[Illustration]
May success attend the preliminary Operatic canter which Sir
DRURIOLANUS is taking with such preliminary cantors as he has got
together at Drury Lane. _Faust_ was effectively given, with ESTHER
PALLISER as a gentle _Marguerite_, Signor GIANNINI as a very robust
_Faust_--quite a _tenore robusto_--and Signor CASTELMARY as the very
deuce of a _Mephistopheles_, with eyebrows and moustachios sufficient
to frighten even the gay and festive _Marta_, played with spirit by
Mlle. BIANCOLI. "Mons." DUFRICHE represented the _Mons_ who laboured
hard to please, and who, as _Valentine_, did well and died well. Herr
FELD conducted. "Well Felded!"
Then out came the ever fresh, the ever free _Bohemian Girl_. Never
was such a girl! Quite a NINON DE L'ENCLOS! Beautiful for ever! Still
dreaming of Marble Halls (Music Halls nowadays) "with vassals and
serfs by her si-i-ide," and no better Bohemian Girl to be seen just
now than Madame ALBU as _Arline_. So "Arl in to begin!" and see and
hear BALFE'S pretty little Girl of Bohemia while she is still visible
and audible at Drury Lane. Mr. EADIE a trifle gawky as _Thaddeus_, but
then he finds himself in an awkward situation, especially when he has
to fumble for the documentary evidence of his birth, attested at a
Bohemian Registry Office. CARL ARMBRUSTER conducted this, and then up
got Herr FELD "with his little lot," represented by the unrivalled and
unequalled _Cavalleria Rusticana_. Ah! _Cavalleria_ is a treat, even
when its performance is not absolutely perfect. The music is charming
from first to last; ever fresh and delightful.
That wonderful _Intermezzo_ was excellently given, and
enthusiastically encored. As yet the _Intermezzo_ has had no
successful rival. It stands alone, and is, of all compositions, the
most--well, words fail me--it is a whole dramatic story, within a few
bars' compass--it is sweetness and sadness, and then it soothes you to
rest, and so you drop off quietly to sleep, until you are awoke by
the cessation of sound, when you rouse yourself, with an effort, to
applaud, and to beg that you may have just one more delicious dose
of it--and doze from it. Saturday finishes with _Carmen_, and _Sic
transit gloria Operatica_ for the past week. All right up to now!