Bateman French Opera: Tostée Farewell Benefit

“The Academy of Music was thronged last evening from floor to ceiling. The brilliant toilets of the ladies and the enthusiasm of the entire audience enhanced the gayety of the occasion. The hearty appreciation of all the fine points in the performance showed how rapidly and completely New Yorkers have been educated to enjoy the opéra bouffe. The first grand burst of excitement was at the entrance of Mlle. Tostée, who was greeted with rapturous applause from all parts of the house. It was some time before she could proceed with the gay and sparkling songs of the first act of ‘La Grand Duchesse.’ Mlle Tostée was never in more admirable voice. She appeared, also to great advantage in the operetta, ‘Lischen and Fritzchen,’ which was represented for the first time in America. The evening closed with the second act of ‘La Belle Hélène.’ Mlle. Tostee was thrice encored in ‘Le Mari Sage,’ and gracefully received the splendid floral tributes which were lavished upon her. The admirers of the Grand Duchess will be glad to learn that Mlle. Tostée has been engaged for the next season of Mr. Bateman. She will return about the 1st of August. Duchesne, Leduc, Legriffeul, Benedick and Hamilton are also among the favorite members of the old troupe who have been re-engaged.”

“The farewell benefit of Mdlle. Tostée last night, at the Academy of Music, with the additional attraction of the Chinese Embassadors in their most gorgeous raiment, drew an audience which filled every seat in the house, and crowded all the passages and doorways to such an extent that breathing became an inconvenient exercise. The programme consisted of the first act of La Grand Duchesse, the second act of La Belle Helène, and an operetta of Offenbach’s called ‘Lischen et Fritzchen,’ new to this city, though the performance last night was not (as the programme declared it) the first representation of the piece in America. It is a pleasant little trifle with only two characters (Mdlle. Tostée and M. Guffroy), and several sparkling airs among which are familiar strains that have done duty many a time before in Offenbach’s other works. It abounds in opportunities for the display of the dramatic powers of the two artists who took part in it, and we need hardly say that M. Guffroy as a comic servant and Tostée as a piquant soubrette of the kind in which Mary Gannon used to delight, made the most of their roles. The performance of the other pieces calls for little remark.  The fragment of La Grand Duchesse was given ‘with great spirit,’ though neither the voices nor the orchestra bore very well being transplanted to so large a theater as the Academy of Music; the instruments seemed especially weak, and some of the players lost themselves entirely. In La Belle Hélène we did not observe that the company had acquired any refinement by their visit to the cultivated and decorous society of Boston. They have come back with all their old fondness for indelicacy, and all their apparent determination to degrade a class of entertainment which is not necessarily objectionable to the level of the concert-cellars.”

“Mlle. TOSTEE’S ‘Benefice d’adieu,’ last evening, was a success beyond the expectations of her friends,—and that they are many there can no longer be a doubt, even if a doubt ever prevailed on the subject. The Academy was filled to its greatest capacity—even the speculators being outsold in an untimely way.  There has been nothing like it before, save on the occasion of Mr. Bateman’s benefit, when a bold entrepreneur was justly recognized. 

“Mlle. Tostee takes her farewell of us for a brief period only. The time can be measured in weeks. She will resume her position in Mr. Bateman’s troupe early in the Fall, and we doubt not with the same public acceptance that has attended her career so far. She is an artiste that we can hardly hope to see surpassed, save, perhaps, in the particular of voice. As a comedienne she is full of the particular kind [it] is difficult to find, not merely here, but in Paris itself, where it had its origin. The lady suffered greatly from the climate on her arrival in America, and had to submit to a severe operation in order to resume her professional duties. Fortunately, however, the result was entirely successful, and every one has remarked that her voice has steadily and greatly improved. It is certainly sufficient for all the requirements of the works in which she appears.  There can be no doubt that her return will be hailed with delight by the public. Mlle. Tostee sails on Saturday in the French steamer.

“The programme last evening was of a composite sort, with just sufficient novelty in it to give it spice. There was the first act of ‘La Grand Duchesse,’ with the ‘sabre’ song, and the second act of ‘La Belle Hélène.’ Between these well-known works was placed a small vaudeville called ‘Lischen et Fritzchen,’ a little and ludicrous story of Alsation life, love and pronunciation, involving two characters. These were sustained by Mlle. Tostee and M. Guffroy—both of whom were excellent. The music is in the familiar Offenbach vein, but otherwise there is not much to commend it to an American audience. There have been many attempts to establish the vaudeville on ‘a permanent basis,’ but so far with little success; and we hardly think that any progress was made last evening, although the artists named were in excellent condition and played and sang capitally.

“The Chinese Embassy was present; and perchance the Celestials—like many others in the house—enjoyed what they did not entirely understand.”

[article mentions Ristori first—not relevant]

“. . . . Let’s pass to Mlle Tostée, second in favor [to Ristori] by rank of seniority, but not less high in public favor. What haven’t we said, what haven’t they said, and what remains to be said about Tostée? The sure thing is that she was a wonder, that rara avis that they must have to ignite the fireworks of La Grande-Duchesse, and make the cascades [stunts] of La Belle-Hélène flow. We don’t believe that there exists, even among the great stars of highest renown, another woman who could have acted and sung opera-bouffe so well in New York as to seize hold of the American audience. Neither Schneider nor Tantin would have had the fanciful lack of constraint, motley, witty, unreal, heroic, magical, that is required to astound, strike, surprise, dazzle, fascinate and make the big spoiled and capricious child of Frère Jonathan burst out laughing. The biggest part of the victory comes back to her. General Boum has contributed a lot, and Fritz and Puck, and Paul, and Grog, and the whole troupe; but, whatever the value of the others may be, it’s she who is the originality, the ticket, the greenness, the force, the liveliness and the enthusiasm; it’s she who has roused the masses and kept them in a state of perpetual exhilaration for nine months. Her name is henceforth tightly bound with that of Offenbach, and if it’s true that Tostée needed Offenbach in order to sing La Grande-Duchesse in New Yoork, Offenbach should give no less thanks to Tostée for having implanted and acclimatized it there, and made it as important to Americans as tea and butter. Thanks then should be rendered to Tostée: should she return to us, she’d recover all her prestige, which, far from wearing out, can only increase until the final day. Her farewell performance at the Academy, the day before yesterday, proved to her the lively ardor of the fellow-feeling she has here, which can only become even warmer, if possible, in her absence. She, too, has powerfully contributed to the fortune of her director who, to do him justice, has done much for hers. M. Bateman is a skillful man, liberal, worthy of discovering a Tostée, as Tostée was worthy of finding a Bateman. [rest of page is missing]

“A Row in the French Camp.” Bateman’s charge of disorderly conduct against Miss Berthiat for contesting her wages, and two officers’ charges against two of her male friends for supporting her cause.