Scan 11
Musical Courier 1897-11-03: Vol 35 Iss 922, 1897
64 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3BOSTON, Mass., October 31, 1897.
5"THE Highwayman," a comic opera in three acts by Harvey B. Smith and Reginald de Koven, was performed for the first time in Boston at the Hollis Street Theatre, October 25, by the Broadway Theatre (New York) Company. Mr. de Novellis was the conductor. The cast was as follows:
7Dick Fitzgerald………………………………………Joseph O'Mara
8Lady Constance Sinclair……………………………Hilda Clark
9Sir Godfrey Beverly………………………………..George O'Donnell
10Lady Pamela…………………………………………..Maud Williams
11Captain Rodney………………………………………Van Rensselaer Wheeler
12Constable Quiller……………………………………Jerome Sykes
13Doll Primrose……………………………………….Nellie Braggins
14Toby Winkle…………………………………………..Harry Macdonough
15Lord Kilkenney………………………………………Wm. S. Corliss
16Sir John Hawkhurst………………………………..H. C. White
17Lieutenant Lovelace………………………………..Reginald Roberts
19Whenever I see the announcement of a new comic opera at a theatre in this town, and it comes home to me that in pursuit of my sworn duty I must "assist" at the first performance, I sympathize with the gentleman described by Artemus Ward: "There used to live near Carson City a notorious desperado who never visited town without killing somebody. * * * Going into the St. Nicholas drinking house, he asked the company present to join him in a North American drink. One individual was rash enough to refuse. With a look of sorrow rather than of anger, the desperado revealed his revolver, and said, 'Good God! Must I kill a man every time I come to Carson?'"
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23I am fond of farce and burlesque, with or without music, when the piece and the performance are good. I am very fond of comic opera on the same condition. "La Belle Hélène" is a masterpiece. So is "The Mikado." I pity the man who finds nothing in "Erminie" or "Robin Hood" or sniffs at certain pieces by Mr. Harrigan or Mr. Hoyt. I remember that Scaliger said he didn't care whether Montaigne liked or disliked white wine; but before I speak of "The Highwayman" I wish to define the platform from which I shall speak.
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27Mr. Smith has an excellent motiv, which he develops with little or no skill. In the preface to the libretto—for Mr. Smith now follows Dumas the younger in dropping into a preface—he displays antiquarian and genealogical research; but whether Dick Fitzgerald is a real or fictitious character is all one after he appears as a comic opera hero.
29Mr. Smith's Fitzgerald, ruined by a sharper, takes to the road, and is known as Captain Scarlet. A constable of close kin to Dogberry, and therefore the Sheriff of Nottingham, is in pursuit of him, and so is a simmering militia captain. Lady Constance Sinclair, in love with Fitzgerald, has obtained his pardon from the King, and is trying to get the paper from Sir John Hawkhurst, "Government attaché," and author of Fitzgerald's ruin. The love affairs of subordinate characters lead to mystifications and disguises in Scarlet's costume. Lady Constance, wandering about in tights, stops a coach and gains the pardon. She thinks Fitzgerald is about to marry the daughter of a baronet who believes him to be Lord Kilkenney. Hawkhurst finally points out the true Scarlet. There is pretty talk about the gallows. Fitzgerald sings a song, farewell to all and a special toast to Constance, who, seeing that she is loved by him, produces the pardon and promises to marry him after he has "vindicated his honor" at the head of a regiment in France.
31One of my colleagues insisted at length Tuesday that this libretto is "Robin Hood" over again: Outlaw in each, faithful woman in tights in each, pardon in each, stupid and pompous officer of the law in each. But this resemblance did not disturb me the night of the performance. I was disturbed by the slowness of the action, by the dullness of much of the dialogue, by the throwing away of good opportunities. And I confess I did not find the constable's constant speaking of himself in the third person—as, "Bah!" says Constable Quiller, with a flashing glance of his piercing, jet black eyes"—and—"Bah! Bah!" said Officer Quiller, statusque scratching his left ankle with his right foot!" irresistibly amusing, although Mr. Sykes played the part for all that it is worth.
33Since Monday night there has been heroic cutting, I am told. Thus, in the second act Constance had a scene with a nightingale in the large oak tree and a song with Siegfriedian music. The scene was dull and obtrusive and, whatever the merits of the music were, Miss Clark is not at her best in bravura. I understand this scene has been cut out.
