The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-12 00:00:00

LYCEUM THEATRE.

MR. FE,'HTER'S MANAGEMENT.

The great theatrical event of the d ity, to which all play-
goers have been looking forward for several months with
so much interest—Mr. Fechter's entrance on management
—occurred at this theatre on Saturday evening, under
every circumstance of success. As it was known that Mr.
Fechter had associated Mr. Phelps with his experiment, and
was also in treaty with Miss Helen Faucit, our most poetic
tragic actress, it was supposed he would commence with
Shakspere, in which ho had won so much celebrity, both
with the view of confirming his position in the highest
pathway of the drama, and also carrying out in a general
system of production that peculiar principle of a refined
realism which is so distinctive of his genius, and which has
given rise to so much controversy. The particular period,
however, at which he opens, and his inability to produce a
Christmas novelty, owing to the alterations required in the
theatre, seem to have rendered it more politic that he should
commence with a romantic drama, as a prelude to the more
honourable and arduous efforts of the season.
Mr. Fechter's first step has been to entirely renovate the
theatre. At the hands of Mr. Hurwitz, well known for
his taste and cleverness, he has transformed one of the
dirtiest into ono of the most elegant houses in London.
Adopting the style of the Renaissance, with white and gold
for the prevailing tints, upon a ground of rose and cream
colour, he has adorned the front of every circle with a
series of medallions and enrichments which are not more
remarkable for their breadth and their distinctness than their
delicacy. The ceiling is, especially, quite a triumph of
artistic grace. On a ground of rose colour graduated from
its light centre to its deeper edge, is painted an imitation of
white lace falling over a robe of fluted silk, which, with its
divisions, formed by ribbon bows connecting gold cords
that run from the centre, compose one of the most novel and
attractive ornaments that we have eve. seen employed.
The ceiling is also divided into twelve compartments,
containing the names of our greatest dramatists—the let-
ters being very ingeniously interwoven in the lace work ;
and, together with the richness of the proscenium, and the
design of the drop curtain, which is a repetition of that of
the ceiling, the entire effect has a grace and lightness that
could scarcely be exceeded. Nor has the comfort of the
audience portion been forgotten amidst its beauty. The
private boxes have been given an obliqueness which adjusts
them to the line of sight ; the dress circle has been given
space by a diminution of the seats; whilst the stalls and
pit seats present every feature of ease and elegance. The
lighting is also a great improvement, being the substitution
of a central "crystal sunlight," which diffuses a radiance '
equally soft and brilliant for the row of blinding chandeliers
which used to surround the upper boxes. Another great
improvement is—in accordance with the good example of
the English Opera and the Adelphi--the abolition of fees
to boxkeepers, each seat being numbered and secured to its

