French Opera Bouffe: Les Brigands

Event Information

Venue(s):
Lina Edwin's Theatre

Conductor(s):
[conductor] Bessieres

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
28 November 2023

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

24 Jan 1872, 8:00 PM
27 Jan 1872, Matinee

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Brigands, Les
aka Banditen, Die
Composer(s): Offenbach
Participants:  French Opera Bouffe Company;  Monsieur [baritone] Duchesne;  Marie Aimée (role: Fiorella);  E. [soprano] Dubois

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 21 January 1872, 7.
2)
Review: New York Herald, 25 January 1872, 3.
“This being the last week but one in which this favorite actress and prima donna will appear in ‘Les Brigands,’ the public seem to evince more than even their usual interest in the opera itself and the lady who sustains the principal rôle. Judging from the large and appreciative audience which filled Lina Edwin’s beautiful little theatre last night she still retains as powerful a hold as ever on the music loving portion of our people, and her powers have certainly shown no signs of diminution. It is unnecessary to speak in detail of either the plot or the cast, as both are already familiar to the frequenters of opera bouffe. Her Fiorella was fully equal to any of her previous renditions of the character, both in voice and acting, and though, perhaps, the scenic effect afforded by the greater size and more magnificent appointments of the Grand Opera House was lacking, the contrast did not at all mar the performance.
 
The company were fully up to the mark, and the choruses and dialogue well sustained, Dubois and Duchesne and the others being cordially received. The ‘laughing’ and ‘whispering’ choruses were encored as usual, as also the duet between Aimée and Dubois in the first act. The solo by Aimée in the second, on the meeting of Fiorella and the suite of La Princess de Granade, was also worthy of mention. Altogether, everything indicated a continuation of the successful run which has attended the piece from the start, and which the fidelity of the artists has amply justified.”
3)
Review: New-York Times, 25 January 1872, 5.

“’Les Brigands’ was brought out at Lina Edwin’s Theatre, last evening, by Mlle. Aimée and the artists she has gathered about her. As numerous an audience as the pretty little house can contain was packed into it, and the assemblage was of a quality, so to speak, worthy of a recital of Italian opera. The story of ‘Les Brigands,’ and the characteristics of Offenbach’s score, were dealt with at some length when they were heard at the Grand Opera-House. The libretto is coherent and the dialogue amusing in a degree that the performances of few librettists have attained to, and the music is not only vivacious and tuneful, but occasionally elegant, and of a value enhanced by elaborate treatment. The words and the melodies had full justice done them by the company rendering them last night, and though the entertainment was not free from blemishes, its general impression was stronger even than that wrought by the most successful rehearsals of the present season. Mlle. Aimée, who first personated Fiorella when “Les Brigands’ was produced in Paris, is the ideal representative of that improbable and captivating creature. The character does not admit the broad fun which the lady throws into other personations we might name, but it exacts a thoroughly good songstress and an actress of exceptional animation and finesse. That Mlle. Aimée has all the needed qualities was abundantly proven to those spectators who failed to witness her previous labors in the same rôle. Her singing, from the couplets introductory of the brigand’s daughter to the resumption of the air at the close of the piece, was all that could be desired, and her delivery of ‘Mandolinata,’ in Italian, during the progress of the opera, was only one out of half a dozen incidents that suggested imperative encores. Mlle. Dubois appeared to great advantage as Fragoletto, and gave voice to the relatively difficult numbers of the part with a surety and an effect hardly to be expected. Mr. Noe was a handsome and manly Falsacappa, but is scarcely so well suited to the interpretation of the music, written for the fluent execution of M. Dupuis, as was M. Gausins, of whose merit no just opinion could be formed on the vast stage which he was compelled to fill. M. Duchesne portrayed Pietro, the aged bandit, with abundant humor, but with a redundancy of ‘business,’ to which some objection can fairly be taken. In the episode of the troubles of a cashier, M. Edgard as Antonio, diffused, as might have been predicted, much merriment. The remaining characters were assumed by MM. Berthon, Julien and Valter, and by Mlle. Iosta, a debutante in opera bouffe and a young lady, whose vocal achievements are more creditable than her acting. Among the points of the performance that elicited most applause were the finale of the first act, which would not be out of place in a more pretentious composition than ‘Les Brigands,’ and the laughing chorus, which was done thrice.”