Grau Havana Opera: Faust

“The Opera of Faust was performed . . . on Saturday. The attendance was not very large, but was quite fashionable.  With the opera every one is acquainted; the novelty on this occasion, therefore, was the appearance of the new singers.

    Mdlle. Boschetti presents a new and very excellent reading of the character of Margueritte [sic]. She is really the simple and modest girl, who has to be wooed, and does not throw herself recklessly into the arms of a passionate lover. Her innocent but irrepressible delight at the sight of the exquisite jewels was most felicitously displayed. The whole of the third act was a charmingly natural piece of acting, amounting to the intense at that point where she fears that her passion has been too openly betrayed. Through the last act, where the situation becomes more tragic, Boschetti displayed a dramatic power and earnest passionate expression superior to any artist who has yet attempted Goethe’s heroine. She is a beautiful woman, and sings with true artistic impulse. Her voice is of fine quality, with the exception of two or three notes, above E on the first line, which are sometimes harsh and disagreeable. But, on the whole, her personation of the role of Margueritte, both vocally and dramatically, was a decided success. Signor Anastasi sang to the very best advantage in the role of Faust, displaying the full quality of his beautiful tenor voice. He sings with great intelligence and feeling. His style is pure, and his delivery graceful and sweet, and at the same time emphatic and dramatic. He is also an earnest and discriminating actor, and is altogether the most satisfactory personator of Faust that we have yet seen.  The same may be said of Signor Milleri, the representative of Mephistopheles. He has studied the character thoroughly, and gives us the true reading of it. He sings most artistically; his voice, well trained, is of beautiful quality, but is hardly heavy enough in the lower tones, to do full justice to the music, in the vast area of the Academy of Music. But he sang and acted the role most admirably. The efforts of these artists were warmly appreciated by the public, and received an amount of applause not usually bestowed by a matinee audience, which is composed of seven-eighths ladies.

    The orchestral and choral departments we have had on grander and more perfect scale, but in the third act the orchestra was worthy and fully sustained the efforts of the artists.”