Aimée Opera bouffe: La Périchole

Arrival of most of company’s artists in New York by French steamship last evening.

Lists company members; repertory.

Roles and work to be performed.

Roster and repertory.

Opera bouffe at the Olympic

“The opera bouffe season opened very brilliantly last evening at the Olympic. The house has been brightened up and redecorated, and presents a cheerful and pleasant aspect. Mlle. Aimee is always welcome wherever she goes, and her merits have always received a due appreciation in this city. No actress of the French school ever had a keener sense of humor or displayed more tact in knowing just how far to push the extravagances of opera bouffe without carrying them beyond the bounds of decorum.

There is always a temptation to carry matters rather far in the species of entertainment, and it is by no means every actor or actress who has the discretion to stop at the right point.

The company is a very good one throughout. As singers they do not rank very high, but that is rather a secondary matter, for these musical farces are allayed quite as closely, in fact rather more so, to the drama than to music, and the first requisite is that those who perform in them should understand the art of acting. This the French usually do, and it is always a satisfaction to witness the artistic way in which they go about the business In hand. There is no such bungling amateur work as we are accustomed to on our stage.

Monsieur Juteau, the new tenor, has these requisites to which we have referred in a high degree. He is an exceedingly accomplished comedian, and a very fair singer. 

Duchesne, an old favorite, is of the company, and last evening, as always, he made his part of the Viceroy thoroughly entertaining. ‘La Perichole,’ which was the opera given, is one of the pleasantest of its class. With the material that the managers have at command, the season gives every promise of being prosperous and well conducted.”

“The advent of Mlle. Aimée and her new opera bouffe company at the Olympic Theatre last evening, was an auspicious one. The dingy old theatre, in the pretentious language of the playbill, had been ‘renovated.’ A new carpet covered the floor; paint and varnish had been administered to the furniture and walls in judicious quantities; while the boxes were noticeable for glaring scarlet draperies, bordered heavily with black velvet. The theatre still has a somber appearance; the luxurious coloring of the Grand Opera House and the dainty prettiness of the Fifth Avenue Theatre are not to be expected in the Olympic; but the place is clean once more, and its staid decorations do not divert one’s attention from the play. 

Mlle. Aimée made her bow to the public in the charming, and, in the main, harmless play of ‘La Perichole.’ It is an old favorite of the New York admirers of Offenbach, and last night the Olympic was filled with those who had come to welcome both the play and the player. For the most part their patronage was well bestowed. Mlle. Aimée, with her customary shrewdness, did not introduce her whole company the first night. She began modestly, and ought to be encouraged in her venture by her success. The chief addition was Mons. Juteau, the new tenor. He is a better singer and a far cleverer actor than Mons. Noe, and is no mean rival of Mons. Aujac. Mons. Duchesne fully maintained his reputation as a careful singer and an inimitable actor in certain parts. The chorus was larger than the one employed last winter, and the orchestra, under the direction of Mons. Von Ghele, played the familiar airs very creditably.

Of Mlle. Aimée little needs to be said. She is emphatically what in the Yankee dialect is called a ‘smart woman.’ A better actor than Irma, a more refined interpreter of the sensuousness of opera bouffe than Tostée, she sings with a skill surpassed by neither. Her quick wit enables her to give an air of novelty to everything she does, and her aptness at taking advantage of circumstances—as in the pretty gesture with which she received the second bouquet last evening—keeps every one on the alert. At the same time she gets over the wicked words of the text with commendable alacrity, and without an attempt to intensify their obvious meeting. Her artistic sense kept alive in her last evening, throughout the play, the wild habits, the lawless instincts and the mischievous tendencies of the gypsy girl, La Perichole, and even when dressed up in fine clothes in the palace of that venerable sinner, Don Andres, otherwise known as Duchesne, she had great difficulty in minding her ‘company manners.’ She was called before the curtain several times, and applauded almost without limit.”

“Last night was a real gala night at the Olympic Theatre. La Reine des bouffers, Marie Aimée, commenced a season, under the auspices of Offenbach, of those champagne-like entertainments that once, under the management of Bateman & Grau, set all New York intoxicated. Theatre-goers will remember the charm that attracted every one, blocks out of their way, from Madison Square down to those unknown regions where Pike constructed his stately opera house. There Irma and Aujac, after their departure from Niblo’s, created a desire among the Westsiders to see for themselves what this delightful nonsense in music that other audiences spoke so enthusiastically about, amounted to. The Perichole of the saucy little Irma and the Piquillo of the dashing Aujac gave a good start to opéra bouffe on the west side, which bad management subsequently neutralized.

Last night there was a new departure. Mlle. Aimée, herself a favorite and an artiste of no mean dimensions, brought out a number of new faces and new voices in ‘La Périchole,’ which perhaps, has been one of the most popular of Offenbach’s operas in this city. The house was crowded to excess, from parquet to dome, and, owing to the especial excellence of the performance, the applause was of the most uproarious description. The cast was the following [see above].

There were two notable features in the performance, the Périchole of Aimée and the Piquillo of M. Juteau. Both artists sang and acted superbly, and it is not too much to say that never before were the two characters represented so admirably. The chorus was superior to anything we have ever been acquainted with in this city in opéra bouffe, and M. Van Ghele made the orchestral part of the opera a thorough success. The opera was given with no stint of expense or labor on the part of the management, and seldom has there been so auspicious a commencement of a season. The entire company was received with the utmost favor, and the audience went away pleased and convinced that in Mlle. Aimée and her company there are worthy and artistic representatives of opéra bouffe.”