possessor for the evening.
The drama Mr. Fechter has commenced with—after the
prelude of a slight farce, which might have been more
lively—is an adaptation by Mr. Brougham of the present
Porte St. Martin novelty, by Messrs. Anicet Bourgeois
and Paul Feval, which, under the title of "Le Bossu,"
has been running for several months. This drama is one
of the best of its class that has been presented for some
time. It is full of incident and picturesqueness—and, in
addition to its general merits, has a leading character which
affords unusual scope to Mr. Fechter. Mr. Brougham,
whilst tie has generally adhered to the outline of the origi-
nal, has, in some respects, improved it, by compressing, in
the first place, its six acts, including the prologue into four
—by uniting three of its miner agents into one, whom he
makes an Irish soldier of fortune, and by introducing as a
real personage the character of the Hunchback, which, in
the original, is simply an impersonation by the hero of
the piece. The interest of the story may detailed as fol-
lows :—Henri de Lagardere, a captain of cavalry,
in the reign of Louis the XIV. has an appointment to fight
a duel with Phillipe Duke de Nevers, in the fosse of the
Chateau de Caylus, adjoining the Spanish frontier. The
Duke is secretly married to Mademoiselle de Caylus, and
they have an infant, who is to be given to him on the night
of the encounter. Henri, on arriving at the spot, discovers
that the Duke is about to be assassinated by a band of ruf-
fians in the pay of the Duke's cousin—the Prince De Gon-
zague, who proposes, by this method, to got possession of
the family estates. The Prince is aawre of the secret mar-
riage, and also the secret interview, and mistaking Henri,
in the dark, for one of his own people, senaa him to the
chateau to receive the infant, whom ho intends
also to dispose of. Henri goes, and giving a sig-
nal, " I am here," which is " The Duke's Motto," and
which forms the title of the play, is mistaken for the Duke
by Madlle. de Caylus, and put in possession of the child.
The sight of the infant and the Duke's peril disarm Henri
of all hot.tility ; and on his antagonist arriving for the en-
counter, he acquaints him with his position, and tells him
it is his intention to defend him. This heroism establishes
a mutual friendship on the spot : the assassins enter, and are
speedily dispersed by the swor Is of the two associates, when
Gonzague, who has watched the struggle, fires a pistol at
his cousin, and the Duke, expiring, calls on Henri to guard
his child and avenge his murder. Thus terminates the
prologue, which is full of life and character ; and, com-
bined with its striking scene, the fosse of the cha-
teau, gives to the opening of the drama a more than
ordinary interes'. Twenty years are supposed to elapse
before we arrive at the first act, during which the Prince
has married his cousin's widow, but has been unable to
obtain the estates, owing to the necessity of proving the
death of her daughter, who is their heiress, and whom,
faithful to his trust, Henri has carried off to Spain. At
the opening of this act, which occurs in the
Pyrenees, Henri is returning to France with his charge
in order to establish her rights--in company with a party
of Spanish Gipseys, and during their momentary halt sees
Gonzague also arrive after a further search for the missing
girl, attended by his people, One of them is an Irish sol-
dier of fortune, who is secretly the friend of Lagadere ;
the other is a Hunchback, who has been celebrated in
Paris as a fencing master, and who recognises Henri
in his Spanish dress as one of his old pupils.
The Irishman warning Vie latter of his danger, Henri
confronts, in order to avert it—insults the Hunchback, and
is challenged by him—and they retire for an encounter, in
which the latter is killed, and from which Henri returns
assuming the Hunchback's dress and bearing. Undetected
by the Prince, he is thus enabled to obtain his confidence,
and learns that the latter, not being able to find the miss-
ing heiress, whom he has promised to produce at a family
council which is about to be held in Paris, his resolved to
provide a substitute in the person of one of the gipseys,
whom he tempts to her unconscious ruin by the bribe
of wealth and rank. Whilst the Prince there-
fore proceeds with the false heiress to Paris, Henri
dispatches the true ono in the charge of his friend
the Irishman, and we then arrive at the family
council, at which the Regent Orleans himself presides, and
where the Prince presents the missing daughter, to see
her to his great amazement rejected by her mother,
who has been apprized by Henri as the Hunch-
back, that her child will be presented to her that
evening, at a ball given by the Regent. Here the se-
cond act concludes, and with an amount of interest
which raised the audience to an unusual height of
excitement, the curtain falling on its close amidst very
vehement applause. In the following acts, which are
full of incident, but which rather too long delay the catas-
trophe, Blanche de Nevers, the true heiress, is discovered,
and secured by the Prince, whilst Lagardere is thrown into
prison, from which, however, he escapes to resume his form
as the Hunchback, and to succeed at length in the
fulfilment of his trust bythe restoration of his charge to her
mother, and by the avenging her father's murder in an en-
counter with the Prince.
The acting of this drama was singularly good through-
out. Mr. Fechter in its leading character found scope to
break on the audience with a very gratifying surprise. As

the young and buoyant captain of cavalry, who so

happily embodies the spirit of the daring and ad-
venturous time of the Regency, he exhibited of course all

his usual, and, need we say, wholly unrivalled characteris.

tics. The ease, the grace, the picturesqueness, the vivid

and elastic mode of treatment, which give to everythiLg
he does so much significance as well as beauty, were here
applied in the presentment of a character, that made it in the
highest degree historical, Still for this we were prepared.
It was in his assumption of the Hunchback that he took
us entirely by surprise, and not merely in the external traits
of a bent back and a crippled gait, but in the furtive look
and sinister speech which seemed to harmonize so
thoroughly, the mental and physical deformity. This con-
trast was also assumed with such rapidity as well as force
that the two beings stood before us—soldier and Hunchback,

hero and villain—in tho light of tho two halves of humanity

—spiritual and animal. It was a most original conception,

and its success wag equal to its merit. Mr. Fechter was

OWYcd With We greatest eattawitura oil 418 first outrance