The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-02

in the conventional and stacy sense of the
term--it isreally surprising that this poetical
novel should so long have escaped the
''effacing fingers" of the ordinary librettist.
It has, at last, had the advantage of being
operatized with the actual cooperation of the
author, who seems to have written all the
prose dialogue, while the experienced M. Carre
Cpart author of Hamlet and .HignoR, of Faust
and Romeo and JulSet) has prepared the musi-
cal pieces and taken charge of the versifica-
ton generally.
The task accepted by NJ. Semet, the COM
poser of La Petite Fddetto, was by no means
an easy one. The living work having been
reduced, more or less, to the condition of dry
bones it was for NJ. Semet to make it live
again through his music, which, to be fully
worthy of the subject, ought, it need hardly
be said, to be as eloquent and as expressive
as the musical language of George Sand her
self. TO expect this would be too much; but
it appears that NJ. Semet's music has really
had the good fortune to please MINNIE. Sand,
who, on the night of the fourth representa-
ton, sent letter to the composer expressing
her admiration for his part of the work, and
begging him to congratulate and thank in her
name ''the charming artists who have
contributed so powerfully to its sue
cess MINNIE Cali Marie, the original
''MIignon' in NJ. AMBROSE Thomas opera
of that name, has, as might have been ex-
pected, gained fresh triumph by her admi-
rable impersonation of Nine Sands poetical
heroine. She is not one of the first vocalists
of the day. But though her voice is neither
very powerful nor of very extensive compass,
she sings with fine dramatic expression; and
we doubt whether any one of the three great
Italian OF Italianized singers who have stu
died the part of 'Mignon' can play that part
with greater HdiCete, more genuine sentiment,
or deeper pathcs than are brought to its re-
presentation by the artist who first created
it. Mime Galli-Marie's 'AIignon' was not
the Italian ''Mignon" of Goethe, but the
German 'DIignon" of AIRY Scheifer. Her
''Fadette' is, no doubt, the ''Fadette' of
George Sand herself and not of any one of
George Sands illustrators
Since Nine Sand approves, 1t would be
ridiculous for any one else to say word
against, the somewhat conventional process
by which her beautifully written, perfectly
proportioned novel has been turned into ope-
ratio. form. Nevertheless, the story having
taken fixed and, as we once fondly ima-
gined, a permanent shape in our memory,
it is painful to find that the incidents are,
after all changeable at will. There are some
passages of description in the original
novel which no painter could realize on can
vas. while a composer could at most recall
them by mastery use of the orchestra. There
are several touching moreover between
LA Petite Fadette' andher ''fadet' which are
too delicate for substantial transference from
the book to the theatre. But while recogniz-
ing the existence of these technical difficult
ties, we cannot understand what necessity
there was for making Landry, the lover, go
mad and demean himself in his moments of
insanity like IL; onel," the son of Lord
Derby" in Flotow's Martha. Some of the
French critics compliment NJ. Care on the
ingenuity he has shown in depriving his
tenor lover, through an entire act, of his
ordinary amount OF intellect. NJ Carre can
scarcely take such compliment seriously,
knowing, as he better than any one does,
that in almost every modern opera that has
attained popularity, the heroine goes mad,
and that there is nothing original even in
representing the hero demented. Since
the day of Nina lunacy has always been more
or less in fashion on the operate stage. Ros-
sini a sane composer if ever there was one,
had, it is true, no taste for madness; but Bel
lini's "Elvira,' Donizettis ''Lucia" and
'Linda," Meyerbeer's 'Dinorah" and ''Cata-
rina, ''Gounod's ''AIargherita," Thomas
"Ophelia," all go crazy. Indeed, Madle
lima de Murska never impersonates charac-
ter who retains full possession of her senses
throughout the piece; while the only sound
minded personages represented by Madlle
Nilsson are Lady Henrietta" who drives her
lover mad, and ''Violetta," who herself
perishes of folly" in the scriptural sense