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

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA

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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 r first impres-
sion as favourable almost as the best of its author's
efforts in recent years. Six vehement encores, 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 coal i have writes—it is
scarcely to be tanked 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, bac 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 h a
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 adapted 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 desite 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 witn 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.
Tne opening act occurs before the house of the
Armourer of Nantes, who has protected and who
loves Marie, the orphan daughter of the family
Beissac, 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 con-
spiracy—consigns him to the block. In the third
act we have both the Count and the Armourer in
prison—the latter sharing in the pretended treason,
and the Duchess wavering which of the two she
will send to execution; when Marie, now Countess
of Brissac, entering the prison with the Duclae9s,
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 operas without an overture—an omis-
sion which occurs for the first time with Mr.
Balfe—and up to the centre of the first act show soo-
thing very at 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 heart," 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 pianted," which
had a shade of p.sasiveness that heightened its
gay expression very 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-
iey, the former rising to a point of true tragic
elevation when he gave the lie to the seducer's
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 oue con-
cerned in it. In the second act the best impres-
sions were the aria of Count de Villetranche,
"Not till Time his Glass," which had ab v_e_rry
flowing melody, and was so well eungnaye
Weise as to obtain a toad encore.
bal-
lad, by Marie,
°' There's one who reared me
another exquisite morceau
—which exquisitely
rendered, was redemanded. An admirable trio
"--
of Marie, the Duchess, and the Armourer, " Sickly
terror, ghastly dread," one of the most original
features of the opera, a ballad of Marie, full of
pathos, "As you hope to merit"—aud the finale,
which in its general structure, but its slow move-
ment especially, showed all the master's hand. In
the third act the illness of Mr. Aynsley
Cooke, who performed the jailor, led to the
omission of some of the music which was
evidently important—and the most success-
ful portions were the Armourer's song, " Oh love
thou'rt like a reed bent low," full of grace and ten-
derness, and so charmingly sung by Mr. Harrison
as to win a warm encore—the very pleasing invo-
cation by Marie, " 011 Heavenly power !"--she
duet of Marie and the Duchess, which in
its ensemble, "Though all else may alter,"
nad a burst of genuine melodic inspiration, and
the duet of Marie and the Armourer, " Once more
my heart awakes to bliss," which was full of deli-
(site feeling.
The execution of this opera was, with one
or two exceptions, as perfect as could be wished.
Miss Py ue was in charming voice, and
gave, both to the vocal and histrionic illustration of
he wronged orphan, all that tenderness and pathos
which she displays without a rival. Mr. Harrison
found great scope for his noble power of
declamation, in addi ion to the occasions
in which he was allowed some range of
song. Mr. Santley was never happier than
nthe gay bearing and buoyant rendering of the
mu
the Count, whilst Mr. Weiss maintained
to
of
his fame in every note that was allotted to him'
as the first of English basses. The only defects
of the performance arose from the illness of Mr'
Cooke, in the sustainmeut of the gaoler, and the
total incapacity, both vocal and dramatic, of Miss
Anna Hiles to, give any idea of the Duchess.'"
character which, in the second act, demands the
energies of a Grisi. The band and chorus, under
Mr. Mellon, were as admirable as usual.
house was filled to overflowing.

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We are authorised to state that two Drawing
dooms and two Levees will be held on the part of the Queell
at St. James's Palace after Easter. Presentations raaY
take place under the usual regulations at all these CourtB,
and Will be censidered as having been made to her Dlitiet".