The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-11
|.ENRAPT WITH FAUST
OPENING PERFORMANCE OF THE
ELLIS OPERA COMPANY A
GREAT SUCCESS
RENDITION WAS MAGNIFICENT

RENDITION WAS MAGNIFICENT
i
While an Audience That Packed the
Metropolitan Theater Testified to
Its Appreciation Of the Artistic
Presentation of the Great Com
pOser's Greatest ERert-St. Paul
Bows to Media.
AS the subtle fragrance of the flowers,
rendered doubly potent by the magic pow
er of Mephistopheles, stole into the pure
spirit of the Inflated Marguerite and filed
her very soul with mysterious warnings,
| so Gounod may be said to have breathed
| the essence of his musical genius into his
glorious Faust There are those who
| say that the great French composer, in
his effort to incorporate into one great
| musical drama the beautiful conceptions
which came to him as a priceless gift of
| the god of music, overtaXed his creative
| power and was never afterwards able to
| infuse into his later productions an in
| dividuality sufficient to distinguish them
| from his greatest conception. Be that as
! it may, it is safe to prophesy that the
| magnificent harmonies that have served
| to make his name one familiar to all true
| devotees of music will suffice to touch
| with immortal fame the laurels gained by
| him during his lifetime. Mo- individual
! whose appreciation of the masterpieces of
musical composition is based eR an intel
| ligent understanding of the beauties, II
not of the technical intricacies, of their
| construction, can fail to express enthusi-
| asm of the most genuine and emphatic
nature when such an opera as Faust
| is given a rendition proportiened to its
| worth.
| Manager Scott. Of the Metropolitan Op-
! era house, is to be warmly congratulated
| on the
COURAGEOUS SPIRIT
| displayed in engaging, if only for a short
| period of three evenings. IN organization
| demanding so large an initial outlay as
! the Ellis Opera company. st. Paul has,
| II Is true, given a warm welcome on other
occasions to opera companies whose
every appearance neceSsitated Il conSfd-
! cradle financial risk on the part of the
| local management. but those companies
! made their appearance at time when
! the portion Of this worlds goods set aside
by music lovers for the indulgence of
| their desire to hear the works uf the mas
! ter composers was considerably larger
| than that which they have been able to
| devote to this purpose in recent years.
| The Damrosch Opera company, whose
| performances In st. Paul in 1896 aroused
the musicaliy inclined to pitch of the
| greatest enthusiasm, owed the financial
| success of its engagement in measure
| to the efforts of the loyal members of the
| Schubert club to bring about that tlesir-
| able result. The energetic spirit dis
| played by this club will. 1t IS reasonable
| to suppose, conduce also to an appre-
| ciable extent to the success of the Ellis
| Opera company, viewed from purely
| business standpoint, but there are other
| causes TO which this gratifying condition
| of affairs must in part be attributed. The
| general tone of the local musical world
| has been strengthened and clarified, as
| it were, by the increasing merit Of the
artists living in st. Paul, and the stand
| ard of musical appreciation has been adj
vanced to a point, which commands the
| admiration of the musical centers of the
1 East. : = - . 49,
| RESULT SEEN LAST NIGHT.
! The excellent results of the musica
/ education that st. Paul has been receiv.
! ing during the past7few years were dem
| onstrated last night in a most striking
| manner. The audience that greeted the
| artists Of the Ellis opera company II
| their Initial performance was not only one
| of imposing proportions but also one
| whose culture was evidenced by the intel.
i ligent applause that rewarded the efforts
of Nine Melba and her; talented col.
leagues. 1t was to have been expected
that the opening night would also be a
social event of Importance, and the gen.
eral anticipation in this respect was fully
realized Society'si fairest sons and
daughters listened in rapt attention from
the opening bars of the symbolic overture
RI the a tyyrff no
| of the dfsembodied spirit of the unfor-
tunate Marguerite into the realms OF
peace. Very few seats remained unoccu-
pied and there was a notable absence OF
| those whispered comments which in for
mer years proved such an annoyance to
people who attended the opera to listen
| to the artists and not to the conversa-
tionaI busybodies In parquet and balcony
not to mention the boxes.
Nine. Melba and M. Boudouresuue
| easily carried Off the honors of the even
| ing. the ovation rendered to the Aus
| tralian at the close Of the third
| and last acts was the spontaneous
| OUTBURST OF ENTHUSIASM
| which was as unrestrained as 1t was flat
! terfng. With that grace and dignity and
| withal with that generosity which char
| acteriZe- her in such an eminent degree
| Nine Melba stroye to subordinate her
| own Drlllldnt success to that of BOu-
| douresque and BoMnard, and the audience
| would not be satisfied until she had re-
| sponded to repeated recalls. Such glo-
| rfous burst of song as thrilled through
| the auditorium at the close of the last
! act has seldom been heard in ST. Paul.
! All the despair, fear and hope that the
| human heart is capable of feeling were
expressed in those incompatible notes,
| and the audience listened enthralled un-
| til the exquisite tones died away with the
| concluding phrase Longs with thee to
/ rest"
The jewel aria was rendered with a
| buoyancy Of spirit and delicacy of in
| tonatfon that were fitting accompani-
ments to the perfect enunclation for
which Melba Is famous
| With unrivaled tenderness and purity OF
| expression Nine Meba invested the beau
! tiful recitative passage, Mon frere es,
soldat." The perfect ease with which she
sang the touching words was a revela-
| ton to the audience.
The Mephistopheles of NJ. Boudouresaue
| was a genuine surprise to such of the
auditors as had not previously had the
! pleasure of witnessing the work of this
| artist. His superb acting furnished a fit
| ting counterpart to the mastery name,
! in which he sang the part '.Thou Art
| Lord of the Earth was rendered In 2
/ manner to defy criticism. The scene
| which marks the triumph of the appeal tc
| the cross was intensely dramatic in Its
effect
| M. De Vries Is to be commended 70,
having sung the aria From MY Native
| Land 1 Part in Italian, as he is evidently
| more familiar with that language thar