The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-19
MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.
"Fleur de The.v

On saturday evening Mr.. Grau produced the third
novelty OF the season. Lecocqs opera OF Peur de
The. This is the weakest OF any of the buresaue
operas that have been performed here, and it is
much below Onenbach's works in musical merit as
Herves u 0sa CreUe is above them. According to
tne statement on the programme of the evening,
Fte'T de The achieved extraordinary success in
Europe, enjoying two long runs in Paris, besides
creating an unprecedented ftrOre" in the principal
capitals of Northern Europe where II was repre-
sented. The Parisians must certainly have been
pining for a novelty or else were able
to see attractive feature in the work which
are invisible to us. The lbretto OF F1eur
de The is well written, and the subject Is
good one for the purpose OF musical burlesqne
The plot such 1t is, turns upon the misadventure
of "Pinsonnet," the cook OF French man-ol-war
lying Off Pekin who, with his wife "Cesarine" carries
on quite q profitable trade in q cabaret which they
have established shore. Unfortunately for ''Pin-
sonnet" his place is visited by "Fleur de The" the
daughter of '0Tien- -Tien," mandarin and chief Of
the Pekin police, who, being desrous OF seeing for
herself what the outside barbarans were like eluded
the vigilance Of her guardians, and started on a
little expedition in search OF knowledge.
The sudden entrance Of the mandarin
forces her TO hide In adjoining apartment
where she Is discovered by Cesarne, whose jealous
wrath is aroused and the girl is forced to face her
indignant parent. ''Tien-Ten" declaresI that, ac-
cording to the Chinese law, stranger who beholds
the face OF an unmarried woman must either accept
her as his wife or be impaed, and "Pinsonnet" is
accordingly seized and carried Off to his palace. The
rest of the piece Is taken up with the complications
caused by the unlucky affair, and by the jealousy of
"Cesarine," who succeeds in substituting herself in
disguise for "Fleur de The" at the marriage cere-
mony while the Chinese girl is made happy in the
arms of her original lover Kaolin," the captain of
the Tigers whose matrimonial prospects were nipped
in the bud by the accident which gave him the
French cook for a rival.
When the trick played by "Cesarne" is discovered,
the mandarin proposes to carry out the law by i'm
pang "Pinsonnet," preparatory to which he and his
followers get intoxicated champagne which "Cesa-
rine" furnishes them, and the opera concludes with
the only really good thing in ia lively champagne
chorus, in the midst Of which the French sailors
rush in and rescue their countryman.
To an audience who understood the language this
piece might be amusing, as mere burlesque, but to
those who consider the music as the most important
part OF the performance there is nothing to specially
commend it. Most Of the airs are quite pretty,
and that is the best that be said Of hem and
we remarked above, the best thing in it is the jolly
bacchanalian chorus with which it concludes
Madlle Desclauzas acted and sang the part of
'Cesarine" excellently, and N. Beckers as ''rien-
Ten" and M. Francis ''Kaolin" performed in
frst-rate burlesque style. NJ Carrier, who does not
appear to be much of actor, sang well enough as
'TinsOnnet," but otherwise he fell far below any of
the artists who have appeared here in leading roles,
and Mad1le Rizarelli, who appeared as ''Fleur de
The, added nothing to the strength of the cast The
costumes were very handsome, but, with the excep-
ton of the first scene, the usual Academy scenery
used and as this entirely inappropriate the
performance was not effective as it would have
been if properly mounted.