The San Francisco call., 1897-03-24
''LES HUGUENOTS"
SUNG IN FRENCH.
Meyerbser's Work Seems
to Be a Local
Favorite.
The Most Grandiose Production
1t Has Received Here
for Years.
The Tenor Surpasses Himself in High
Notes Long Drawn Out-A bers'
Artistic Philip de Nevers.

Mcyerbeer's "Huguenots" must be q
favorite with San Francisco opera-goers,
for the largest audience that has attended
the California since the opening of the
French season welcomed the work last
night and gave every outward and visible
sign Of enjoying it.
The snowy If somewhat tinselly work
has never been SO well performed in this
City in recent years. The singers were
nearly all thoroughly up to the require
ments of the florid music, which seems to
have been written with an eye to afford
ing opportunities for the display OF vocal
fireworks, and the fine male choruses in
which the opera abounds were nearly all
sung with a good volume of tone and
plenty OF rhythmic swing.
The grandiose finales were rendered so
1mpressively that at the end OF most of
the acts the audience insisted on having
the curtain raised repeatedly.
The Huguenots' is not only preten tious
in its music, ii also demands grand
mise en- scene. The scenic appointments
of the French company are generally con-
spicuous for their poverty, for the New
Orleans Opera House refused to lend its
scenery for the deleclation of California
audiences.
The company owns its own costumes.
however. and some cf them are very
effective. Last night thanks to brilliant
costumes and clever groupings OF chorus
and ballet, the stage presented a really
fine appearance; the tableau at the end
of the third act was as brilliant and effect
i've stage picture as the most blase
theater-goer could ask to see.
Henri Albers. who generally over
oh Ycfc w
Philip de Nevers. 1t is not only the
primo baritone assoluto's singing which
wins him the bravos of opera-goers, but
his qualities as an all-arOund artist. In
every detail of his bearing and dress he
was the courtly cavalier, and his singing
was, as usual, pleasure to the ear.
Provost was Raoul, and he positively
surpassed himself in hurting robust high
notes in the chest register at the audience.
He held on to them longer than usual and
threw them out with such force that the
audience was carried by storm. At the
end of the second act, where Raoul refuses
to marry Valentine, Provost acted with
good deal of dramatic force, but on the
whole his singing was better than his act
ing.
Athes won a good deal of applause for
Marcel's .'Pim PUN" song, though his
voice is not strong enough in the low
notes of the role, which is one of the most
thankless in the bass repertory. The
minor small roles were exceptionally well
filled.
Nine. Foedor made an excellent Valen-
tine, especially in the scene with Marcel.
Mime. Berthets light voice was especially
well adapted to the hnrid music of Mar
guerite de Navarre's lines, and she, too,
won large need of applause.
Andree Savine, who is clever divette
OF opera, does not seem in her element in
grand opera. 1t is true that last ME hit
she won plenty OF applause for her sing
ing of the pages aria, "NobiI, Signor,"
but the familiarity of the excerpt no
doubt had something to do with this.
Strange to say, Nine. Savine did not at
tempt any acting IN the pages role.
The weak part of the performance was,
as usual, the female choruses, which, as
usual, were quite below the standard of
the rest of the production. Some of the
mixed choruses were good, especially in
the finales. Brilliant work was done by
Mile. de Consoli, the prima ballerina.