The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-06 00:00:00

Arr'llriT 6, 713f3.1.-

ROY AL IT ALL4IV 0

MADLLE. PATTI AS DINORATI.
At length the character of Dinorah ht;.
9 found an
adequate interpreter. That quaintly passienate
conception of the demented Breton girl—whose
mingled gaiety and pathos—almost amuse as mileh
„s they attract us, and whose natural romance so
well illustrates the strange and poetic attributes of
the primitive region she belongs to—involves so
much pecularity—as to demand for its due embody -
ment no small amount of adaptation. The bereaved
Dinorah in the first place is no ordinary peasant.
She is not only a type of the Celtic spirit, but of its
most antique and express retreats—she is the very
ideal of the rustic Breton—as free and buoyant as its
mountai❑ winds—as fresh and graceful as its forest
flowers—as wild and fantastic as its mysterious
torrents—that now slumber in their shadowy
pools—and now leap in the summer sunshine.
Her delirium, again, is one that is not of an ordi-
nary kind. It is waolly devoid of melancholy.
As she wanders her native ravines in search of her
lost lover, it is in the momentary belief of meet-
ing him. She is therefore intensely happy; whilst
the pathos of her position—by a very subtle touch
of art—is made to reside in her unconsciousness,
which mercifully shields her from rea:ities. To
interpret her aright, therefore, two conditions are
demanded. First, the expression of what may be
called the natural romance of the Breton character ;
next, that spirit of buoyant gaiety which she de-
rives from her delusion. It is incumbent on us to
say that neither of these conditions have till now
been fulfilled on the London stage. Whilst Md me.
Miolan Carvalho is much too cold and impassive to
make any due approach to the one, Miss Lousia
Pyne has a natural pensiveness which disqualifies
her in a great measure for the fulfillment of the
other. Mille. Patti, on the contrary, both in per
son and in genius, seems to have been exactly con-
stituted to unite the most perfect rendering of the
two. Her performance breathes the very life
of the strange and antique region it refers to.
It combines all its simple, eager feeling—
all its rustic natural grace, and ell its free, fantastic
movement—with that spirit of enjoyment that is
not only so proper to the concept ion, but so neces-
sary to soften muck that might otherwise be pain-
ful in it. At the same time, by vir►ue of her pas-
sion, Dinorah is thoroughly in earnest, and the few
occasions on which she is permitted to reveal her
inmost feelings—to Madlle. Patti's artistic sense are
quite sufficient to become the key to which she is
enabled to modulate the entire expression of the
character. Such, for instance, is the solemn fervour
with which she delivers the romance, " L'incanta
tore della montagna ;" and such, again, the tender
ecstacy with which she wakes, in the last
act, to the happy fulfilment of her dream.
Her musical execution was of a piece
with her dramatic. Mayerbeer, a consummate
master, has not thought of bestowing on his rustic
eeroine music that should be brilliant, simply be-
cause it was gay and buoyant—but rather music
which should be quaint and fanciful, in order that it
should be true; and the happy manner in which Mdlle.
Pattie seizes every point of his intention
and gives to its entire scope the utmost reality,
whilst elevating it by a grace and feeling which
are proper to herself, forms another of her many
claims to the reputation she has won. Thus, her
opening aria, " Si Carina," which she addresses to
her lost goat, expressed most strikingly the playful
tenderness that forms a part of the concep-
tion. The dancing duett with Corentino conveyed
' to the full its fantastic spirit; whilst in the great
gem of the opera—the most fanciful and
piquant of its composer's recent inspirations —the
ombra Leggera." She converged, as it were, in a
focus every feature of the design, and whether in
warmth, enjoyment, grace, freedom, playfulness, or
quaintness rendered it a triumph that removed it
from all contemporaneous rivalry. The enthusiasm
of the audience, which had been frequently roused
by her performance, at this point honestly culmi-
nated in a very vigorous re-demand, with which
she complied, to the extent of repeating the con-
cluding movement. In the last act, oddly
enough, Mayerbeer has given his heroine little
to do; but here Madlle. Patti's earnestness
was quite sufficient to sustain the grt at impression
of her previous exertions, both lyric and dramatic,
and reader her the central object to the final de: cent
of the curtain. Altogether we consider this per-
formance one of the greatest triumphs she ❑as yet
achieved. Equally superior on the ground of its on
4inality and its tru th, it is not less a testimony to the
range than to the surprising depth of her dramatic
powers. As distinct from her Z in its dreamy
ardour as in its more playful and fantastic spirit, it
nas all the exuberance of her Martha, and all the
vigour of her Norina. It cannot fail, therefore, to
become one of her most attractive characters for the
future, and to form in the ensuing season one of
its most prominent distinctions.
Madlle. Patti, we need scarcely say, was repeat.
edly called for during the evening, and at the
close was very warmly summoned by the entire
voice of the house. On the general merits of the
performance we can have no occasion to enlarge
' Mons. Faure resumed the Hoel—with all that
excellence, which marked his debut in it—all that
vigorous sense of the chai acter—the gloomy and
absorbed treasure-seeker, in whom avarice, for a
time, has deadened all just and tender feeling;
and who, on the awakening of his better nature, at
the sudden danger of his betrothed—reveals in the
' delivery of the " Sei Vendicata"—so touching a
proof of his remorse. Signor Gardoni, as the
" Corentino," also sustained his previous fame
in it as a flighty artistic effort ; whilst
Madame Nante Didiee es the young goatherd in
her delightful ballad " Fanciulle the it core" again
roused the audience to all their old delight at her grace
' and spirit. The band and chorus of course die-
' played all their old distinctions on this occasion,
and the entire performance was of a character to
explain the gratification which it gave to a very
crowded house.