The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-12 00:00:00

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE;
FRENCH PLAYS.

Madame Albert made her first appearance for the season
last evening, in the character of Marie, in the new vaudeville,
La Camargo, ou Opera en 1750. The scene in the first act
is laid in a remote part of the province of Brittany, where
we find the Baron de Camargo, a poor yet proud nobleman,
living Ivith his son and daughter, in his ancient chateau.
The son would fain engage in commercial pursuits, to retrieve
the mined fortunes of the family, but the father will not for
one moment tolerate such a degradation. The daughter
Marie, a simple-minded, lively girl, is sought in marriage by
the Fermier-General of the district, but the Baron will not
listen to the proposal of such a mesalliance. The Due de
Lionne, Intendant des Menus Plaiiirs du Roi, a libertine of
the Court of Louis XV., arrives in the district, sees Marie,
and determines to make her his own. He offers his services
to the Baron de Camargo, to provide for his daughter as a
danseuse in the Academie Royal de Musique. The old Baron
starts at the mention of the word danseuse at first, but on
being assured that the danseuses of the Academie are of the
household of the King, and, consequently, that it is no de-
gradation to a lady of noble family to belong to the Aca-
demie, the Baron consents to the plan, and the Duke carries
off Marie with him to Paris. In the second act we find La
Camargo, the Deesse of the opera, as gay, as espiegle, as nave
as ever—but also as virtuous. Her very simplicity is her
safeguard. Libertines know not how to approach one who is
at the same time so lively and so prudent. The Duke de
Lionne lays a plot to carry her off, and her old lover, the
Fermier- General, now created a Viscount, determines to eh-
' cumvent him. A letter arrives, commanding her attendance at
Versailles to dance before the King. Her lover desires her
not to go, but she replies that to refuse she must be neither
an actress nor a woman. She goes with the Duke; and in
the third act we find her at Versailles, but not at the Palace.
The Duke has conducted her to his own apartments, and
endeavours to ply her with wine. At the supper which he
gives in her honour, she falls asleep in a chair, and
the Duke conducts his guests away. Her lover enters,
awakens her, and proves to her her danger, and she
flies with him, while Mademoiselle Briant, a former favourite
of the Duke's, having previously extinguished the lights,
takes her place. The Duke enters stealthily in anticipation
of his triumph, but is, of course, caught in his own trap, and
while his comrades are enjoying the joke which has been
played upon. him, La Camargo enters with her husband,
the Fermier-General, now the Vicomte de St. Sauveur, and all,
of course, ends happily. Madame Albert was the life and soul of
the piece. In the first act, as Marie, the country girl,
her acting was beautifully true to nature, an&n the second
and third acts, as La Camargo, the Deesse de r Opera—the
admired and the adored of all Paris, she gave herself the
prettiest airs imaginable. Witty, gay, and sarcastic, she
sang, and danced, and flirted, in the most fascinating man-
ner, so that it was impossible to wonder at the universal
popularity of La Camargo. She was called for at the fall
of the curtain, and received with the usual honours. She
afterwards appeared as Georgette, in the vaudeville of that
name, which she made so popular by her exquisite acting
last season. The house was well and fashionably attended.