Parepa-Rosa English Opera: Martha

“A very crowded house, immense enthusiasm, a very meritorious performance and a horrible night outside. It seemed as if the oft-quoted clerk of the weather was in one of his most spiteful moods last night, for he turned on the celestial hydrant to an extent that made everybody uncomfortable and made lots of mud puddles in the streets. Yet down stairs in the Academy of Music every seat was occupied and a large number of ‘standees’ lined the interior walls. The boxes showed the usual results of stockholders’ privileges. A very large number, in fact all that were at the disposal of the management, were filled, and the others —well, they were not. The performance was really good, the leading quartet consisting of Mme. Parepa-Rosa, Mrs. Seguin (Zelda Harrison), Castle and Campbell. Flotow has made this opera such a real, popular work that it never fails to draw. Parepa-Rosa sang ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ with exquisite pathos and tenderness, and Mrs. Seguin looked and acted more charmingly than ever. It would seem as if this favorite contralto makes a greater success every season. Campbell’s voice is a matter of natural pride, and he has now attained the dignity of a genuine actor. Castle’s voice we never liked, and now the mezza voce is all that remains to him. Hard, unsympathetic and ‘throaty,’ this organ is no longer capable of fulfilling the requirements of English opera. Still Mr. Castle has a good knowledge and experience of the stage, and he supplies many of his vocal deficiencies by his excellent acting. The opera was splendidly placed on the stage, the market scene being particularly interesting. A great deal of money must have been expended in the production of a real English fair, and the scene was unusually bustling and lively. The costumes of the ladies in the hunting scene were all of black velvet, something unexpected in an Academy chorus. Carl Rosa is one of the best conductors of opera we have ever heard, and he brought the forty musicians under control of his baton through with unqualified success.”

“‘Martha’ at the Academy last night was, as always, bright, lively and thoroughly enjoyable, an unanswerable argument in favor of those who urge, as against the ultra- classicists and music-of-the-future enthusiasts, that an opera is the better for containing plenty of defined, sweet, and clearly-phased melodies.

It would be superfluous to accumulate praise on the performance of the title part by Mme. Parepa. The splendid audience which packed the auditorium and every vacant foot of standing room and applauded her to the echo, sufficiently testified to the general esteem accorded to this charming impersonation. Nor need we waste space in minutely insisting on the execution of special numbers, though it may be allowable to briefly hint, among others, at her singing of the well-known ‘Last Rose,’ her share in the various delightful quartets of the score, and her clear, ringing execution of a little staccato passage in the spinning-wheel song, which would have gladdened the heart of a maestro or a mocking-bird. Mrs. Zelda Seguin, as Nancy, was charming in action and true and tasteful in singing. If she occasionally puts an almost over-vivacity of gesture and feature into her pleasant coquetry, it is a good fault, and the excess of so good a quality wins easy excuse. Her opening aria in the third act was one of the gems of the evening, and was warmly encored.

Mr. Castle’s beautiful tenor sometimes fails to respond to a sudden demand on its resources, but in all gradual passages, where it has time to swell to the full strength of the note, it is really delicious for its ripe and reedy mellowness. His singing of such sentimental passages as the first scene with Plunkett, the famous ‘To you may heaven give pardon,’ and the like, is exquisite in delicacy and feeling. Mr. Campbell, too, does most excellent service with his fine robust baritone, when he can get over his artificial tremulousness; and his drinking song, ‘Who can tell?’ was sung with capital truth and spirit. The quartet music between these four admirable artists—so plentifully scattered through the opera—was simply as pleasant listening as heart could desire. The most crabbed critic could find in the whole representation little or nothing for cavil if the unreasonable and self-destructive encores could be done away with, and the time gained applied to singing the whole score without the terrible cutting which time and impatient audiences sometimes, as last night, seem to demand.”

“The performance of ‘Martha,’ at the Academy of Music, last evening, attracted an audience that filled the bright auditorium to overflowing. The opera has been sung time and again by the same quartet, (which embraces Mme. Parepa-Rosa, Mrs. Seguin and Messrs. Cassel and Campbell,) but it has never been rendered with equal smoothness or effect. While the singing of the principals was as finished as the mention of the above-named artists implies, the work of the chorus and orchestra was done with an unprecedented spirit and correctness. As for the stage costume of ‘Martha,’ the beauty and appropriateness of last night’s display will make audiences exceedingly exacting in the future; more showy and costly dresses were never used at the Academy of Music. Of the points of the rendering which had most applause, it is only necessary to say, that all the known airs were redemanded. We are at a loss to imagine the motive for the curtailment of the second act, but the cut was quite atoned for by the introduction of the exquisite solo for contralto at the outset of the third, which is rarely heard, and which Mrs. Seguin recited yesterday with a sentiment and a skill altogether remarkable.”

“Mr. Carl Rosa has done what no other manager ever attempted in New York, or, so far as we know, anywhere else. He has given ten performances of opera in a single week—five at the Academy of Music, four at the Stadt Theater, and one in Brooklyn. They have been attended by remarkably large audiences and must have yielded the bold impresario a handsome pecuniary result, which he has certainly fairly earned. For giving—at least in his series of English operas—the carefulness of preparation, the completeness of [each?], and the liberal and tasteful mise en scene which we have long demanded, he has presented English opera in a style hitherto unknown in New-York. He has crowned a successful week on Friday night with the best and brightest representation of ‘Martha’ we have ever seen. The rain poured in torrents all the evening; but the Academy was crowded to the utmost; men thronged the lobby, and ladies sat patiently on the steps of the aisles. The merits of the four artists who have so often sung the leading parts of this opera together under Mr. Rosa’s baton require no commendation now; we need only say that they were all at their best on Friday, and were all recalled over and over again. Madame Parepa Rosa never sang with more delicacy or acted with more spirit. Mrs. Seguin’s welcome face was seen for the first time this season, and her beautiful voice gave the aria at the beginning of the third act with even more than usual sweetness and expression. Mr. Castle, we thought, showed a finer culture than he is commonly credited with possessing; Mr. Campbell’s voice was in excellent condition; while in the smaller parts Mr. Seguin and Mr. Hall contributed a great deal to the general good effect. But perhaps it was the orchestra, the chorus, and the accessories which deserved the highest praise. Mr. Rosa’s forty players seem to improve every night. They gave a new meaning and a redoubled richness to that familiar score of Flotow’s popular work, and in the celebrated finale of the third act orchestra, chorus, and principals coöperated so well that there was an enthusiastic demand for a repetition. The chorus is remarkable for its volume and good quality of tone and its careful training; while to complete the happy change from the old order of things, it is richly [clad?] and in all respects presentable. The Fair scene was adorned with some novel and amusing properties, and the Hunting chorus gave an opportunity for the exhibition of superb dresses and the introduction of some live horses,--to say nothing of the highly intelligent and sociable jackass presented earlier in the evening. In a word, the performance was excellent all through,--from the singing of the prima donna down to the smallest contribution of the stage manager and the property man.”