The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-25 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE,

FAUST.
The directors of Her Majesty's Theatre on Satur-
day last gave the public at large an opportunity of
bearing M. Gounod's "Faust" in English, and

whatever doubt might have been entertaine.l as to
the result of the experiment, the enormous audience

attracted by the performance must have been quite

sufficient to convince the governing powers of the

splendid theatre that their fears were groundless,
and that success—decided and unmistakeable—would
attend the production. There is a very large por-
tion of the musical public whose delight is materie.lly
enhanced by the comprehension of the language in
which delicious strains are sung, and as the

setting of " Faust" is so immediately inspired
by the text, the greater will be their

enjoyment in listening to a compositior
that fairly turned the heads of the aristocratic
patrons of the two Italian operas last season. The

task of adapting "Faust" for its representation in

English was entrusted to Mr. Chorley, a gentleman
of well known ability, and although he has taken
great pains to accouiplish his task, the effort has not,
in our opinion, resulted in one of his happiest efforts.
In many instances the words set down for the singers
sink into utter absurdities, not to say vulgarities, and
this will, in a great measure, account for the licence
Mr. Reeves and Mr. Santley took with their por-
tion of the libretto. Very frequently both these
gentlemen entirely departed from the words set
down for them; and Mr. Chorley must forgive us
for saying that by doing so we think they exer-
cised a very wise discretion On fact, we believe they
only did what Mr. Chorley would have done him
self had he carefully revised and reconsidered his
work before submitting it to the public. Fortu-
nately the success of " Faust" depends more upon
the ability of the singers and the completeness of the
raise en.scene than upon the rendering of the text ;

thus with the artistes engaged in the performance
on Saturday no room was left for improvement, as
the talented entrepeneur had secured the greatest
talent at his command, a fact which will at once be
admitted when we mention that the lovesick philo-
sopher Faust was represented by Mr. Sims Reeves,
Valentin by Mr. Santley, Mephistopheles by Signor
Marchesi, Siebel by Madame Florence Lancia,
Martha by Madame Taccani, and Margarita by
Madame Lemens-Sherrington. The superb intro-
duction was played by the band with the greatest
delicacy and precision, and on the rising of the cur-
tain a very warm reception was accorded to Mr.
Sims Reeves, who is discovered pining and reflect-
ing upon past love and youthfulness. The first
few notes from the great tenor were quite sufficient
to tell the audience that he was in splendid voice,
a circumstance that must have given universal satis-
faction. We hare already spoken in the most eulo-
gistic terms of Mr. Reeves' Faust cn the occasion of
his appearing in the part two or three months ago, so
all that is necessary on the present occasion is to say
that his embodiment of the character was as fine, it
not finer, than ever. The music in the second act was
sung with all that tender sweetness for which he is
so celebrated, whilst the more energetic portions of
the character gave him scope to display his mag-
nificent voice to the very utmost. Where all was so
beautiful it is not easy to pick out particular parts,
but we may mention the cavatina, " All hail that
dwelling pure and holy," as the morciau in which
he made the deepest impression on the audience.
As Valentin, the chivalrous brother of Margarita,
Mr. Sautley had butone important scene, but that was
quite sufficient to display his masterly skill. To
compensate for the gloomy foreshadowing of the
part M. Gounod introduced a new cavatina for Mr.
Santley, and this was most certainly one of the
features of the evening. It is entitled, " Even the
bravest heart may swell," and is linked to the second
theme in the introductory music, or overture. It
is somewhat remarkable that so sweet a composition
should not have been repeated in the opera, but
until Saturday evening all that was heard of it was
its yerformance previous to the commencement of
the piece. Now, however,it has been given to Mr.
Santley, and it is almost needless to say it is ren-
dered with the most exquisite taste and feeling. Such
immense applause followed the conclusion of the song
that all attempts to escape an encore were fruitless,
and Mr. Santley, in the most pleasing and graceful
manner, came forward, and at once repeated the
song with, if possible, greater effect than before.
The death of Valentino was given with extraor-

dinary effect, and albeit Mr. Santley has not the
longest part in the opera, he certainly has one of
the most effective. The Mephistopheles of Signor
Marchesi was also an admirable performance ;
and, as a first attempt at singing in English,
before an English audience, he must allow us to
congratulate him, which we do most heartily, on
his success. Perhaps the most important novelty
of the evening was the appearance of Madame
Lemmens-Sherrington. It might almost be taken
as a debut, but in whatever light it be regarded,
the fact that sha was triumphantly successful
admits of no doubt. Madame Sherringtoa's Mar-
garita is characterised by all the simplicity, con-
fiding innocence, girlish humour, and tender grace
that belongs to Goathe's immortal creation, while
at the same time neither tragic power .nor passion
ate wanting to give expression to tha terror and
remorse of Faust's unhappy victim. She did full
justice to the sweet and florid music allotted her, and
in no instance was she more telling and effective
than in the jewel song. Her confession of love for
Faust was another brilliant achievement, and in
her love duet she was uuapproachable. Great as
Madame Sherrington is as a musician, she is equally
great as an actress, and from henceforth she,
and she alone, will be looked upon as the
reigning queen of operatic actresses. Madame
Florence Lancia as Siebel, although suffering some-
what from nervousness, sang the music of the boy
lover with taste and effect, more especially the

flower song.
The chorus deserve unqualified praise for their
exertions. The exciting scene of the Kermess, with
its quaint round for the old men, was so admirably
given as to secure an enthusiastic encore. The cele-
brated march chorus (" Glori Immortale") "Glory
and love to the men of old," was grandly given, and
here both band and chorus vied with each other,
and the result was worthy the magnificent compo-

sition.
The curtain descended amidst the most enthusi-
astic applause, and thus another successfui career is
destined for M. Gounod's brilliant opera of "Faust."