Holman Opera Troupe: Cinderella

“‘Cinderella’ is still the card par excellence, and Miss Sallie Holman the chief charm of the performance at the Broadway Academy of Music.  In this young prima donna there is no abatement of the many claims which last season gained for her throughout the States so warm a recognition as Cinderella.  Her conception and rendering of the role is very pleasing, and she has acquired a thorough mastery of the sources of expression.  She has also the gift of portraying passion, and of so deep a kind that it imparts delicacy to her transports and much naturalness to her anguish.  If her age is as much as eighteen, her appearance does not suggest more than fifteen, owing to her petite and delicate person, and radiant complexion.”

An opera troupe for and partly made up of children.  “In this new temple of song, small operas are produced on a very small stage, and sung by very small artists with very small voices.  The entertainment, however, is by no means small in its attraction, but is intended for very small people, and may be pronounced very successful in this respect, to judge from the hearty laughter and applause of those present at the matinee yesterday.
 

            Mrs. Holman’s little troupe sing, dance and act with a spirit and ensemble which actors of a larger growth do not always evince. Miss Sallie Holman, as Cinderella, in the operetta of that name, is quite charming, and deserves a better accompaniment than that afforded by the fiddles and piano which form the orchestra. We will take the liberty, while mentioning the orchestra, to advise the first fiddle to play several notes lower—in fact, to keep in tune with the piano and bass viol, the extreme altitude of the said first fiddle rendering it quite impossible for the children to be effective in the solos. In the third act of Cinderella, Miss Sallie Holman does a double voiced song, ‘The bird of beauty,’ exhibiting great compass as a soprano and contralto at the same time. This musical feat was greatly applauded. After the successful performance of the operetta, Master Alfred Holman gave his “wondrous drum beating,” portraying with fearful accuracy a great battle; the march, the explosion of the shells, the booming of artillery, and all that. If we didn’t exactly see it, the bills say that it is done, and of course it must be so.