Dryane French Opera: Les Mousquetaires de la Reine

“Prices as usual.” [Music in Gotham lists the prices from the company’s previous performance.]

“To-morrow evening a new prima donna, Euphemie Bleau, will sing in ‘Les Mousquetaires.’ Her vocalization, it is claimed, is something unusually fine.”

“The French artistes now occupying the Academy sing to-night ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine,’ Halevy’s most successful work. Mlle. Bleau will on this occasion make her first appearance in this City.”

“To-night this new company makes its second appeal to the public favor. The work selected for this occasion, as for the first, is from the pen of the great Halévy. This composer is neither a Frenchified German, like Meyerbeer, Berlioz, and Offenbach, nor a Frenchified Italian, like Rossini and Cherubini, but, like Auber and David, ‘to the manor born.’ His work is the best fruit of the French genius, and is noble, melodious, and impressive.”

“French Opera.—The second night of the French Opera at the Academy of Music was a most encouraging success, and reflects credit upon the enterprise, which, in the face of many obstacles, has given us an admirable programme of operatic entertainment. Halevy’s historical and romantic opera ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine’ was presented last evening for the first time, and was received with marked favor by a large audience. All the parts were well sustained, and the opera, though not abounding in striking features, elicited frequent and enthusiastic applause. Both chorus and orchestra were excellent. Mlle. Bleau created a decided sensation by her superb introduction of Masse’s ‘Carneval de Venise’ and was rapturously encored. Her voice possesses remarkable compass and has no superior in sweetness and flexibility. Not a person in the audience moved throughout her part, except in unconscious sympathy with her exquisite performance, and the prolonged applause which followed each appearance attested how completely she had captivated the audience. Mlle. Guillemot and MM. Garrebeuck, Teste and Dupond were flatteringly applauded, and the piece concluded in a style gratifying to the most fastidious. On Saturday ‘La Juive’ will be produced at the matinée.”

“The French opera at the Academy last night was a decided success. We could not truthfully say of the first performance of ‘La Juive’ that it was everything that could be wished; but the first performance of ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine’ very nearly deserves no less praise. In the former work the artists were striving to interpret what was at times beyond their means; in the latter they did full justice to what was well within them. Aspiration in the first case, in one sense, may have been more praiseworthy; in the second it was, in every sense, more productive. In the first instance, then, there was a succés d’estime; in the second we need record no qualification. The various adjuncts were, in both operas, highly creditable; and, so far as details are concerned, little chance exists for invidious comparison. The sum of all is that the company is equal to a first-class performance of opera comique, and that, so far as we have been permitted to judge, it is unequal to the performance of opera which is called grand. A future representation of the ‘Huguenots,’ or some other first-rate work, may modify this impression. We have, however, to record only what we see and hear. Mlle. Bleau, the Athenaise and heroine of last evening, is a singer of high grade. She has a clear-ringing, high soprano, of thoroughly French training, remarkable execution and of sympathetic qualities which the voices of her countrywomen do not always possess. She is an agreeable actress, as well, lady-like and self-possessed, and is not so sophisticated in manner as to lose credit for being natural. Her first aria put her on excellent terms with her audience, and she only improved that position to the end. The florid manner of her school is in her hands seldom unpleasing; and the general impression created was that a genuine artist was singing who was attempting what was entirely within her power to do well. Mlle. Bleau’s execution of the brilliant variations on the ‘Carnival of Venice’ air, introduced in the second act, and her tours de force incident thereto, were vehemently applauded, and her power upon her audience was from this point doubly assured.

“Girrebeuck’s Olivier d’Entragues was a satisfactory, we cannot say a great, or even a fine performance. His voice has considerable range and power, but lacks uniformity, and, except through forcing, has little timbre, the chest tones being seldom apparent. It is, moreover, and perhaps as a consequent, somewhat nasal in quality, and the employment of the falsetto, mechanically skillful as is occasionally the transition, is less pleasing than, to justify its use, it should be. The action of M. Girrebeuck is somewhat angular, and, although he is certainly a painstaking actor, he lacks finish and elegance. Our New-York opera-goers have been of late accustomed to these elements in a rather high degree; and their visitors will be greatly mistaken if they act for the judgment of an untaught or provincial public. It must be acknowledged, in connection with these strictures, that M. Girrebeuck never trifles with his audience. He appears to do his utmost throughout; and our strictures must, therefore, be accepted as referring not to his good will, but to his ability.

