Strakosch Italian Opera: La Sonnambula

“Last evening’s recital of ‘La Sonnambula,’ at the Academy of Music, was a repetition of the performance of Wednesday week, when, it will be remembered, Mlle. Albani made her début in this country. The opera was the same, the performance as finished and effective, and the audience as large and enthusiastic. A more trustworthy prima donna than Mlle. Albani is not now before the public, and, whatever the work she is to appear in, the spectator can count upon a personation replete with earnestness, correctness, and charm. Her portrayal of Amina, noticed already in these columns, was witnessed anew with pleasure. Mlle. Albani’s methods are of the simplest, and yet the impression she produces is immediate and deep. The power of a lovely voice goes far toward this, but her mastery of the art of song, and the exercise of a faultless taste enter largely into her influence. Both the beauty of her tones and the purity of her style have ample scope for display in ‘La Sonnambula’ and the recital of Bellini’s pretty but well-worn opera passed off brilliantly, ‘Come per me sereno’ and ‘Sovra il cor’ receiving the wonted measure of applause, and the florid ‘Ah, non giunge’ calling forth a demonstration of delight in which the coldest listeners felt constrained to join. After the second act—in which, by the way, Mlle. Albani acts with considerable sentiment, and, as always, with rare grace—the latest representative of Amina was thrice summoned before the stage, and laden with flowers. As heretofore, Signor Benfratelli was Elvino, and Signor Fiorini Rodolfo.”

“This young American prima donna, who has in a few seasons gained a position on the lyric stage that others have failed to win in half a lifetime, made her fourth appearance last night at the Academy of Music before a large audience, repeating her wonderful impersonation of Amina in ‘La Sonnambula.’ Notwithstanding the inefficiency of the support, Mlle. Albani succeeded in intensifying the impression she made over a week ago. The beauty of her voice, which in tone is crystalline and even throughout, sympathetic to the highest degree in its delineation of passion and trained to a degree of perfection, the charm of her presence and artlessness of manner, in which acting becomes so natural that the individuality of the prima donna is absorbed in the rôle she represents, and the savoir faire quality that makes itself so conspicuously felt in every scene, constitute a standard of excellence in Mlle. Albani’s operatic impersonations that leaves nothing to be desired.”

General review of the opera season so far.