French Opera: Robert le diable: Benefit for the Company

“The conclusion of the series of performances of French opera at the Academy of Music has been singularly abrupt. By that conclusion, resulting from an act of managerial temerity unparalleled, almost fifty artistes find themselves find themselves almost destitute in a strange land. We need not now, however, dwell upon the guilt of a few parties, but rather upon the embarrassments of many. The larger portion of the company will return to France without delay. With a view to relieving themselves from the pressure of painful circumstances all the singers have resolved upon giving two farewell entertainments. Messrs. Grau and Kingsland, we learn, have respectively placed the French Theatre and the Academy at their disposal, and they will tenant the former establishment Wednesday, when ‘Le Songe d’Une Nuit d’Eté’ will be the opera, and the latter on Friday, when ‘Robert le Diable’ is to be represented.”

“Fifty-two operatic artistes, male and female, owing to the sudden collapse of the ‘grand French opera,’ at the ‘Catacombs,’ find themselves to-day in a foreign country among strangers, many of them without money enough to pay their board. To relieve their immediate distress, manager Grau has offered them the free use of the Théâtre Francais, where they will give an operatic performance next Wednesday for their own benefit. They will take another benefit on Friday evening at the Academy of Music.”

“After a week’s campaign at the ill-starred Academy of Music the grand historical and romantic French opera has come to an untimely end. Fifty-two members of the company, brought all the way from Paris under the rose-colored expectation of an eight months engagement, are now in a strange city, in a very embarrassing position. The eight months have suddenly dwindled down to five nights, and the one hundred and ninety-nine and a half stockholders to a fraction which the boarding house keepers of the poor artists will not recognize. Mr. J. Grau generously tendered the use of the Théâtre Francais for their benefit; but from some unknown cause the offer has been declined.”

“Had the French singers who gave last night a performance of ‘Robert le Diable,’ at the Academy of Music, first appeared in that opera at the beginning of the season, the result of the enterprise might have proved less disastrous than it has done. Last night’s opera was a marked success for Mme. Faye Fauschetti, who sang with a power and effect that her previous efforts gave no one reason to expect; for Mlle. Bléau, whose exquisite purity of intonation and graceful facility of vocalization were evident in the Robert, toi qui j’aime; and for M. Tasson, who gave a masterful representation of the demoniac Bertram. The tenor, M. Tabardi, would have made a better impression had he avoided the falsetto in which he too frequently indulges.

“The opera was given according to the French version, which differs materially from the Italian and German to which our audiences are accustomed, and renders the old librettos sold in the house last night utterly useless. In this novel version the order of the acts is changed; a brilliant duet for tenor and bass, quite new here, is added to the score; and the opera ends with a church scene, and a chorus of sacred music, instead of with the disappearance of Bertram down a trap door amid red flames. All these points are marked improvements, and add considerable to the effect of the performance.

“The orchestra last night gave its services gratuitously, and played with surpassing skill the music of the temptation scene, in which the violoncellos are prominent, receiving an exquisitely finished interpretation. The attendance was large enough to aid considerably the charitable object of the performance, though not as large as it should have been.”

[The review is preceded by a long general paragraph on the opera itself] “As presented last night at the Academy of Music for the benefit of artists whose misfortunes entitle them to sympathy and consideration, the performance of ‘Robert’ might fairly claim immunity from any very strict critical tests; and yet it is but just to say that, even if subjected to such an ordeal, the result would by no means be unfavorable. In truth the opera was in some respects better rendered than any that this company have before given us. Either through the fatality that sometimes attends such undertakings, or through a laudable desire to show that they intrinsically deserve better success than they have met, the performance was, in parts, a very pleasing, and with some drawbacks, probably inseparable from giving so great a work for a solitary occasion, it was also an even and careful one. Mme. Fauschetti was better in Alice than in any rôle we have seen her attempt. Mlle. Bleau executed the brilliant music of Isabelle, and especially the famous cavatina, with great precision. M. Tabardi acted and sang with spirit and power in Robert. M. Girrebruck [Girrebeuck] was more at home in Raimbaut than in some other of his impersonations witnessed here, and M. Tasson was as fiendlike and sepulchral as he could possibly be in Bertram. Much not be said of the chorus or ballet, other than that their efforts were very much what, on such an occasion, might have been expected. The ensemble was, however, certainly superior to what might have been expected; and the audience separated well pleased with everything save that company embracing so considerable a share of real merit should, through various untoward circumstances, have met in New York with such indifferent encouragement.”