Bateman French Opera: La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein

“The ninth week of her respected ladyship opened last night with a goodly level of fashionable ladies and gentlemen. The Franco-Teutonic author of the delightful absurdities which have set Paris in a ferment and all Germany dancing the cancan has taken up permanent quarters in Gotham. He has made burlesque and grotesque humor a subject of serious study, and aims more at making people laugh than at appealing to their feelings of pathos and artistic sensibility. He is now forty-eight years of age, and is still busy at his irresistibly comic productions. Last night Tostee was in excellent voice, and Fritz, Boum, Puck, Grog, Paul, Wanda and Nepomuc full of humor, as usual.”

“The weather last night did not impede the music-loving public from enjoying ‘The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein,’ as usual. The house was filled in every part, and the entire representation was unusually lively and brilliant. A run of nine successive weeks, the most protracted success ever known for an opera in this country, testifies to the vital qualities which the performance possesses. It was superior last evening to the usual excellent rendering, and was most heartily enjoyed.”

Tostee still sings with caution after her long absence due to Laryngitis. However, her acting was coquettish and seductive, which gave the performance a charming appeal. Bateman is determined to continue the performances of the “Duchess” as long as there is demand.

Jacques Offenbach, delighted at the success of his clever, brilliant protegée, ‘The Grand Duchess,’ in America, has addressed the following letter through his brother, Henri, to Mr. Bateman, manager of the Theatre Francais, New York.

Paris, Nov. 9, 1867

Mr. BATEMAN, Director of the Theatre Francais,--

Mr. Offenbach has directed me to write to you. He has read of the success of ‘The Grand Duchess’ in New York, and is very happy to know it. He thanks you heartily for the pains you have taken for its production, which he has learned is perfect.

He is very desirous to enter into an arrangement with you to send his scores of operas, when you may wish them, and to make contract with you. Should you visit Paris he will be very happy to see you on the subject, and will be delighted to arrange with you.

Receive, Mr. Bateman, his distinguished consideration.

H. OFFENBACH. 11 RUE LAFITTE.

The admirable cast and style with which ‘The Grand duchess’ is placed on the stage at the Theatre Francais is a sufficient reason to explain the wonderful popularity it has acquired, and also how the composer himself has been affected by it. The metropolitan public recognized at once the difference between opera at the cosey, handsome, brilliant little Théâtre Francais and in the dreary waste of the Academy of Music. In the latter place the stockholders, occupying the best seats, are the only people who can hear even a little of the opera, for the voices of the singers, never very fresh or powerful at any time, sound like echoes at a short distance from the footlights. In the Théâtre Francais the audience seem more like a family party, and enjoy the delightful absurdities of Offenbach with a zest such as the chilling atmosphere of the catacombs never can communicate. The ‘Grand Duchess’ is now being played in all the principal cities of Europe, and a London manager has brought it out in an English form with superannuated singers at Her Majesty’s theatre. According to the universal testimony of all who have seen it in Paris and Germany, the cast at the Théâtre Francais is superior in many respects. It is just the style of opera our people want, and the fossils of the Italian stage are therefore neglected for it. Mr. Bateman will bring out ‘La Belle Hélène’ as the next of Offenbach’s works, and he is negotiating with the composer for his ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and all his latest works. Each opera will be produced simultaneously in Paris and New York, and every means taken here to render the charming opera bouffe a permanent institution. Tostée was in splendid voice last night, and her whole court as merry and jolly as ever. The audience, in spite of the disagreeable state of the weather, was pretty large, the parquet being completely filled.”

“In spite of the drawback of a sick prima donna, the Duchess of Gerolstein has maintained its popularity with the public, as crowded houses of pleased audiences testify.”

“At the French theater, the Grande-Duchesse is getting better receipts than ever. Mlle Tostée is Bateman’s Providence, his hen with golden eggs. If the honorable director is rejoicing in the success of his lyric company, he is grieving over how little eagerness the public has to go to the performances of the dramatic company. The truth is that this indifference is regrettable, but it’s only too sufficiently explained by the incapacity of that company. It was formed by M. Grau, and you can be assured today, if that impresario hadn’t succeeded in getting rid of his company to the detriment of M. Bateman, he would have produced an awful fiasco. [Continues with more about the problems of the dramatic company.]

Luckily, the Grande Duchesse is there, who maintains the equilibrium of the budget, and after her the graceful spouse of Menelaus, La Belle Hélène, will not fail in that sacred mission.

Mlle Tostée being indisposed anew, Mlle Felcourt replaced her Wednesday at the French Theater. Thursday, M. Bateman produced a new Grand Duchess in the person of Mme Longchamps Fleury. We prefer Mlle de Felcourt to her, and what we desire above all is that the malign influence that has weighed for a long time on Mlle Tostée’s health will disappear as quickly as possible.”

[Concludes with comment on how the opera, when produced in English in London, fell flat.]