GRAND OPERA SEASON IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1556, 19 February 1920, Page 32

GRAND OPERA SEASON IN AUCKLAND.

SYNOPSIS OF PIECES. In view of the important forthcoming musical event, a brief outline of the operas will help to familiarise patrons with the pieces to be presented (to date) in the order indicated elsewhere in these pages. “FAUST.” Faust, an old and and learned student, chafling at his non-discovery of the secret of renewing life, and hearing youth and beauty disporting itself gaily outside his study window, becomes so desperate that he summons the Evil Spirit to his aid, and Mephistopheles, attired as a handsome, dashing cavalier, makes his appearance, and bargains for the soul of Faust in exchange for a return to youth. The compact is made. Mephistopheles, to hasten his plans, shows Faust a vision in which Marguerite, a lovely village maiden appears. Faust immediately falls in love with her, and, restored to youth, Faust, under the guidance of the Evil One, soon finds an opportunity of pressing his suit, advancing it in the time-honoured way by presenting her with a casket of jeweljery, cunningly left on a garden seat. Whilst Faust pursues this course, Mephistopheles flirts humourously with old Martha, who is ,not the prudent guardian she would be. Marguerite at first resists the impetuous love-making of Faust, but in her innocence is led from the paths of virtue. Her brother, Valentine, returning from the wars—and

here the famous “Soldiers’ Chorus” is introduced —is horrified to find that his dear sister has been betrayed, and seeking her destroyer, Faust, challenges him to a duel, but the Evil One stands by his protege, and Valentine, mortally wounded, dies cursing his sister. Harassed by her awful plight and her brother’s death, Marguerite’s mind becomes unhinged, and in a sudden frenzy she takes the life of her new-born babe. For this irresponsible crime she is arrested, cast into prison and condemned to death. Faust, stricken by remorse, cannot forget the lovely girl he has wronged, and, with Mephistopheles, gains entrance to her cell, and bids>_ her fly with him, but Marguerite, now filled with the holiest impulses, rejects her lover, refuses all his entreaties, and prays for forgiveness. Her prayer is answered, and ere the time for her execution arrives, dies peacefully. Faust is overcome with grief, and even his wicked mentor is cowed, and he shrinks back, as angels are heard rejoicing over the “sinner that repenteth,” and welcoming the spirit of the gentle Marguerite as it is carried by angel hosts to realms of bliss. “TALES OF HOFFMAN.” The prologue of Offenbach’s melodious opera is in a dark and capacious wine cellar kept by Mine Host Luther in the City of Nuremberg. Hoffman arrives with a merry troup of friends

and students. Hoffman is, of course, the musician and writer of vivid imagination, familiar for his weird and grotesque tales and his visions of imps and hobgoblins. Nightmares and apparitions are all in his line, and he is in great request among the student crowd as a story-teller of his experiences. His friends want to hear the story of his three loves, and despite the fact that Luther arrives breathless with the stupendous news that the curtain in the neighbouring theatre is about to rise on the second act of “Don Giovanni,” friends and students decide to remain to hear Hoffman’s tales. This is the prologue. Hoffman says that his first love was called Olympia; the curtain comes down on the moonlit cellar, there is a short intermezzo, and the audience is whirled to another scene, where the story told by Hoffman is enacted. The scene of the first story is in a doctor’s room, lighted by candles, and looking on to a gallery. Hoffman’s lady love is Olympia, the reputed daughter of Spalanzani, the physiologist. Hoffman becomes the doctor’s pupil so that he may be near the object of his affections. But Olympia is really a wonderful automaton, constructed by the doctor and his colleague, Coppelius, who has contributed her eyes. Coppelius claims half a share in the profits, and Spalanzani buys him out with a valueless cheque. In the meantime Coppelius sells Hoffman a pair of magic spectacles, which have the power of endowing inanimate objects with life. Olympia,, mechanical in movement and voice, is presented to the assembled guests, before whom she shows off her “accomplishments.” Hoffman makes impassioned declaration of love to her, and claims her as his partner in the dance. The dance taking place, the doll gets out of control, and Hoffman is whirled round till he falls exhausted, breaking his glasses in the fall. He then sees

with his natural eyes, and, realising that Olympia is merely an automation, he wreaks his vengeance by smashing her to pieces. The second tale is introduced by the haunting Barcarolle. Here the audience is transported to Venice, where Hoffman is making fierce love to Guijietta, a courtesan, and the slave of Dapertutto (“Everywhere”), who has an ingenious way of procuring souls. Dapertutto instructs her to steal the shadow of Peter Schiemil, and, to obtain the reflection of Hoffman in a magic mirror he gives her. Schiemil arriving, a quarrel ensues, and Hoffman kills him with a sword conveniently supplied by Dapertutto. Immediately afterwards Hoffman sees his faithless mistress sailing down the grand canal in a gondola with Dapertutto, while the Venetian young men and women sing the seductive Barcarolle in praise of the night, the moon and the stars.

The third tale is soon told. Antonia, the beautiful, loves Hoffman, and he loves her. She has a wonderful voice, inherited from her mother, but being consumptive, must not sing. Hoffman warns her to refrain from warbling, but her father invokes the soul of her dead mother, and tells the girls that it is her duty to use the gift bequeathed to her. Antonia obeys, and falls (lead. The curtain ascending, the audience is taken to Luther’s cellar, where the tales being

told, a wild carousal is taking place. Hoffman calls for more punch, and the curtain falls. “LA BOHEME.”

The subject of Puccini’s opera, “La Boheme,” is taken from Murger’s “La Vie de Boheme. Act I. finds the carefree and poverty-stricken students, Rudolpho, the poet, and Marcelle, the artist, cold and hungry in their garret. Rudolpho has just sacrificed his manuscript to keep the fire alight, when there appears Schaunard, the musician, who has had a windfall, the. fruits of which he shares with his comrades. Celline, the philosopher, joins the feast, which is interrupted by the landlord in search of his rent. They pay him in good cheer. The supper over, all but Rudolpho set off for the fair, which is held before the Cafe Momus. The poet’s meditations are 1 broken into by the arrival of Mimi, an embroiderer, who seeks a light. The encounter brings them to a mutual declaration of a love that had previously only smouldered in their breasts. The act closes with them both setting off for the fair. Act 11. finds all the friends enjoying the festival, ‘and introduces Musette, Marcelle’s sweetheart. She enters in company with, an old beau, whom she .gets rid of by a trick, and joins her lover. The two leave in the wake of the other roysterers. Act 111. shows the two pairs of lovers . quarrelling and

becoming reconciled, and parting once again. Here it is that the mortal illness of Mimi, suggested in Act 1., is made plain. Act IV. reveals Rudolpho and Marcelle bemoaning the loss of their sweethearts. Their commiserations are interrupted by the entrance of Musette, who announces the coming of Mimi; now dying. The two students bear the form of the little embroiderer to Rudolpho’s bed. The others enter, and leave again to pawn their belongings to secure comforts for Mimi. She, however, is beyond mortal aid, and after singing her tender farewell, dies happily in the arms of her grief-stricken lover.