Scan 29
Musical Courier 1895-12-11: Vol 31 Iss 823, 1895
88 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
1AMBROISE THOMAS' Hamlet was sung for the first time this season last Wednesday night at the Metropolitan Opera House. This was the cast:
3Ophelia………………………………………Mme. Emma Calvé
4La Regina Gertrude………………………..Mme Mantelli
5Claudio, Re di Danimarca…………………M. Plançon
6Laerzio………………………………………M. Mauguire
7L'Ombra…………………………………….M. Castelmary
8Marcello…………………………………….Signor Rinaldini
9Orazio………………………………………Signor Viviani
10Polonio………………………………………Signor de Vaschetti
11Amleto………………………………………Signor Kaschmann
12The incidental divertissement by Mlle. Giuri and corps de ballet.
13Conductor, Signor Bevignani.
15Calvé in a blonde wig sang the blond music of Thomas amazingly well. The work is so dreary, a ridiculous mélange of opera bouffe and Meyerbeerian mock heroics, that if the mad scene was played in the first act the house would empty at once. Mr. Grau put the work on this time at the request of Calvé, and while we have heard Nilsson, Van Zandt, Melba, Margaret Reid and other singers, the Frenchwoman effaced with ease all recollections.
17Commonplace and lacking in the vis tragicas as is Thomas' music, it is masterly in comparison to the awful book of Barbier and Carré. These amiable librettists never hesitated at setting for operatic treatment anything from the Bible to Shakespeare. They could have furnished you Littre's dictionary in five acts if so commanded. But it is a useless task to subject again to the fire of the critical crematory this dull, commonplace opera. It is difficult to realize that the sprightly pen of Thomas, the composer of Mignon, could turn out such lugubrious stuff. Compare La Favorita with all its banality to Hamlet, and what a difference—the difference in dramatic blood! Donizetti has it; Thomas lacks it.
19However, Calvé has longed to show us her versatility; and while most of us remember with pleasure her coloratura singing at a Sunday night concert some years ago, yet to the majority of opera goers who have seen her as the intense, fierce, pitiful Santuzza, Ophelia was a surprise, a revelation.
21Of course she did her best work in the mad scene—really a maddening scene with its pretty, artificial ballet. She sang the familiar and florid music with agility. One missed the jeune fille quality, yet there was much that was artistic. She sung sharp early in the performance, but made some ravishing effects in spinning her tones. Her high pianissimo is delicious and her trill—always a trifle sharp—almost perfect. Her use of the abused "white voice" was masterly. Her medium still lacks distinction and mellowness, but this wonderful woman sings better at every performance. Her acting, confused and conventional for several acts, was well defined and intense as the evening wore on. But, then, what is this hybrid creature Ophelia palmed off on us by the librettists? Sure, not Shakespeare's! Calvé really worked wonders with a hopelessly false theatrical and ineffectual character.
23In the duo with Hamlet and also in the duo with Gertrude her attack was harsh and the pitch suffered. As her voice grew warmer and her nervousness wore off, her singing was exquisite. She is not an ethereal Ophelia, and after all said and done five minutes of her Santuzza is worth a wilderness of Thomas' Ophelias.
25Kaschmann was the Hamlet. He sang the rôle here over ten years ago. He was graceful and courtly in bearing, quite dramatic, and sang that bacchanalian song with spirit, but his voice is dead in timbre and his phrasing often angular. He was well received. His pitch was very immoral at times.
27Plançon was the King and royally satisfactory. But how he must loathe sceptres and royal ermine! He sang very well, as he always does. Mantelli was exceptionally good and got a salvo of glad hands in her scene. Castelmary, a substantial Ghost, walked as should all good ghosts.
29The chorus lifted its voice heavenward in those delightful opera bouffe chorales and the attendance was large. Calvé did not acknowledge the applause after her mad scene and the Elsinore ballet took the flowers showered on the stage and covered her with them. These she picked to pieces in a pretty and realistic manner. It was a great improvement on the usual procedure of fainting Ophelias who revive and bow their acknowledgments before taking the final bath.
31The mock king in the mock play did a tragic bit after the leprous distilment was dropped in the porches of his ear. That was very realistic. His legs became knotted in a true death knot and were quite emotional in their vibrato.
33Tristan and Isolde was repeated on Thursday evening and before a large audience. Nordica shows a steady improvement as Isolde, and her elaboration of the dramatic details is noteworthy. Jean and Edouard De Reszké were admirable. Mr. Seidl conducted with great power and passion.
35On Friday night Carmen, with Calvé, was sung, and at the matinée La Traviata, with Saville, Ancona and Cremonini, and Cavalleria Rusticana, with Calvé, were given.
37Nordica was indisposed Saturday night, so Sophie Traubmann took her place in Il Trovatore at a few hours' notice. This talented young woman, an Ashforth pupil, and the possessor of a beautiful soprano, made a most satisfactory impression. She has a dramatic temperament, and her singing and acting were alike satisfactory. She sang in German. Mantelli, Kaschmann, Arimondi and Russitano were in the cast. Signor Sepilli conducted. Russitano almost screamed himself breathless in the Di Quella Pira, and the occupants of "squatter rows" yelled an answering salute.
39Last Monday night Faust was repeated, with Nordica, the two De Reszkés, Olitska and Maurel in the cast. The performance, as might be expected, was a smooth one and generally satisfactory.
41THIRD SUNDAY NIGHT CONCERT.
43Mr. Seidl, in making up his program for these Sunday night concerts, should take into consideration the fact that his audiences have a voracious maw for encores, and therefore shorten the scheme. Last Sunday night was no exception. Cremonini had to repeat the romanza from Mignon and also Tosti's Ideale. Lola Beeth sang twice besides her regular number, and Plançon, besides singing an old-fashioned air, Galathée, by Victor Massé, gave two encores, one the inevitable Two Grenadiers. This is mere greediness on the part of indulgent artists. A line on the bills making more than one encore an impossibility would regulate the nuisance.
45Marsick played in a most finished manner Wieniawsky's second violin concerto. He, too, was tumultuously received, and responded with a czardas, by Hubay. He also played Saint-Saëns' Rondo Capriccioso most brilliantly, and his good nature was further tested in another piece. Marsick has never played better since his arrival here. Lolo Beeth delivered the unfamiliar measures of an aria from Goldmark's Queen of Sheba. She did not sing it very well, and her rhythm was bad. Then she came out a half dozen times, even singing a Swedish song twice. Decidedly the encore business is overdone.
47Olitska did not succeed very well with the lugubrious stanzas assigned to Sappho by the late Charles Gounod. She flatted badly on the final top note, but returned with the encore. She sang, and sang very well, Schumann's Frühlingsnacht, beautifully accompanied at the piano by Mr. Amhurst Webber.
49The orchestra played the Meistersinger prelude and numbers by Rubinstein, Schumann, Wagner and Czibulka. The trio from Faust was badly sung by Beeth, Plançon and Cremonini.
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