The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-09 00:00:00

ROYAL ITALIAN OP.
HERR WACHTEL.
Mr. aye's "Exhibition Season" seems to unfold as it
proceeds some features which are very suggestive of the
great event that has inspired it. Whilst its performances are
gradually extending to every night in the week in order to
accommodate, if, possible, the rising tide of our foreign
visitors, its company is enlarging not only in its talent,
but in its nationality, in a manner that appears to us to be
peculiarly analogous. Its singers display a variety almost
as great as that of the exhibitors. They are to be classed
as French, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Belgian, and
with a very slight strain of the fact, American and Russian.
They could produce our lyric masterpieces in so many
different languages that the theatre could publish a
" repertoire," which might be called a vocal polyglot ! It
is certainly a curious fact that this company would not
find it difficult to produce some leading operas
in Italian, French, and German, on three suc-
cessive evenings. A more important point, however,
is that their polyphonous character is quite as striking
as their polygenous. Their talent to discourse in the uni-
versal tongue of music is quite as singular as its connection
with such diversity of speech. Herr Wachtel, the last
addition to this extraordinary company, is in no respect the
least. He is, with some one or two exceptions only, the
very finest tenore robusto since the debut of Signor Tara-
berlik. He has a voice of the noblest quality, equally re-
markable for strength and sweetness, which can rise in de-
clamatory passages to C sharp with perfect ease—whilst in
its nsezza rive it is capable of the most tender and subdued
expressions. He' is also possessed of genuine passion, and
consequently true dramatic feeling—and whether musically
or histrionically; knows the full use of his gifts. He has
in addition the advantage of youth and a handsome face and
manly person, and therefore the power of sustaining his
efforts with no small amount of illusion. He can not only
assume but look alover, which is no slight point with the
public. The only abatement that could be made of Herr
Wachtel's claims, on Saturday evening was a slight ten-
dency to excess, which, however; is so easily accounted for
that we have a right to assume it will entirely disappear on
subsequent occasions. Saturday was not only his first
appearance before, a critical English audience but his first
adventure in Italian, which necessarily affected his enun-
ciation, and therefore augmented the anxiety that would be
most injurious to his efforts. It is further to be remembered
that a tenore robusto is of course expected to make the chief
impression. with his power, and that power is just the qua-
lify which nervousness affects the most. Consequently
Herr Wachtel. in his anxiety to impress this quality suffi-
ciently, was not only urged into an occasional excess, ulna,
destroyed the truth of tbe.expression, but failed in the end
itself, in his inability through excitement to command his
voice at the Mit Moinent, This was unlucky, especially in
Edgardo, in which his least successful effort was the " Ma-
lediction," though his singing and acting throughout the
scene and his share in the exquisite segtett, " Chi mi frens,"
which conduced so much to its re-demand, were admirable in
the extreme. All his defect, therefore, we have a right to refer
and to limit to the occasion,
.whilst in his sustainment of
the character generally, and especially in its tender por-
tions, he achieved a success which could scarcely be ex-
ceeded. Nothing could be more delicate than his share in
the " Veronno a to sull aura," and nothing more pathetic
than his delivery of the Fra poco. In these and other
passages he excited the warmest testimonies, and was
called for with great heartiness at the close of every
act. As a singer, therefore, adapted to the pasSionate
and dramatic wants • of modern opera, we consider
Herr Wachtel a very important acquisition. He is the
only one we know of who, when in time he has acquired
the art, will be worthy to divide the ground and succeed to
the honours of Signor Tamberlik. The Lucia of Madlle,
Patti exhibits all the improvement, mental and physi-
cal, which we observed in her " Sonnambula." It is a
far truer and more affecting, because a more passionate per-
formance. It is now animated throughout with a depth of
womanly feeling, which fulfills every necessity of
the mu4c and the story. We no longer look at a
wonderful girl, but we listen to an earnest woman
—and our 4 sympathies consequently respond just as
thoroughly as-they are appealed to. Thus, whilst her act-
ing is so improved, and not more in its more vigorous than
its more delicate . expressions—not more in the frantic
energy with which she clings to her lover after the male-
diction—than in the piteousness of her appeal to her
brother to release her from the c fntract--her singing in due
adjustment to it relics now for its general effect quite
es much upon the depth as upon the brilliancy of its ex-
pression, Taken as a whole, hers is now the most perfect
embodiment of. Lucia which we have had since Persiani,
and one that, inunieon with the undeniable attraction of
her youth and person, allows of no existing rivalry.
The Enrico,- of
,the evening was Signor Della Sedie,
who, if his voice .were, only equal to, his taste and feeling,
would be the first of modern bard+ ones ; and the Raimondo
was a Signor Capponi, who made a successful first appear-
ance, as a basso, possessed of a voice of more than ordinary
pretensions. Of the perfect condition of the band and
chorus we can have no occasion to speak. Its great dis-
tinction was never more obvious, or more honourable than
on this evening. The house was very full.
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