_Monday._--_Les Huguenots._ Madame NORDICA as our _Valentine_. She is
_toujours riante_. Otherwise, vocally, charming. RAVELLI the Reliable
as _Raoul_, much applauded and quite two inches higher in popular
estimation. _Valentina_ NORDICA cannot take anything seriously. She
smiles as she is wont to smile at the supreme moment of his great
athletic window-jump, when he is shot out of window and killed so
thoroughly that he cannot be produced for the last Act of all, which,
therefore, is now never given. Simple-minded folk, not up to this,
wait in their stalls, and wonder why everybody else is going. Members
of orchestra disappear, lights extinguished, brown-holland coverings
descend, the fireman enters, the box-keepers retire, and suddenly it
bursts upon the inexperienced Opera-goer that it's all over, except
shouting for carriages, and that's over too by now, and that there is
to be no more Opera to-night.
L'entr'acte est long,
Un peu d'espoir,
There's no more song,
Et puis bon soir.
M. LASSALLE as the French nobleman, whom some one described as "_Sam
Bris_," excellent. Good house for the _Huguenots_.
_Tuesday._--Here we are _Lohengrinning_ again. _Lohengrin_ not a comic
opera: the name being rather misleading. Melodious, mellifluous
Mlle. MELBA as _Elsa de Brabante_. NED DE RESZKE as the _Great King_,
FURSCH-MADI-GRAS unrivalled as _Ortruda_, DAN DRADY as _Freddy_, one
of his most dramatic performances; Signor ABRAMOFF as the _Family
Herald_--quite a volume--and JACK DE RESZKE as a _Knight on the
Swannee River_, or perhaps a knightly visitor from Swansea. Poor JACK
suffering from hoarseness. DRURIOLANUS comes forward to explain this.
Audience imagines that DRURIOLANUS himself is going to take poor
JACK'S place. Rather disappointed in consequence. "Could have done it,
of course," says DRURIOLANUS afterwards, "but bad example for other
members of the governing committee." JACK DE R.'S hoarseness scarcely
noticeable. No one would have known it if DRURIOLANUS hadn't told us.
Some people can't keep a secret.
_Wednesday._--_Vide_ last Wednesday's report. Only difference being
that Signor PLUNKETTO GREENO is not _in statu quo ante_, the part of
the _Commendatore, M.P. for Stony Stratford_, being taken by Signor DE
VASCHETTI.
_Thursday._--Missed it. _Romeo et Juliette._ Believe it was performed,
not having heard anything to contrary. Reported that Mr. and Mrs. G.
were present. Remember he was there last season, when same Opera was
played. Came up then, I think, from Dollis Hill. "All roads lead to
Romeo," the G.O.M. is reported to have said to FLORAL HALL, the Covent
Gardenia Box Office Manager and enthusiastic devotee of the G.O.M., or
"Grand Opera Man."
_Friday._--_La Favorite_ in French. Evidently neither particular nor
universal Favourite, as so many _habitues_, conspicuous when here by
their noble presence, are now still more conspicuous by their noble
absence. Mlle. RICHARD, her first visit to Royal Franco-Italian Opera
at Covent Garden, is the Favourite to-night, and the Favourite wins.
Opportunity for Mlle. BAUERMEISTER, who has one of the prettiest airs
in the Opera to start with, but then "is heard no more," having only
to exhibit, in sympathetic dramatic action, her deep distress at the
sufferings of the unhappy Favourite, the victim of _Alfonse_, King of
Castille. _King Alfonse_ gives a garden-party, with "gipsy revellers"
of the period, led by small and early PALLADINO. Refreshments are
probably served in an adjoining apartment, but _King Alfonse_, being,
perhaps, a trifle dry, occupies his time in the chair of state by
trifling with a lozenge. Great difficulty among audience as to whether
_Fernand_ is MONTARIOL or YBOS. Having seen MONTARIOL as _David_ in
the _Meistersingers_, I do not recognise him as Fernand; but having
seen YBOS as _Raoul_, in the _Huguenots_, FERNAND'S legs seem familiar
to me. If the voice is the voice of MONTARIOL, the legs are the legs
of YBOS. DRURIOLANUS IBOSS says it is _not_ YBOS but MONTARIOL; while
a distinguished Operatic Committeeman tells a despairing critic
that it _is_ YBOS, and not MONTARIOL. Anyhow, Mons.
YBOS-AUX-JAMBES-MONTARIOLIENNES is a good, though not great,
_Fernand_. The chorus whether as Monks of one of the great Theatrical
Orders, not-admitted-after-seven, or as members of the Castilian
Aristocracy, are admirable. Signor GASPAR--a name that suggests a
singer rather out of condition, and, like _Hamlet_, "scant of breath"
(he should be appropriately attired in "pants")--keeps his eye on
Signor BEVIGNANI, and Signor BEVIGNANI pulls him through. _Mem._ What
an education in modern languages it must require to be a chorister of
the R. I. O. C. G.! Italian, French, English, of course; and perhaps
one night they'll come out with something of WAGNER'S in the original
German. Everybody looking forward to the revival of _Le Prophete_ on
Monday next.
_Saturday._--_Non adsum_, because 'ad sum-where else to go. Covent
Garden, however, not closed in consequence. Hear that JEAN is to get
L600 per week in America. Good interest this for one tenner.
* * * * *
[Illustration: AS WORN.
"DEAR UNCLE BEN--YOU'RE ALWAYS SO KIND!--_WOULD_ YOU SIT ON MY BONNET
A LITTLE. I'VE TAKEN OUT THE PINS."]
* * * * *