French Opera Bouffe: Barbe-bleue

“This brilliant and talented artiste, than whom no better representative of opéra bouffe has ever appeared in this country, has, by her own personal attractions in singing and acting, and by her clever management, raised the Offenbachian branch of amusement from the lowest depths to the enviable standard of artistic and financial success. Last night ‘Barbe Bleue’ was on the bills. Every theatre-goer in New York remembers the glittering career of this opera at Niblo’s, where Irma and Aujac first made their bow. The superiors of these artists may be seen at Lina Edwin’s Theatre. Aimée’s Boulotte is a tantalizing, fascinating little creature, whose nature seems to begin and end in the words chic and elan. From the commencement of her acquaintance with the Brigham Young of the middle ages until the denouement of her stratagem to cure him of his naughty ways she was a feminine Puck in mischief and an Ariel in lightheartedness. She has the advantage also of possessing a clear, well balanced and excellently cultivated voice, which is a novelty in opéra bouffe. Her company seems to have been chosen in regard to individual excellence. She cannot place upon the stage the multitude of performers of all kinds which Bateman did in the wilderness of the ‘Black Crook’ stage; but she has no sinecures in her company, and both chorus and orchestra and also her assistants in the cast are admirable in the fullest sense of the word. The theatre and its stage may be considered fully adequate for all the exigencies of opéra bouffe. When the light and yet delightful nonsense of Offenbach is placed on the boards of a large theatre half the effect is lost.”