_Monday, May 16._--Sound the trumpets, Beat the drums! All Hail to
Sir DRURIOLANUS OPERATICUS, the most successful Knight of the Season!
A brilliant audience in a brilliant house lighted by thousands of
additional electric lights, acclaimed with rapture the awakening
of Opera. _Philémon et Baucis_ began it, a work by GOUNOD (which
is not intended for swearing) of great sweetness and light; and
this was followed by PIETRO MASCAGNI's _Cavalleria Rusticana_,
"Rustic Chivalry," which might be epigrammatically described as a
"Clod-hoppera." _Philémon et Baucis_ is charming. M. MONTARIOL was a
capital _Philémon_, and Mlle. SIGRID ARNOLDSEN as _Baucis_, a sort of
classical Little Bo-peep, received a hearty welcome on her return to
the Covent Garden House and Home. M. PLANÇON was the thoroughly French
_Jupin_, and M. CASTELMARY an amiable _Vulcan_; both most accomplished
Divines. Altogether, a perfect quartette. The graceful _intermezzo_
only escaped an _encore_ because the knowing ones among the gods and
groundlings felt that too much enthusiasm at first might do serious
damage to the subsequent reception of the great _intermezzo_ of the
evening. All on _qui vive_ for great _intermezzo_. Anticipations of
event heard in the lobbies. Anxiety depicted on some countenances, but
most features looking happy and hopeful. The members of what was once
known as "the Organising Committee" nod encouragingly to one another
as they pass to and fro; the officials and _habitués_ exchange
greetings without any expression of opinion. Sir DRURIOLANUS
does not issue forth until the right moment, when he can shut up
his opera-glass with a click, and give the word to Field-Marshal
MANCINELLI to lead his men to the attack. For the present, "Wait" is
the _mot d'ordre_, "and this," quoth a jig-maker, "is the only weight
in the entire entertainment."
[Illustration: The Good and Great Archbishop Druriolanus
Coventgardenus giving his Chorus Flock permission to use Palms on
Easter Sunday. Quite "the palmy days" of the Opera.]
Up goes the Curtain, and those who remember the _Cavalleria_ as it
was put on "in another place," to use parliamentary language, see
at the first glance that this representation is going to be quite
another pair of shoes. The stage management is admirable: not a
second without movement, and every movement with a motive--musical
or dramatic, or both. Madame CALVÉ's _Santuzza_ is operatically and
histrionically--but especially the latter--a triumph; and "this is the
verdict of us all." GIULIA RAVOGLI makes a great part of _Lola_; the
many-talented little Mlle. BAUERMEISTER's _Lucia_ is not quite up to
her own _Marta_ in _Faust_. As for the men, the singing and the acting
of Signor DE LUCIA as _Turiddu_ (ye gods! what a name!), and of Mons.
DUFRICHE as _Alfio_ cannot be surpassed.
But--stop--the tremendous row (a quarrel quite representative of
Whitechapel in Italy, and suggesting to some of us what Signor
Coster CHEVALIER might do if this Opera were Londonised) between
_Turiddu-de-Lucia_ and _Santuzza-Calvé_ is over, the latter has
denounced her former lover, there is thunder in the air--the
atmosphere is heavy with fate--and the stage is clear. Then comes
the _intermezzo_, foreboding ill, presaging tragedy,--magnificent!
And as MANCINELLI bows from his seat, acknowledges the thunder of
applause--this was the thunder in the atmosphere--and pulls his forces
together again to repeat and emphasize the triumph--DRURIOLANUS shuts
up his lorgnette, beams on the world around, and murmurs to himself,
"Waterloo is won!" Decides thereupon to give the same performance on
Thursday, and does so, with repetition of triumph.
Now one word as to a picturesque detail. The action takes place on
Easter Sunday, not on Palm Sunday; but Archbishop DRURIOLANUS has
issued a pastoral melody dispensing his flock from the usual custom,
and allowing them to have the palms distributed on Easter Sunday, for
the sake of the show. "_Palmam qui meruit ferat_,"--and well does each
one of the Chorus deserve his or her palm. And do not those in front
who are nervous as to splitting their glove-seams, also bare their
palms to applaud this Opera? Why certainly. Truly, Sir DRURIOLANUS
ARCHIEPISCOPUS DISPENSATOR, well hast thou inaugurated the palmy days
of this Opera Season.
_Friday_.--_Faust_ selected because alliteration in _Faust_ and
Friday. A trifle, but as DRURIOLANUS says, "The world is governed
by trifles." Wise saw this, with practical modern instance. VAN
DYCK looking like a Rembrandt, a Faust-rate _Faust_, and Miss EMMA
EAMES a charming _Marguerite_, Mons. PLANÇON's _Mephistopheles à la
Française_. Mons. CESTE good as _Valentine_. _À propos_ of _Valentine
_ and his soldiers, why do the army and their friends who come
to welcome them, invariably _turn their backs_ on the triumphal
procession, taking no sort of interest in it whatever? Also, why is
that banner persistently and purposelessly waved during the whole
of the great Soldiers' Chorus? Is this _the_ reason why nowadays the
ever-popular Soldiers' Chorus is seldom encored? As this monotonous
action on the part of the Bannerman (not CAMPBELL of that ilk, but the
ensign-bearing supernumerary) suggests "flagging interest," hadn't it
better be abolished altogether?
_Saturday_.--Great excitement in outer Hall. Everybody buzzing about.
What has happened? Has dynamite been found? Has some eminent vocalist
"gone up to see," and can't come down again in time? Sir DRURIOLANUS
is present, explaining matters to the critics, and repeating
explanation in various tongues to eager foreign inquirers. The
sentinels eye the moving scene with determination and bayonets fixed.
At a word from Sir DRURIOLANUS, they will give an extra charge, and
rout the crowd. "What is it all about?" asks little PETERKIN. Sir
DRURIOLANUS can tell him. Madame CALVÉ is indisposed, and _L'Amico
Fritz_ cannot be performed. So GLUCK's _Orfeo_ is substituted in a
happy-g'lucky sort of way. The two RAVOGLI are excellent, and Box and
Stall are satisfied.
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