New-Yorker Stadt-Theater Opera: Fra Diavolo

“Wachtel’s popularity is increasing. Last night the Stadt Theatre was crowded to the doors. Auber’s opera ‘Fra Diavolo’ was given, and Wachtel, in the chief rôle, once again added laurels to those he has already won. This German tenor has certainly a marvelous voice, and the enthusiastic appreciation of his powers by his Teutonic brethren deserves a cordial endorsement by all who have heard him. His performance last night was characterized by a peculiar brilliancy, dash, expression and novelty that quite enhanced this representation of an opera heretofore too much hackneyed by insignificant artists. Without going into details, it is quite sufficient to say that Wachtel acquitted himself to the satisfaction of perhaps the most crowded assemblage that has congregated within the walls of the Stadt Theatre for years. His conception of the character was correct, while his voice thrilled the house. His support was much better than it has hitherto been, and not the least commendable feature in the performance was the highly humorous and able personation of Beppo, the brigand, by Mr. Aysnley Cook, who proved himself an artist throughout. Miss Clara Perl sustains the rôle of Pamela with great vivacity. Mme. Rolla as Zerlina, and Herr Franosch as Giacomo are also deserving of favorable mention. Altogether ‘Fra Diavolo’ was favorably represented.”

“Herr Wachtel’s performance in ‘Fra Diavolo,’ witnessed at the Stadt Theatre, last evening, quite justified the anticipation of its excellence we recently expressed. It was symmetrical, evenly colored, and, at all the known stages of the story, very impressive. With surroundings of a more satisfactory kind, the representation of the opera would have deserved a place in one’s memory. Delightful music, it should be said, was never wedded to a better libretto, but never, either, to one in which the actors’ parts are so nicely balanced, and on that account so exacting. Had there been less to expect from each of Scribe’s characters, more attention might have rested upon the bandit chief, whose opportunities are now scarcely numerous enough to atone for the weakness of his fellows. If we except a clever physical assumption of Beppo by Mrs. Aynsley Cooke, there was not much to admire in yesterday’s rehearsal of ‘Fra Diavolo’ beyond Herr Wachtel’s work and, thence, the undue lightness of the effect produced. To Herr Wachtel’s picture of Fra Diavolo, however, we can accord, as implied above, the heartiest commendation. The tenor who, in the common acceptance of the word, is the very reverse of a comedian, is merged, in the case of Herr Wachtel, into as earnest and accomplished an actor as can be desired. The merits of his personation, last night, can be inferred from this. In point of acting nothing could have been better than the meek courtship of the Englishwoman, the lordly dealings with the bandits, and the ill-concealed fury at the loss of the jewels in the first act; the deception of the angered lieutenant in the second, and the delivery of the grand air at the outset of the third. And so far as what are regarded as the regular duties of an operatic singer are concerned, nothing could be more praiseworthy than his share of the vocal labors of the entertainment. We are constrained to say that the earnestness of Herr Wachtel’s manner impaired the charm of the familiar song in the first act, while the zeal of Mme. Rotter ruined her own verse; but we can withhold no eulogy from his duet with Fraulein Perl, and very little from the serenade, charmingly recited in the matter of phrasing and expression, and only become censurable by an inappropriate added cadenza. And we can bestow every encomium imaginable upon the rendering of the scena ed aria already referred to, and illustrated vocally and by look and gesture with a marvelous variety. At the end of the second act Herr Wachtel was called before the curtain, and he reappeared after its final fall. It is rather late in the season to find fault with minor incidents of the representations in which Herr Wachtel figures with such agreeable results for himself and his audiences; but a stage-management which suffers Englishmen (speaking German English,) who wander through a German Italy, to bestow bridal portions in American bank bills, might commit mortifying blunders in more serious compositions than comic operas.”

“Herr Wachtel’s engagement has aroused a new life in the dingy and remote Stadt Theater. The largest audiences that building has ever contained gathered there on Wednesday and Friday of last week, and we see no reason why the series of performances should not run on for the rest of the Winter. Since we last wrote of this remarkable artist he has been heard in one more character—Fra Diavolo. It gives us no reason to modify our former judgment. The same bright, clear, and virile voice, the same magnetic vivacity of style, and the same fine dramatic instincts, which we admired in his three earlier personations, charmed us also in this. His Fra Diavolo is the picturesque and spirited work of a real artist. In the midst of the mediocrity which surrounds it, this one character blazes like a diamond. So completely does Herr Wachtel fill the imaginations of his audience, that no one has thought it worth while to criticise the company by which he is supported, and no one seems to care whether it does well or ill.”

 “...while in the principal arias of ‘Fra Diavolo,’ and especially in the well known descriptive song, ‘Proudly and Well,’ was he [Wachtel] heard to the greatest advantage. A feature of his admirable dramatic powers is the vigor and spirit of his action, and the entire absence of the mannerisms so peculiar to operatic singers.”