The San Francisco call., 1897-03-29
TWO SUCCESSFUL OPERAS
The Great French Company
Gives "Mignon" and
Faust"
A Pretty Performance of Thomas
Opera Comique, With Savine
in the Title Role.
At the California Theater yesterday the

At the California Theater yesterday the
French operate organization gave two
of the most successful OF modern French
operas, both of which celebrated their
thousandth performances only few
years ago, one at the Opera Comique and
the other at the Grand Opera.
Am broise Thomas charming opera
comique, "Mignon," was the afternoons s
bill, and although the grand tenors and
barytones were none OF them represented
in the cast, the work was very pleasingly
sung and acted.
Nine. Andree Savine. who played the
title role in "Mignon," is the hardest
worked member of the company, for she
is the divette of most of the opsrettas, the
diva OF the operas comiques. and the
meZzo soprano of the grand operas. In
grand opera she is not dams son asslette, !"
10 Gull an expression from her own IAN
guage, but in the operas comiques she is
very acceptable, in spite OF the fact that
her voice is 100 light TO give full effect to
the music of such a heavy role as Mignon.
Mignon is generally classed as a mezzo-
soprano role, but although round low
notes are essential to res!ly dramatic rem
dering of the music good zeal of Mignon' s
score almost demands u soprano voice.
1t was in this higher-pitched music that
Savine eKceiled yesterday. Her duet with
Lothario in the first act was excellently
sung, so was her scene in the last act with
Wilhelm Meister, and her singing of
"Est-ce Mignon2" in the second act is
worthy OF mention.
Although the popular "Connais tn le
pays2' has no exceptionally low notes, its
general average is low, and Mime. Savine
did little more than speak the first half OF
the aria. As far as appearance went she
vas an ideal Mignon. and she acted the
part prettily along traditional lines.
In the light soprano part of Philine,
Nine. Berthet did some brilliant f1orid sing
ing and acted the coquette charmingly.
The "Polacca" was sung with bird-like
ease and fuency, the difficult octaves and
turns in the final cadenza being q tri-
umph of vocal EN- broidery.
A departure that cannot be particularly
commended was the substitution of the
comedian LespinaSse for a contrallo as
Frederic Histrionically the change added
TO the merriment of the work, as Lespi-
nasse acted the part of the lovesick boy on
Tony Lumpkin lines, and raised many a
hearty laugh by his gaucheries. Lespi.
nasse, however. did not presume to daily
with the contralto's gavotte, so the audi
ence was deprived of one of the most
charming arias in the whole score.
Edward Dec, the third tenor OF the troupe
played Wilhelm Meister ana not only
acted sympatheticaIly, but sang well. His
"Adieu, Mignon" brought down the house
and some portions OF the last act were
especially well rendered. The drawback
to Deo's singing is that he is not quite
sure of his high notes; sometimes he takes
them seml-falss!to, sometims robusto in
the style of Provost and sometimes he
seems undecided which way to attack
them, hesitates and is lost. This hesita-
ton was only once aggressively in evil
dence yesterday, but it made his hearers
lose confidence as to his absolute security.
Dec again showed that h can act better
than either of the grand tenors.
Javld was a fairly good Lothario and
Manrick did we'll as Laerte.
Gounod's Faust" was given in the
evening and received better performances
than at the matinee two weeks ago. In
place of Nine. Berthet, whose voice was
too light for the part, Nine. Foedor sang
the role of Marguerite and won unstinted
applause for her excellent work. She was
q naiv. and supple Marguerite, and her
singing was, as usual, very fine.
Massart warmed up to the role of
Faust much better than on his first ap-
pc arance here in the character, and sang
more freely. particularly in the gard en-
scene. As before. AIbers made an ideal
Valentine. Javid repeated his tendency
to purlesqus part of Mephistopheles.
Andree Savine was passa BILE Siebei, and
Nine. Fennau had another success as
Martha. The ballets in the VaIpurgis
night were exceedingly pretty.