The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-13 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA

MR. BALFE'S NEW WORK.

Our most popular native composer has achieved
another great success, and furnished the stores of
our national opera -with a further source of fame
and fortune. " The Armourer of Nantes," pro-
duced last evening, may lay claim to a tirst impres-
sion as favourable almost as the best of its author's
efforts in recent years. Six vehement enccres, re-
peated calls for the leading singers, and a summons
for author and composer at the close of the first
act and the last, sufficiently testify to the character
of the excitement that was produced. Never-
theless, we are bound to confess that,
though this opera contains much that is worthy
of the fame of Mr. Balfe, and much that no other
living English composer coul i have writes—it is
scarcely to be ranked among his highest inspirations.
Belonging to the grand school of " Bianca," it is
hardly to be placed on its level, whether in respect
to the depth of its conceptions or the strength and
richness of its instrumentation. Its sentiment is
quite as tragic, but without the same amount of
expansion, whilst it wants the occasional gaiety
which relieved the sombre shadows of its
powerful precursor. It does not rise, therefore,
to the tragic height which Mr. Balfe hta
already mastered, whilst it contrasts just as
unfavourably with his last success—" The Puritan's
Daughter"—in which the happy combination of a
serious and comic spirit adulated it so greatly to the
general taste of the London public. This defect is,
of course, to be traced chiefly to the character of its
libretto. Its story is an adaptation by Mr. Bridg-
man of the " Marie Tudor" of Victor Hugo—the
scene of which he has transferred from London to
the city of Nantes, in Brittany. This drama, as
is tolerably known, is semi-historical, and entirely
tragic; and presents a subject that only music of
the highest order could make engaging. A.
sovereign's love for an unworthy favourite,
the wrongs and sorrows of a noble orphan.
and the heroic love of her humble pro-
tector, who offers his life to revenge the fame
he believes he can no longer guard, are all points
of interest of so powerful a character that they
must either be grasped with force, or not ap-
proached at all. To seize them feebly, is only to
display the restless desire of a false ambition, which
in the proportion of the subject's strength betrays
its own incompetency. Nevertheless, as we have
already said, this opera contains so much that is
truly worthy of Mr. Balfe, and which, when the
work has undergone a due compression, is sure to
stand out with its due prominence, that we are
quite certain it cannot fail to maintain its first.
impression, and achieve a run of great attraction
to the close of the present season.
Until it has obtained its just compactness, and
we have heard it in the form which would enable
us to estimate its claims with due conviction, we
reserve a minute analysis, and content ourselves at
present with merely indicating the leading features,
musical and dramatic, of the work, and those that
on the whole contributed most to the night's im-
pression ; and, first, in respect to the story.
The opening act occurs before the house of the
Armourer of Nantes, who has protected and who
loves Marie, the orphan daughter of the family
Brissac, and where we learn that Marie has been
secretly visited by Count Fabio, the favourite of
Anne, the Duchess of Brittany—where also comes a.
Jew to sell the secret of Marie's birth, which Jew is
killed by the Count, in order turn the secret to ad-
vantage—and where, further, we find the Armourer,
on learning the apparent disgrace of Marie, taking
an oath to avenge her. In the second act we
have both Marie and the Armourer brought.
into the presence of the Duchess to prove the
infamy of her favourite and the murder of
the Jew, and where the Duchess, in her
jealous fury concocting a charge against him of eon-
spiracy—coueigns him to the block. In the third
act we have both the Count and the Armourer io
prison—the latter sharing in the pretended treason,
,tnd the Duchess wavering which of the two she
will send to execution ; when Marie, now Countess
of Brissac, entering the prison with the Duchess,
thwarts her scheme to save her favourite, and con-
signing him to his just doom, restores her lover to
herself and freedom. In illustration of this story
the opera opens without an overture—an omis-
sion which occurs for the first time with \lr.
13alfe—and up to the centre of the first act show Boo'
thing very a t iking in the music, either in the way of
vigour or originality. The first strong impression
of the night was made by Marie's first cavatina,
Oh, would that my beast," which had a very
charming melody that was full of plaintive feeling,
and which exquisitely given by Miss Pyne, was
very deservedly encored. The ensuing duet be-
tween Raoul and Marie was also very
pleasing, and still more so was the barcarole,
sung by the Count, as he lands from the river,
"A flower is beauty by fairy hands planted," which
had a shade of pensiveness that heightened its
gay expression vary greatly, and which, charmingly
sung by Mr. Santley, was also redemanded. The
remaining music of the act, in illustration of the
Jew's visit, and his murder by the Count, and the
Armourer's discovery of the supposed shame of his
beloved, rose to a far more dramatic character, of
occasionally, it is true, to an extra liveliness of
tune, and was very admirably sung and
declaimed by Mr. Harrison and Mr. Sant-
ley, the former rising to a point of true tragic
elevation when he gave the lie to the seducer,
slander, and avowed himself Marie's future hus-
band. The close of this act, though wanting an
ordinary finale, was sufficiently impressive to raise
the highest enthusiasm in the audience, and lead,
as we have stated, to a summons of every-cue con-
cerned in it. In the second act the best impres-
sions were the aria of Count de Villefranche,
"Not till Time his Glass," which had a very
flowing melody, and was so well sung by Mr.
tad, by Marie, " There's one who
Weiss as to obtain a loud encore.
exquisitely
rendered, was redemanded. ch,
An admirable trio
reared T"neie b"a—
another exquisite morceau —whii-
error, ghastly Duchess,read,,,odnethoet Armourer, omuroesrt, ‘o‘,Sigicikulayi
:efriNtluariels or
e,
the
toe
he
d an
opera, a ballad of Marie, lull of
pathos, "As you hope to merit"—and the finale,
which in its general structure, but its slow move-
ment especially, showed all the master's hand. 111
he third act the illness of Mr. Ay nsley
Cooke, who performed the jailor, led to the
omission of some of the nitteic watch was

