The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-01-09
SOMETHING BIG TN CRITICISM.

| Never OF nj least hardly ever, have we been
| 90 profoundly impressed 40 by the Times
| criticism. yesterday morning, Of the per-
| fpfmanpe at the Varieties. The 7fmpa often
| irnpreeses paople-very often; we shrink
| from endeavoring to compute the number Of
| occasions on which We have had 10 aulp down
| emotion end mop our briny eyes on the Times
| account. Let that pass lis over. What we
| desire to say is that we do not remember
having experienced eimllar feelings before.
| All previous patoSYsms fade into insgniti-
canee. II Ia always a solemn and thrilling
moment when the Times approaches an ar
| tstic subject with III mir OF meaning serious
business. We can tell what is coming by the
| first sentence, and can calculate W q nleety
Just how figldly to brace ourselves; but 1T ls
trying episode for all that. And when we
unfoded the 7imea yesterday and found d
long criticism Of the arau Opera troupe, with
I,eeoca's name spelled wrong and other evil
dences of lneohereney In The first sentence.
We knew that The critics mind WAS seethlng to
an tinusal extent and that something partieu-
larly powerful might be expected. Bratina
ourselves accordingly, we read as follows.
briefly, The mlsen SCENE Of this opera EN-
bodies three animated tabeauX tpfa rRphaeite
In their exquisite dlatinetness, gluw
Ing 10 vivid contrast. inelsiva ID
the originality of their ehafae. CREATIONS. mud
quiyering WITH exuhergnt vitality. action , ai,a
wealth " color ars their dominant attributes
The chorus Instead Uf standing mute and mo
lionlesa. like row 81 nine pfns. awaiting n
breathless expectation until u is i,e tq,n y
einR assumes at once the. ylv,eity nt animate
nature which IL refreshing innovation upon
the orthodox rendition.
Our readers will admit, Without argument
we preseme. that "misen seene' consisting
Of three animated tableaus, glowing, inelsive
end uuiverng. ought to be worth seeing.
Certainly they will admit that this is a
graphic and lucid sentence, whloh sheds un-
dying ustre on its author.
We only wiah we had The time to follow and
point out all The beauties of The ftn,fs eritl-
oism indeed We Wish we could he quite sure
that we have discovered them at all. 1t will
haunt us to our expiring moment 10 feel that
perhaps we may have missed something.
There liz one gem, however, about which we
feel reasonably sure. It ls this
Nj. Uappul apparently delights IN testing his
full strength by commencing With q volume In
thp lower register and rising q aaualy tetavs
after octave, until the delicious melody ia
septcav audible There II not n break In this
Innse'onhe LOVER s gga,s ascend e. Into hn,
this Ia music for the sensationaiist and not the
cultivated auditor.
Wonderful. wonderful 'Rlslng gradually.
octave after octave, until the delicious melody
is scarcely audible" No wonder M. Capoul
delights In II. Think of rising gradually,
octave after octave. sending the lower scales
up into the higher reglster-bloekiBg them
up. as It were-un.l the delicious melody
kinder dwndlea awayi This must be oil.
Oh from the can And then. as II TO make II
binding. there Isn't break In ths infection,
whatever that may be- We regrets that the
7ttnps person didn't mention how many
octaves M. Capoul goes through. or course
II couldn't be less than fifteen or twenty; IL
takes al least fifteen oetaves TO whittle down
a delicious melody to n fine point, but, all the
same. we are sorry The 1imss person didn't
give The figures. 1t Ia always better to be
explicit In these matters.
However, we don't want to seem migrate
full The Times has given IFS great and pc
euIiar criticism. We know just how tho
"miaen seene' looked. and we can follow
Capou as he aseends through successive oe-
tayes. dragging the lower scales UP into the
higher register until the delicious melody be-
comes lnaudible, aud there Is not break In
tho infection, so to spaak. This is much to
be thankful for. aud we arc thankful. Let us
not dwell upon the things that might have
been but were not said Let us rather con-
slider tho things that Were said. Lot us pom
der and wrestle with them In spirit OF re-
apsctful Amusement. II will pay.