“Airy music.”

“The singing and dancing of the troupe, we have only to add, gave great pleasure. Songs and dances, of course, were vastly in excess of the quantity of the dialogue—they standing almost in proportions of Falstaff’s bread to his sack—but the music was so tuneful and so neatly interpreted, and the steps so nimbly executed, that the words of the dramatist might have been overlooked altogether.”

“The music is fair to middling.”

So free a rendering of the original opera that one would be hard-pressed to recognize its origin were it not for the title. “In her [Lydia Thompson’s] singing, however, which was always her weak point, she seems to have lamentably deteriorated. Perhaps her voice last night might have been affected by an attack of catarrh; if it were not, she would do well to select only, in the future, parts that depend for their success merely upon fascinating looks and an ample display of nude limbs, and the power to ‘get off’ with bewitching impudence a few spicy and questionable ‘gags.’”

No mention of music.

“His [John L. Hall’s] voice is not particularly strong, and some musical selections sung by him should be changed, especially Il Balen, from ‘Il Trovatore.’ Upon the whole, he may be considered a desirable acquisition to the troupe, and will undoubtedly become a favorite here.”