35It seems a pity that such a picturesque fellow as Captain Scarlet is not introduced more effectively. His first entrance is as a pedlar and his song of the Highwayman is without marked character in rhythm or melody.
37No doubt the operetta will be in more compact, more presentable form when it arrives in New York about December 1. And as you will see it then in an improved form, I content myself with again saying that I found the book dull the 25th.
39The music is eminently De Kovenian. It covers many periods and many lands. It is most pleasing when it is simplest. When it is most pretentious, as in the double quartet, it is unendurable; thick, muddy, without natural charm or any exhibition of skill.
41And this time Mr. de Koven helped himself with both hands.
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45The company is an excellent one. The honors were borne away by Mr. O'Mara, whom you saw in Shamus O'Brien. Admirable singer, well-trained actor, sympathetic and authoritative, he was a constant pleasure to the hearer who through long and painful experience has accustomed himself to shut eyes and ears at the first sound of the approaching hoofs of the ordinary comic opera tenor. Miss Clark was a pleasant apparition—from the cestus up; for she is not yet at her ease in male attire. Miss Williams was very pretty in a cardboard part. Mr. Sykes—
47But Mr. Sykes deserves a separate paragraph. He is the man who vexed the slumbers of Mr. H. C. Barnabee at night and was as a thorn in his flesh by day. He was understudy to the Coquelin of New England, and yet whenever he was allowed to appear the audience laughed more heartily and longer than when the original was seen in the part. And so Mr. Sykes with the Bostonians was in the cast off nights, in queer towns, on rainy afternoons. Somehow or other, whenever he did appear, people persisted in going to the show and in enjoying themselves hugely, and newspaper men were foolish enough to sound the praise of Mr. Sykes, forgetting that he was only an understudy. So Mr. Sykes was persona non grata to the old guard in the company.
49I confess I too enjoy Mr. Sykes. He has an unctuous vein and a mutton tallow voice that trickle their way. He puts you in good humor. You forget that you have heard the music before and have no desire to hear the text again. It's a personal matter between Sykes and you, and you find yourself nudging chummy elbows with him.
51The chorus was very good indeed. It had evidently been carefully and intelligently drilled by the experienced and talented Mr. de Novellis.
53I believe the first performance of "The Highwayman" was at New Haven, Conn., October 21. It was then given at Middletown and at Lowell. The company leaves tomorrow for performances at Northampton, Albany, Syracuse, Montreal, &c.
55In my review published in the Boston Journal the 27th I wrote: "After the second act Messrs. Reginald de Koven, Harry B. Smith, A. de Novellis and Max Freeman (stage manager) bowed their heartfelt thanks before the curtain." I was in error. Mr. Smith, they say, was not present, and the man who clasped Mr. de Koven's hand in the sight of the people was Mr. Andrew A. McCormick, manager. Surely one of them must be aggrieved. Perhaps I should apologize to both.
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59The first concert of the thirteenth season of the Kneisel Quartet was given in Association Hall October 25, the night of the first performance here of "The Highwayman." The following pieces were played for the first time at these concerts: Haydn's quartet in D major, op. 50, No. 6; Beethoven's quintet in E flat major, op. 16, for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon; Tchaikowsky's quartet in F major, op. 22.
61Mrs. Helen Hopekirk was the pianist; Messrs. Weiss, Pourtau, Hackebath and Little were the wind players. Mr. Thomas P. Currier wrote of this concert in the Boston Journal:
63"The Tchaikowsky quartet, although played for the first time at any concert given by the Kneisel Club, was not wholly a novelty. It was played by the Adamowski Quartet in the autumn of 1891. The work is a masterpiece. For the lover of the string quartet there can be scarcely a dull page throughout, notwithstanding the fact that its performance takes about forty minutes. The treatment of the four movements is elaborate in the extreme. The first and the longest is worked up with apparently every available device, harmonic and thematic, to a grand climax, almost orchestral in effect; and the beautiful andante is hardly less broadly developed. In the scherzo Tchaikowsky is again himself as a writer of the fascinating, rhythmically exquisite, sometimes tricksy beautiful. As usual, this was the 'taking' movement, narrowly missing an encore. The playing by the Quartet was a marvel in detail, phrasing and ensemble. And this may well be said
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