„viduut ty important—and the most success-
lilt portions were the Armourer's sung, ” On love
hou'rt like a reed bent low," lull of grace and Len'
deruess, and so charmingly sung by Mr. Harrison
as to win a warm encore—the very pleasing invo-
cation by Marie, "Oh Heavenly power!"--the
anat. of Marie and the Dueness, which ill,
its ensemble, "Though all else may alter,
nad a burst of genuine melodic inspiration, Red
the duet of Marie and the Armourer, Once wore
my heart awakes to bliss," which was full of deli-
cate feeling.
The execution of this opera was, with ono
or two exceptions, as perfect as could be wished. •
Miss P Yee was iu charmingvoice, and
noblethe power of
in which he was allowed some range of
declamation, in •
gave, both to the vocal and histrionic illuttantrdaptiaotneeosf
the wronged orphan, all that tenderness
which she displays without a rival. Mr. Harrison
found great scope
was never happier than
song. adidoir_ionhisto
buoyant rendering of the
music of the Count, whilst
in the
Mr. Weiss maintained
gaMyrb.eBarainntgleYand
his fame in every note that was allotted to bimr
as the first of English basses. The only defects
of the performance arose from the illness of 111 r.
Cooke, is the sustaininent of the gaoler, and the
,oral incapacity, both vocal and dramatic, of Mies
Anna Hiles toy give any idea of the Duchess-'9'.
character which, in the second act, demands the
energies of a Grisi. The band and chorus, under
Mr. Mallon, were as admirable as usual. The
house was filled to overflowing.

We are authorised to state that two Dias°l6
!Zooms and two Levees will be held on the part of the Quee°
'lt St. Jautes's Palace after Easter. Presentations
take place under the usual regulations at all these courts
and will be considered as haying been ;made to her Nitaieti