Marie Aim�e Farewell Benefit

“The representation given for the benefit of Mlle. Aimée, who on the same occasion, last evening, bade good-bye to New York audiences for a twelvemonth at least was enjoyed by an immense assemblage. The proceedings commenced at 8 o’clock and closed after midnight. They included a performance of ‘Lischen and Fritschen,’ an amusing operetta in which Mlle. Aimée personified an Alsatian maiden of the familiar bouffe type; the second act of ‘La Jolie Parfumeuse,’ and what may be called a protean farce, entitled ‘La Femme aux Oeufs d’Or.’ The laughter and applause during the entertainment were loud and incessant. Never did Mlle. Aimée’s fund of vivacity appear larger, never was her humor more catching, never did the cleverness of her management of voice, eye, and limbs, assert itself with more clearness and with greater variety. She sang in French, in English, and in Spanish, and she danced as they dance in Spain and strutted as the popular prima donnas strut on the boards of local variety theatres. And all she said and did was stamped by earnestness and originality. The branch of art in which Mlle. Aimée excels is not the highest, but it is something to excel in any way, and so long as opera bouffe is liked—and in America, at least, it does not impress us as being on the wane—she can easily be considered its queen. That this fact was appreciated was shown plainly enough yesterday, for every song and pas was redemanded, and two boleros, three renderings of ‘As Pretty as a Picture,’ two of ‘La Paloma,’ and two of ‘Les Canards’only half satisfied the audience. After the curtain fell on the last piece, Mlle. Aimée was summoned before it. It was known that she was about to depart for France, and that she would be absent throughout next season, and a few farewell words were insisted upon. The little lady, however, simply kissed her hand to her admirers and retired, and so ended modestly and successfully a five years’ sojourn in the United States.” 

“The Lyceum Theatre was last night jammed to its utmost capacity by a brilliant and distinguished audience, gathered to do honor to the opera bouffe artist, to whose talent they felt themselves debtors for many a pleasant hour’s amusement. The programme included ‘Lischen and Fritschen,’ which was presented for the first time in this country. It gave Aimée and De Beer plenty of scope for the display of their admirable powers of caricature. The pièce de resistance was, however, ‘La Femme aux Oeufs d’Or,’ in which, as Rosita, Mlle. Aimée achieved an immense success, and received the compliment of numerous recalls and floral offerings.”