Grau French Opera Bouffe: Geneviève de Brabant

“Last night the tenth representation of ‘Genevieve de Brabant’ was given by Mr. Grau’s company at the French Theatre. The house was crowded in every part by a fashionable audience, and the performance was excellent. Rose Bell, Desclauzas, Carier and Gabel, upon whom the burden of the opera falls, were in the best spirits, and were received with enthusiasm. The excitement of the election produces no effect upon the French Theatre, except, perhaps, to increase the numbers who attend.”

“This, probably the most grotesquely humorous of all Offenbach’s comic operas, continues to be one of the leading dramatic attractions of the city, and the French Theatre is nightly thronged with audiences whose risibilities are delightfully excited by the irresistible comicality of the soldier ‘Pitou.’ Mr. Gabel is certainly the funniest Frenchman that has yet appeared on the American stage. His face is as wonderful in its way as that of ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Fox, and the grotesqueness of his acting is marvelous.”

“’Genevieve de Brabant’ is crowding the French Theatre in every part, while every available spot is taken possession of by standees.”

“In the manner in which both the managers [Grau and Bateman, at Pike’s] have presented the operas they have taken hand, they have more than fulfilled every promise made to the public. It is so pleasant to find a thing perfectly done in all its details. This has not been an easy task with an opera like ‘Geneviève,’ that has such a mass of supplementary parts. Outside of the sextet of principal voices and the chorus, there is a quantity of side work to be done in this opera—Tyrolean trios, quartets of hunters, an army of supernumeraries for various purposes of detail. Mr. Grau puts the force engaged in the representation at 140—a truly liberal and munificent way of doing the work. If this splendid force could only be put upon an opera that was worth the labor! Mr. Grau would doubtless be willing, so would Mr. Bateman, but they probably distrust the public. It is their business to give the public what the public wants and will pay for; and if we don’t want anything better than Offenbach, it is our misfortune, and not certainly the fault of the managers.”

Brief: “The matinée of last Saturday was a notable success, the large attendance being composed principally of ladies”