Kellogg English Opera: The Talisman

“Miss Kellogg makes her programme this week with more consideration for the character of her troupe and the special talents of her principal associates than she showed during her previous visit to New-York. Three of the four works chosen for this brief series of performances are genuine English operas. They do not belong to the highest class of the musical drama by any means, but they have a positive value as well as a certain charm of their own, and we wish that the school of which they are representatives might receive a little more attention. If Miss Kellogg would devote her abilities as a manager and an artist to the cultivation of English light opera in its best and purest form, on a small stage where the spoken dialogue could be heard and enjoyed, with proper care for detail, with a properly balanced orchestra, and with a well drilled company, she might do a great service to American art. That she could find an appreciative public we have no doubt. Her experiment this year and last, with a mixture of English and translated Italian opera—genteel comedy, melodrama, and cheap tragedy [putting?] one another out of countenance—has proved that there is a great multitude of lovers of music who are not attracted by the customary Italian performances, but will rush with avidity to a little milder sort of entertainment. Last night when ‘The Talisman’ was repeated the House was nearly full, although the opera is not an especially pleasing one and the cast—Miss Kellogg excepted—was not very strong. How easy it would be to produce what the French know as opéra comique with the same precision and elegance which distinguish the production of a play at Wallack’s Theatre; and what an honorable position awaits the manager who first does it.”

“Last evening at the Academy of Music Balfe’s romantic opera ‘The Talisman’ was performed by the Kellogg English Opera Company.

Miss Kellogg appeared as Lady Edith, Miss Beaumont as Queen Berengaria, Mr. Maas as Sir Kenneth, Mr. Wm. Carleton as King Richard, and Mr. Peakes as Nectabanus.

Miss Kellogg sang ‘Bright as the gleam of thy stars’ remarkably well, and at its close, received great applause. At the close of the duet in the third act, according to the divisions adopted at the Academy, she was several times recalled, and the final part of the duet was repeated. Miss Kellogg’s voice was in good condition.

Miss Beaumont sang the lay of ‘Fair Navarre’ with such intelligence and winsome grace that the audience became quite enthusiastic, and applauded so unanimously that she was induced to repeat the last verse. The melody of this romance—which, as we have shown, bears a striking resemblance to the second theme of Bach’s canzona in D minor—bids fair to become the most popular in the opera.

Mr. Maas found ample opportunities for the display of his very agreeable voice in the air ‘Flow’ret, I kiss thee.’ He sang the song ‘On balmy wing of night breeze,’ however, with much greater effect, and thus this melody most probably made a deeper impression on many, by whom it will be recalled with pleasure.

Mr. Carleton delivered the air, ‘Monarch of all,’ most admirably, and subsequently the manly song ‘On valiant squires’ with increased vigor and energy, and thus found great favor with the audience.

Mr. Harry Peakes, by his most clever acting and rich, sonorous voice, was extremely welcome at all times on the stage. In the scena, ‘I love the sky,’ he was encored, and in the sunset scene at the words ‘Sly Nectabanus’ attracted considerable attention.

The choruses were all well given, and although when the opera was first performed here most careful preparations had been made, yet now marked improvements are noticeable. The tendency to sing flat in the chapel scene is hardly perceptible, and the concerted pieces, especially the one at the close of the third act, are made most highly impressive.

The employment of the harp in the orchestra and behind the scenes was of course not unperceived.”

“Balfe’s opera, ‘The Talisman,’ was given last night by the Kellogg Opera Company before a very crowded house. The cast was precisely the same as appeared at its first representation on Ash Wednesday. The orchestra received a needed addition in the person of Mme. Maretzek, who gave the harp passages, previously entrusted to a piano, with marked effect. The music does not wear as well as a reading of the score would lead us to suppose, owing, probably, to many points of incompleteness in last night’s representation. The tenor, Mr. Maas, is evidently unsuited for the heroic rôle of Sir Kenneth, and fails to cope successfully with music which calls for the voice of a Campanini, a Wachtel or a Reeves. Mr. Peakes, last evening, in essaying to convey the idea of the grotesque character of Nectabanus, rather overshot the mark and made it ludicrous. Miss Kellogg does not appear to the same advantage as Edith Plantagenet as in some of those other operatic rôles with which her name and fame are inseparably associated. The most salient characters were those of the Queen and King of England, very excellently represented by Miss Beaumont and Mr. Carleton. Both artists made a favorable impression of the most marked kind.”

“On Wednesday evening and Saturday matinee ‘The Talisman’ was reproduced with the same cast as on its former representation, and proved as uninteresting as when formerly listened to; its repetition but strengthening the opinion before expressed in these columns. In the character of Edith Plantagenet Miss Kellogg has but few opportunities for displaying her capabilities, and creates a less favorable impression than in other operatic roles with which her name and fame are more closely identified. Although with the aid of the artists of this company, who acceptably filled their various roles, a most careful recital was given to this posthumous work of Balfe’s, it so clearly lacks that which would recommend it to popular approval that it can never meet with the enduring success attained by his earliest compositions.”

“We have had a week of English opera, at the Academy, by the Kellogg troupe, beginning Marth 29^th and terminating April 3d. Balfe’s posthumous Opera, ‘The Talisman,’ was among the works represented. The attendance was small, and the performances do not call for extended notice. These representations are patronized chiefly by a class of people who, while regarding the legitimate Italian Opera as but little better than a device of the evil one, take to it kindly, on local or patriotic grounds, when it is clothed in ill fitting English and interpreted by American singers. I can imagine a kind of English opera which would be a very pleasing addition to our fund of entertainments and doubtless we may sometime have a theatre, like the Opera Comique in Paris, where the performances are artistic and refined without being stilted, and where the singers attempt no more than they can fairly perform. Miss Kellogg is admirably fitted to take part in such an enterprise, as all know who have heard her sing in ‘Crispino’ or ‘Fra Diavolo,’ and kindred works.”