Parepa-Rosa English Opera: Marriage of Figaro

“Mozart’s beautiful work, ever fresh and ever welcome in any shape on any boards, formed the attraction of the second subscription night of the Parepa-Rosa season. The cast comprised the following artists [see above]. Mme. Rosa seems to be so completely en rapport with the music of Mozart that a stranger hearing her for the first time in this opera would suppose that she had devoted herself especially to this school of music, and had all her lifetime eschewed the florid and dramatic composers of Italy and the ballad operas of England. In singing and acting her Susanna is an operatic gem. With her Mrs. Seguin shared the honors of the evening, and Cherubino’s romance won a nearly encore. In page roles this admirable artiste is most fascinating, both by her naïve manner, easy grace and remarkably handsome stage appearance. It would be difficult to match her contralto voice for sympathetic tone, power, and high cultivation. Messrs. Cook and Campbell also come in for a word of praise. Mr. Carl Rosa conducted his thoroughly efficient orchestra with a skill that brought out all the beauties of the instrumentation in strong relief.”

“Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ has for many years been accepted as a standard work. It affords to a manager a good opportunity to display the strength of his company, while the glamour of the composer’s great name is sufficient to make people think they like the work whether they do or not. As performed last night, it was certainly an agreeable, if not an exciting entertainment. Madame Rosa’s Susanna was as admirable as might have been expected from so accomplished an artiste, and Miss Doria’s Countess was a quiet and satisfactory personation. Mrs. Seguin, however, as Cherubino, seemed to particularly win the hearts of the audience by her spirited acting, as well as by her charming singing. She was the life of the piece, and shared with Parepa-Rosa in the applause. Her principal solo received an encore, as did the letter duet in the last act.

The ladies of the troupe were fairly supported by the gentlemen. Mr. Campbell sang the air known in the Italian version as the ‘Non Piu Andrai’ very well, vocally speaking, but his manner was too cold to awaken any enthusiasm.”

“’Le Nozze di Figaro’ is one of the operas in which Mme. Parepa-Rosa and her company appear to most advantage, and its recital, last evening, was, if possible, more satisfying than the most acceptable of the earlier rehearsals. The music is as full and as fresh as if a century had not rolled by since its first hearing. The reader least acquainted with Mozart need not be told that the melodies are full of inspiration. The beauties of the scoring, however, may be suggested for his attention. Throughout the whole opera, the accompaniments are of an appropriateness, a substantiality and a sensuous beauty, the potency of which the genius and industry of an after age have done nothing to lessen. Without going over ground so often traversed, we can say at once that no interpretation of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’—albeit the words are Anglicized and not always with a regard for their sweetness and signification—offers a more welcome opportunity for the enjoyment of Mozart’s delicious themes and writing than is supplied by the artists now tenanting the Academy of Music. The grand voice of Mme. Parepa-Rosa, who represents Susanna, the sympathetic tones and the excellent acting of Mrs. Zelda Seguin, in the garb of Cherubino, the vocal skill and conscientious work of Mr. Aynsley Cook, who portrays the Count, and the undiminished resources of Mr. S. C. Campbell, who sings the bars allotted to Figaro, are not often to be enjoyed unitedly and unreservedly. It would be wasting space to mention the special points of interest of an entertainment that afforded, yesterday, such great and equable pleasure. All the familiar pieces—first among which will be remembered the air better known as ‘Voi che sapete’ than by its opening phrase in the vernacular, and the exquisite ‘Canzonet to the Zephyr’—were redemanded, while the concerted numbers, of which the elaborateness and charm are scarcely inferior to the more impressive solos, were applauded with almost as clear a desire for a repeat. Nothing but praise can be bestowed, indeed, upon the labors of the chorus and orchestra, the latter under the conductorship of Mr. Carl Rosa. The precision of the choral forces, especially, will go far toward acquainting local audiences with what may be accomplished by those participants in operatic representations, who are too frequently regarded as figurants. In addition to the performers whose names are printed above, Miss Clara Doria, who is still a young lady of promise rather than a finished songstress, was listened to as the Countess, and had acceptance in that role, and Messrs. Hall, Whiffen, and Seguin were before the footlights as Bartolo, Basilio, and Antonio. The audience, as we anticipated, was exceedingly numerous and fashionable.”

“Mozart’s delightful opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ is based, it will be remembered, on Beaumarchais’s brilliant comedy of that name, for which Mozart has done the same service in setting it to music, as Rossini did for the piece which logically precedes it—‘The Barber.’ The music is distinguished, throughout, for that warm coloring, symmetrical form, and gay, even comic humor with which we are familiar in ‘Don Giovanni.’ It especially requires, to make it interesting as a drama, decided vitality and ease of action, as well as brilliance of [illegible] musical execution. While it might be difficult to take exception to the musical part of the performance last evening, the dramatic element was not, in all cases, as thoroughly supplied. Mr. Campbell, as Figaro, hardly answered the ideal of the witty, mercurial roguish, love-sick, [illegible], and soon, alas to be, henpecked barber. Mr. Campbell’s solid, honest execution, and dignified manner, were not thoroughly in place in a role which trenches so closely on the buffo. Mr. Aynsley Cook was a thought too ponderous for Almaviva, and Mlle. Clara Doria, though pretty and pleasing, hardly gave sufficient color to the character of the neglected and injured Countess. But Mme. Parepa was spirited and mischievous as Susanna, and Miss Zelda Seguin brought a very amusing breadth of humor to the delineation of the sentimental scape-grace of a page, Cherubino. Her romance in the second act was warmly applauded, as was also the beautiful though somewhat prolonged scena between Susanna, Almaviva, Figaro, and the Countess, at the end of the act. The music, on the whole, got essential justice at the hands of the artists, and a trifle more of ‘snap’ and vivacity would have made the performance everything that could fairly be desired.”

“The representation of three really good operas (two of which are new to most of us) in one week, is certainly a subject for congratulation, and this is what the Parepa-Rosa troupe has done, besides giving us three works of ordinary merit.

‘La Gazza Ladra,’ ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’’ ‘The Water Carrier’—all are so beautiful that I can only make use of the expression once applied to Dickens’ novels and say, ‘the best is the one I last heard.’ [review of La Gazza Ladra]

Next came Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro,’ which was sung with the usual abridgement of the last act, Mme. Parepa, of course, taking the role of Susanna, and, as there are so many beautiful numbers in which she takes part, this evening was perhaps the most enjoyable of all.”