“The season of opera bouffe at the Olympic Theatre was commenced last evening. It opened most auspiciously. The house, which had been refreshed and redecorated during the recess, was crowded to overflowing by a brilliant audience, and the progress of the performance was cheered by applause indicative of the unmistakably pleasant impression produced by the company gathered under Mlle. Aimée’s banner. Of the entertainment, it is not necessary to write at length. ‘La Périchole’ was the opera, and Mlle. Aimée’s personation of the street songstress is as familiar to the frequenter of places of amusement as are the melodious tunes of the score itself. We should not like to say that the lady’s singing was last night irreproachable in point of intonation, but its defects, we believe, were attributable to excessive fatigue consequent upon rehearsals following a wearisome sea voyage. Nothing could be better than her acting; her picture of La Périchole is a remarkable one of its kind, and there is no probability that even Mlle. Schneider’s efforts will cause it to be forgotten. With Mlle. Aimée, whose reappearance was attended by a demonstration of welcome most flattering and well-nigh interminable, M. Juteau, a new tenor, was listened to. M. Juteau is young, his voice is no more mature than his physique, and he is an earnest, vivacious and skilled comedian. M. Juteau distinguished himself in the duet preceding the marriage episode, in act the first; in the song ‘Les Femmes;’ and, in fact, at all the remembered stages of the piece; he is a most acceptable performer. The remaining roles were filled by [see above]. The opera has been very neatly set.”

“The Olympic Theater, reopened last night, was found to be as clean and cool as a church at Christmas. It has not been thoroughly redecorated, but new [illegible] appear in several parts of it, and in other parts the [illegible] have been refreshed. A Grecian [illegible], for instance, has been traced around the [illegible] in blue and gold; and the private boxes have been fearfully and wonderfully hung with pink satin, bordered with black. New paint and carpets do the rest. The effect of the changes in the auditorium is generally good, and the whole aspect is even more cheerful than usual. The house was crowded in every part, and a most enthusiastic assembly gave a hearty reception to an exceedingly spirited and polished performance of ‘La Perichole.’ The opera is well known, and it is known to be one of the purest and best of the works of this class, and to contain some really beautiful music. It was put upon the stage with new scenery, from the ingenious and tasteful brush of Mr. Hayes, and it was carried through with skill and a contagious spirit of merriment. Mlle. Aimee had a particularly warm welcome. Her beauty, now languishing, now defiant, and now jolly and exhilarating, remained unchanged; and, in her easy, nonchalant, off hand method of acting, that ‘knowing’ fleck, which first gave her popularity, is still the zest. She ‘knows all qualities, with a learned spirit,’ of human mischief; and her personal grace and artistic talents enable her to give them ample [illegible]. Her rendering of the well known letter scene—which was deservedly recalled—lent to the exuberant strain of farce that undercurrent of tender sentiment which is so delicious, because so sweetly mournful, in the midst of the sound of revelry. Mlle. Aimee's emotion, however, is the reverse of deep; and it is not by this that she conquers. Her intoxicated song, at the [start?] of act first, was one of the hits of the evening, and very much more to the taste of the auditors—though painful in its truth of form and color. In the third act she made another, and a special hit, with a waltz song, by Litolf, from the opera bouffe of ‘La Boite a Pandora’—written expressly for her. To the new tenor, M. Juteau, the heart of the public warmed at once. He has youth, a fresh voice, a manly bearing, decided talent as an actor, and an abundance of animal spirits. American play goers are reminded, by him, of certain of the peculiarities of the comedian Mr. A. W. Young—formerly of Wallack’s. His simulation of grief, on discovering the supposed perfidy of La Perichole, was so good as to be truly touching. It is only an actor who knows what feeling is that can successfully burlesque it. Juteau’s voice lacked the sympathetic quality; but it is a clear, ringing, winning voice, and the singer accomplishes with it all that he undertakes. His singing of the song of woman, in act second, was recalled, and both himself and Mlle. Aimee were recalled upon the scene, by vociferous bravos, at the close of act second. We have not space to dwell upon the details of the representation. It was a decided success. M. Duchesne, whose ripe method and true humor have long been prized by this public, was welcomed with much good-will. An efficient chorus lent strength to the [illegible] effect of the performance. There can be no doubt of the popularity, in this city, of this style of entertainment—in which laughter is set to music, and [illegible line] impulses find expression. The pity is that it should ever be carried too far and made tributary to vice. The Olympic Theater offers it under the best available conditions, and its continued success may be confidently anticipated.”

Change of program because four or five principal artists were aboard the Helvetia, where a fire broke out, and the ship had to return to France.

“Mlle. Aimee’s singing in the title role of ‘The Letter Song’ and ‘The Tipsy Song,’ in which she describes the sumptuous repast of which she has just partaken, was excellent and evoked enthusiastic applause. Mons. Juteau, a tenor from the Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, France, made his American debut in the role of Pequillo, which he interpreted in a thoroughly artistic manner. He has a good stage presence, a pure tenor voice, well cultivated, under good control, and is an excellent actor. He bounded at once into the favor of the audiences, and is, we think destined to become one of the most popular tenors in opera bouffe that has yet appeared here. Mons. Duchesne, a thorough artist, well known here, gave an excellent impression of Don Andres. The minor characters were well filled by [see above].”