“Of the other artists Mme. Guillemot made a pleasing impression, and the lesser parts were all satisfactorily filled. The orchestra and chorus were well in accord, and there was little to mar an interpretation that must be set down as evenly well sustained. A few more comely faces and figures in the ballet would do no harm, but as there always appears to be an infatuation in the selecters [sic] of coryphees, which leads them to insist upon either too much or too little of a good thing, it is perhaps useless to remonstrate. The performance of ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine’ was, on the whole, so good as to suggest serious regret, for the sake of the company, that they did not open in this lesser work of Halevy’s instead of ‘La Juive.’ ‘Les Mousquetaires’ is to be repeated on Monday night.”

“The New French Prima Donna. The second night of French opera at the Academy of Music introduced a company entirely different from that of the first night. The tenor, M. Girrebeuck, seems to be an experienced singer, with a smooth melodious voice, running with too great a facility into the falsetto, and scarcely powerful enough for the large building in which he is obliged to sing. The bass, or baritone, M. Teste, is a careful and satisfactory artist, and deserved the frequent applause he received.

“The interest of the evening, however, centered on Mlle. Euphemie Bléau, a young, beautiful and graceful creature, who possesses a full and sympathetic soprano voice, cultivated to a marvelous pitch of executive skill, and yet retaining a freshness and a delicacy that is perfectly delightful. We have had no bravura singer who is her equal since Colson. What La Grange was in her younger days Mlle. Bléau is now. She throws off high staccato notes with the neatness of La Grange, though without that daring boldness which marked the latter’s execution; but on the other hand her voice has the inestimable freshness of youth. She was in a measure sacrificed last night in that dreary production of Halevy’s, ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine,’ a comic opera without a spark of vivacity, and singularly deficient in salient melodies; but by the introduction in the masquerade scene of Masse’s variations on the ‘Carnival of Venice,’ she was enabled to display the fluency of her voice and the thoroughness of its culture. In the first act of the opera, too, she has some pleasant music to sing, and her recitatives and cadenzas at once told the audience that the new comer was no ordinary vocalist. We do not remember of any previous instance where a singer, utterly unknown and unheralded, has so promptly received the recognition due to distinguished merit; and in more enjoyable operas—in Donizetti’s ‘Lucie’ for instance—it is fair to anticipate that Mlle. Bléau will create a sensation that will prove one of the leading musical events of the season. We may add that the young lady possesses on the stage all the ease and grace of manner and action which seem to be the natural inheritance of all French women.

“In the part of Berthe Madame Guillemot, another soprano, was also decidedly successful, her voice being pure and sweet, her intonation admirable, and her executive ability entirely satisfactory. Indeed, at last night’s performance the ladies of M. Dryane’s troupe relieved the fears founded on Wednesday night’s rendering of ‘La Juive’—that we had a new opera company complete, excepting a prima donna.

“Mr. Torriani conducted the music of the opera with his accusomted efficiency; and Mr. Van Hamme is responsible for a very feeble attempt at ballet. The chorus was large and powerful, and the excellence of the tenors was noticeable in the unaccompanied passages in the first act, where Halevy has given us specimens of composition that prove an ability and taste that is but poorly sustained throughout the work. As to the story and dialogue of the opera, both are too complicated and uninteresting for mortal endurance.

“M. Dryane has now deployed his forces so far that the merit of several of his leading singers, not of his entire chorus, cannot be denied. A new contralto, Mlle. Audibert, is expected to arrive soon from France. A judicious combination of M. Dryane’s best singers, and a more felicitous selection of operas, must result in promptly attracting the attention of the musical public, and in making the French opera one of the most brilliant and attractive entertainments in the city[.]”