Kellogg English Opera: Faust; Annual Benefit of the French Benevolent Society

de Bienfaisance was attended by an audience that filled the house to overflowing. The cause of the Societé française is a most deserving one, but worthy efforts are not always crowned with equal success. ‘Faust’ was performed by Miss Kellogg, Mrs. Seguin, and Miss Starbird, and Messrs. Habelmann, Carlton, and Peakes; and after the opera Mlle. Mendes sang, and M. Juignet and several French comedians acted a little piece called ‘Les Amendes de Timothée.’ Miss Kellogg’s personation of Marguerite is a familiar one, and does not exact comment. The lady was much applauded. The subsequent incidents of the night were quite as acceptable as the opera.”

“The Academy of Music presented last evening an appearance similar to that on the occasion of ‘The Bohemian Girl’ matinée on Saturday. The house was filled to repletion, hundreds being unable to procure seats, and the receipts exceeded $4,000. The cause of this unusual attendance was the double attraction of the annual benefit of the French Benevolent Society, and the opera, ‘Faust,’ in English. Miss Kellogg’s Marguerite is one of her most popular rôles, and the curiosity of the New York public to hear her in it in her native language was natural. Those whose expectations of her impersonation of the character had been raised to a high standard, from having seen her on the Italian stage, were not disappointed last evening. She has evidently made a careful study of the rôle, analyzing its minutest requirements and individualizing it in a manner peculiarly her own. The choice morceaux of the garden scene and the delirious utterances of the dying Marguerite in prison, where she defies even the power of the fiend and robs him of his expected victim, lost none of their effect and beauty and expression in Miss Kellogg’s hands. The church scene was the gem of the performance, and in it the prima donna achieved her most dramatic points. The arrangement of the scene was also very effective, representing the exterior of the church, with the demon appearing at intervals in a niche at the entrance, as an insuperable barrier between the anguished Marguerite and the fountain of hope and grace. The village maidens shrink in terror at the sight of the motionless body lying on the steps as they leave the church.

Mr. Habelmann’s Faust is so well known to the metropolitan public by his many representations of it on the German stage that it is only necessary to say that in English opera the same characteristics of smooth delivery of the music approaching the monotonous and a melancholy manner in acting were perceptible. Mrs. Seguin was a charming Siebel and received an encore for her one aria in the garden scene. Mr. Peakes gave a very fair rendering of the trying rôle of Mephistopheles, and without being a great, it was, at least, an intelligent and symmetrical impersonation. In the church scene he was a worthy assistant to Miss Kellogg. Mr. Carlton’s Valentine was pleasing and his voice in better condition than usual. The entire performance, without being an ambitious one, had so many points of merit that it may be regarded as the best yet afforded to us by the present company.

After the opera Mlle. Leontine Mendes sung ‘Saint à la France,’ from ‘La Fille du Régiment,’ with spirit and effect, and despite the disadvantages of singing at the close of a long opera and before a thinning audience a short time before midnight, she won applause.”