[Illustration]
_Monday_.--To see MADAME ALBANI as _Violetta_ the consumptive
heroine of "_La Traviata_." Charmingly sung and admirably, nay, most
touchingly, acted. MAUREL excellent as _Germont Senior_, and MONTARIOL
quite the weak-minded masher _Alfredo_. What a different turn the
story might have taken had it occurred to _Violetta_ to have a
flirtation with the handsome middle-aged _père noble_! At one time it
almost seemed as if there had been some change in motive of the Opera
since I last saw it, and that the above original idea was about to
be carried out. But no; in another second _Germont-Maurel_ as "Old
Maurelity" (by kind permission of TOBY, M.P.) had pulled himself
together, and _Albani-Violetta_ was in the depths of remorseful
sorrow. In that gay and festive supper scene, where a physician,
unostentatiously styled _Il Dottore_ (he would probably be _Ill_
Dottore the morning after) is present to look after the health of the
guests, and perhaps to "propose" it, I noticed with pleasure that,
on the tables, DRURIOLANUS ALDERMANICUS, mindful of civic feasts, had
placed bottles of real champagne, or at least real champagne-bottles.
This interested the audience muchly, and numerous were the glasses
turned in the direction of the bottles--of course 'tis opera-glasses
I mean, yer honour,--in order to ascertain what particular wanity was
_La Traviata's_ favourite; but the bottles were so placed that only
one unimportant word on the label was visible. Was it Pommery '80
_très sec_?--Or what was it? Impossible to see: it was not mentioned
in the dialogue, so "Mumm" might have been the word. But at all
events, if the wine is one which requires advertisement, the guests
should be told to be very careful to leave the bottles in the same
position as in the old prefatial stage-directions "the reader of the
play" is supposed to be; i.e., "_on the stage, facing the audience_."
_Wednesday._--_Rigoletto_. M. MAUREL as the Jester; acting good, voice
too loud. ALBANI, as _Gilda_, overwhelmed with encores. M. MONTARIOL's
_Il Duca_ is _Alfredo_ over again, only confirmed in a vicious career.
To obtain an encore for the great but now hackneyed song, "_La Donna
e mobile_," a wonderful rendering is absolutely essential, and somehow
something seems wanting to the success of _Rigoletto_ when this song
goes for nothing and is passed without a rapturous "_bis, bis!_" which
makes a Manager rub his hands and smilingly say to himself, "Good
bis-ness."
_Thursday._--_Lohengrin_ I believe, but wasn't there. Hope the Opera
went all right without me. Can't be in more places than one at the
same moment. Same remarks apply to Friday and Saturday.
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