Aimée Opera Bouffe: La Périchole

Benefit Monday evening for victims of the Point-à-Pitre, Guadalupe, fires.

“When opéra bouffe first forcibly footed itself into favor in this country some few years ago, and for a long period subsequently, it was regarded with a certain species of horror; the theatrical Mrs. Grundy gazed at the ceiling in mute despair, and all sorts of evils were predicted as the certain accompaniments of its possible success. It felt competent, however, to bravely laugh New York out of its scruples, and it has literally ‘faced the music’ with a perseverance worthy of any cause. Success has crowned its daring so far that it was now come to be a regular theatrical institution among us, and promises to remain with us permanently in that capacity. Its headquarters at present are established at Lina Edwin’s Theatre, and its supreme divinity there is Mlle. Aimée, the leading character in ‘La Périchole,’ which now draws a full house every evening.

Aimée undoubtedly displays a keen sense of the absurd and is very creditably supported on the whole by the company with which she is now acting. There has been no change in the cast except that Mons. A. Julien has taken the place of M. Noe as tenor. Noe was undoubtedly a fair Piquillo, but the character has still further been improved by the vivacity with which Julien contrives to infuse into it, and which enhances his support of Mlle. Aimée, who has proved herself a complete mistress of the rôle of the coquette. Her street singing is a wonder in itself; the fascination of her face and person is fully brought to bear on her acting, and the spectator leaves the performance with no grosser impression on his mind than the remembrance of the exquisite humor he has enjoyed. Julien’s singing is far above ‘the barren of mediocrity,’ and in the acting of Piquillo he compares favorably with Gausins.”