening, and to a house as crowded and enthusiastic as has been called out since the beginning of Mr. Bateman’s season of opera bouffe. The manager was called out at the close of the first act, and made the following little speech…” [Music in Gotham provides this speech in full in the New York Herald review of 10/09/68.]