Maretzek Italian Opera: Norma

     The Matinée at the Academy of Music on Saturday inst. presented one of those brilliant scenes which New-York alone can afford. For an hour and a half before the time for opening the doors, all the avenues leading to the Academy were thronged with ladies, speeding in one direction, each anxious to be the first to reach the goal of their desires.  Within a few minutes after 12 o’clock every seat in the Academy was filled, yet still the ladies flocked in until the whole interior was a perfect jam.

     The opera of Norma was very admirably performed. Norma is one of Zucchi’s strongest personations; it affords her scope for the display of the grander and more powerful passions of our nature, in the portrayal of which she so greatly excels. The last act on Saturday was superbly rendered by her, both vocally and dramatically, and excited the warmest admiration. The other characters were very well sustained, and the choruses were given with much power and effect, while the orchestra was but indifferently kept in hand by Signor Torriani.”

     “Mr. Maretzek's three performances—the ‘African,’ ‘Crispino,’ and ‘Norma’—have inaugurated the Spring season in the most brilliant and successful way, and this, too, despite the fact that dancing is so much in vogue that the fashionable world has double duty to perform. The matinee on Saturday drew a magnificent audience, and the performance was in every way creditable and excellent.”

     “The Saturday matinee was so brilliantly attended and the performance of ‘Norma’ so acceptable, that it is rumored the number of weekly matinees will be increased.”