THE MUSGROVE OPERA SEASON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7200, 11 September 1901, Page 1

THE MUSGROVE OPERA SEASON.

■ ■ ■ -—+ . ■■ "MARITANA.'! . The Musgtove. Opera. Company, played "Maritana" last night. Perhaps the? most charitable criti6ism would be to say nothing further, but 'to- l*ave it at that, along with a gentle admonition to bury it tenderly, but very, very deeply, and never io play it again. '! Majrifena " never was grand opera— it -was never further from- it than it was last'niglit. "Maritana" never was^ musical burlesque— it was never nearer to' it than it was last night. Poor Wallace ! His pretty, tuneful opeia never had the Eame pretensions- as the classics of France /tnd G-ennany and Italy, it -always suffered somewhat from the fact 'that its evergreen lyrics were dragged in incontinently by the ears, but at least it had. a continuity of story and ;a' pretty simplicity, which Won it thousands of. iriends. It was robbed of even :' 'these virtues last night. It really seemed as though the company was condescending to play the opera, and, feeling superior to it, cared little for an artistic production. Certainly, companies of far less standing and of :humbler pretensions,- have given infinitely superior versions of it. Of course, the einging was brilliant, with the cast employed it would be nothing .-else,. but' the soloists openly varied the score time after time, and took, encores with a callous disregard of the hideous banality _of such ,a ; proceeding. Em Ikfadaine* Jansoni, who had won. the repu-. tajion of being an artiite'.to her finfrertips,[ after ■; embellishing; " Alas, those chimes " with some .wonderful' turns and cadenzas, never written for it and utterly- foreign, to its spirit, smilingly emphasised her crime by- repeating' -+h* v dose.• ThT^g^raj wickedness, demoralised even her. - *• Mr Law-; reu'ce'M'ooneyalso turried. a- few vocal back somersaults as an embellishment to "In Happy Moments," and likewise took an encore. '' Sighor' Salvi announced his wish to '"Like a Soldier • Fall " so often as to cast doubts on his honesty. of speech. Miss Cb'omber, though she had the grace to display a 'little unwillingness, gave a double dose of " Scenes that are Brightest," and even Mr Charles Tilbury, yielding to the universal unrighteousness, realising that he was the King of Spain, felt compelled to take off his hat to the audience in a Ohristchurch theatre. It's such pretty stage realism. r Signor, Salvi's Don Csesar de Bazan, a mixture of the bandit in a dime novel and a- Continental, beggar, a gentleman who spoke excellent idiomatic EnglisE with a strong broken Italian accent, was such a comical .cartoon of the real old swashbuckling, out : at-arms soldier-of-for-tune of *' Maritana " as to at once place him beyo-nd the pale of serious criticism, and he played, the 'part with a "genuine appreciation of himself as a low comedian, which was quite as equally humorous, but from a new- standpoint. . Miss Coomber sang Mark ana's music nicely, but she has no speaking voice. Mr Lawrence Mooney and Mr Charles Tilbury, as Don Jose and the King respectively, 'both sang and acted well, and had the. cast all round betn as equal the performance would have been very different. Madarate Jamson's Lazarillo was also satisfactory. The minor parts were indifferently cast, and .the low comedy element introduced into' them was over-played and over-emphasised. ' The simple fact of the matter appears ' to be that the ' opera is entirely unsuitable to the company, and the management .would be wise, in their inability to produce the old "Maritanw;" to drop the new one from their repertoire altogether. To-night "Tannhauser" will be .produced, Madame Slappoffski and Ba-rron Berthald "both being in the cast. The booking, for this opera has . been ph«nomenal, the whole cf the circle and stalls having been reserved, bub the management wall, 'to keep, faith with the public, provide a limited number of four-shilling seats at the front of the pit. ' (