THE OPERA

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1846, 22 January 1880, Page 3

THE OPERA

The lively, and as given laefc night, amusing romantic opera of " Martha," •>.UBt be aet down as one of the best efforts of the present management. For what it pretends to be, the opera must be admitted to be a great success. Without any pretensions to anything beyond the design it is intended to carry out, it possesses a few specimens of concerted music which are quite worthy of the occasion ; but with these exceptions, it surfeits too much of the "Last Eose of Summer," and themes which have provoked the "Martha Quadrilles." List night's performance—not the least artistic part of which was the acrobatic feats of the two harlequins—passed off with great eclat, and the only regret experienced at the close was that the junior branch of the population had not the advantage of witnessing it. Madame Horace was a charming Martha, and acquitted herself admirably in this particular role, displaying excellent judgment in not acceding to the demand for a repetition of the favorite " List Rose of Summer." The part of Nancy seems to bo well suited to Miss Lambert, and it ia not .going beyond the mark to say that that lady is as well suited to the part. Mr Beaumont as Lionel waß in good style and voice, and we have not yet heard him to greater advantage, and feel Bure that in thi3 character he will always ensure 6ucces?. Mr Howell personated Sir Tristram in his usual humorous style, which is always full of life and whimsical nonsense, but without the slightest taint of vulgarity. Mr Templeton's Plunkett was devoid of muoh interest, and Mr Lavison as His Worship impressed us with the belief that that civic functionary had been called upon to Bing too soon after dinner, but with this exception he made a capital Mayor. The singing of the principals in most of the concerted pieces, notably the "Notturno" and the celebrated " Spinning wheel" quartette, was excellent. The former of these we should have liked, much as we object to repetitions, to have heard again. To-night " Faust" is to be repeated, and those who wish to enjoy a work of merit should not fail to be present.

"CARMEN."

This opera, which has excited such a rage ■wherever produced, will be offered to the Christchuroh public for the first time on Friday. The following sketch of the plot, and notice of the composer, Bizet, are supplied by the "Sydney Morning Herald": — " Carmen" created immense excitement in Paris and in St. Petersburg in 1875. It has since been given in London, Berlin, Vienna, New York, &0., &c, and with the same result. It is a pity that the composer, Georges Bizet, died so soon after completing thi9 work ; in his student days he was, we believe, the successful competitor for a musical distinction, against Lecocq ; afterwards little was heard of the winner. He wrote four operas, "Djamleh," " L'Arlesienne," " La jolie Fille de Perth," and "Lea Pecheurs de perles," without attracting much notice, when suddenly in " Carmen" he produced a composition by which his name will undoubtedly live in the annals of groat musicians. As the writer has remarked on a previous occasion, " the libretto is founded on a novel by Prosper Merimee, and is the joint work of Meesrs Meilhao and Holevy, who have judiciously excised the repulsively vicious portion, and left the heroine, Carmen, as little as possible of evil in her character beyond the heartless and ceaseless coquetry by which she beguiles lover after lover." The scene is laid in Seville; Cabmen (Madame Bose Hersee), more than half a gipsy, the companion of smugglers, is, when the opera commences, a cigarette maker. On her first entrance with the cigarette girls, Bhe is quickly Burrounded by admirers clamoring for her favor. Disdaining them all, she warbles a charming melody, which is caught tip and repeated by the chorus, a favorite treatment with M. Bizet, who seems to delight in exhibiting his fancies in varied robes. Through a quarrel with the other factory girls Carmen is arrested, and ordered to gaol in the keeping of Djh Jose, a brigadior of dragoons, whom she bad already fascinated by her beauty, despite his bonds to his betrothed Michaela (Miss Bessie Eoyal), a peasant girl, who had visited him at his mother's request. At Carmen's witchery, duty, honor, and love are alike forgotten. Jose (Mr Beaumont) aids Carmen's escape, and gladly suffers imprisonment for his trouble. Carmen returns to her gipsy life, but with her chosen associates frequents Lilias Pastia's inn ; the superior officer who had ordered Jose to prison is there. She learns that he is free, and refuses to leave the place. Joße and Carmen meet, in her presence time goes gaily by, the trumpet call rouses him, and he would hurry back, but the charmer resolves to keep him; alternately eneering and beguiling, she makes him her slave ; tho appearance of Zuniga, his captain, completes her work, and Jose deserts. The fickle Carmen has, besides Jose, an ardent lover in Escamillo (Mr Verdi), the hero of the Grenada bullfight, who has seen her at Pastia's inn, and inflamed her wild fancy by his glowing description of the toreador's struggle, and, captive at once to her beauty, he asks her name, that its remembrance will make sure his aim in the moment of danger. Again in the smuggler's cave Jose encounters Escamillo, who comes to woo Carmen ; his object declared, Jose, madly jealous, fights and would slay him, but Carmen and her companions enter and separate tho combatants, i Jose is summoned by his early love, Michaela, to his mother's dying couch. Ho departs, warning Carmen that he will return —that a fatal spell is over both, and that he will gladly forfeit life rather than leave her to another's love. No sooner is he gone than Carmen accepts Escamillo's love, and agrees to accompany him to the bull-fight. The procession is formed ; the gipsies arj amongst the crowd. Escamillo leads Carmen triumphantly forward, receives her assurance of undying love, and goes to the combat. CarmeD, unheeding the advice of her friends, lingers behind, is surprised by Jose, who, having implored and besought for love, and received scorn for his affection, in an agony of jealous despair stabs her to the heart as the shouts announce the triumph of Escamillo. M. Bizet has wedded the story to music as remarkable as it is delightful. Throughout the opera every orchestral resource is taxed to the utmoßt; well-known musical phrases are so changed by his masterly treatment that only by repeated performances is the familiarity of the foundation perceptible. The opening of the overture is sufficient to show M. Bizet's great powers in instrumentation; for completeness and massivenees he reminds the hearer of Wagner, but "Carmen " cannot by the greatest admirer be called " Wagnerian " in any other sense. The second movement introduces the most " taking " melody in the opera ; it it the refrain of Escamillo's song, afterwards repeated in the chorus, " Toreador, take care, take care," in the second act ; it is introduced again and again in different places, but always with great effect.