DE MURSKA IN OPERA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4824, 7 September 1876, Page 2

DE MURSKA IN OPERA.

Mddle. lima de Murska and company have been engaged to appear at the Theatre Royal for two nights, their first performance to be given this evening. We would draw special attention to the programme, which appears in another column, and which will be found to contain some musical gems. Two operatic scenes will also be sustained by the company, the management having gone to some expense in the preparation of suitable scenery. Lovers of music will hail the reappearance of the worldrenowned Hungarian nightingale with pleasure, and it may be safely regarded as certain that the theatre will be very numerously attended thi3 evening. The performance by Mdlle. de Murska and her present company of the operatic scenes from "Dinorah" and " Lucia di Lammermoor" was thus noticed by the Melbourne Argus of the 27th January, 1876 :—"Mdlle.de Murska selected for this occasion a scene from Meyerbeer's ' Dinorah,' and one from the ' Lucia di Lammermoor' of Donizetti, in both of which she has the stage to herself, and does not need the support of other principal voices or of chorus. The task she set herself was arduous in the extreme, but the result in each case was a triumph of histrionic talent, as well as of vocal ability. As far as the action of both pieces is concerned, it may be said to belong to one class only, in that it represents a woman's madmess arising out of disappointed We. It is in this light only that we have thus far an opportunity to speak of Mdlle. de Murska as a player, but herein we may see enough for notice to the full extent of the space at our disposal. We know it to be characteristic of this lady that the more wild and fanciful the music is, the more completely at home does she appear to be in the performance of it; and now it would seem that she finds it equally easy to adapt herself by look and gesture to the representation of the sentiment of such song as she does to its expression in sound. She plays the whole scene in ' Dinorah,' commencing from the point where she runs on, exclaiming ' Dov' e Hoel ?' including the romance 'II incantor,' and concluding with the elaborate air 'Ombra leggiera.' The turmoil of her desolate mind is completely expressed in each gesture, in every glance, and in the mournful accents of her voice, until the bright moon Bhows her shadow on the rocks that surround her, and then breaks out the captivating strain wherein she recognises her dear friend and playfellow in the unsubstantial form which answers her every movement, and which she fancies she hears repeat her very words. (The stage business of the shadow, we may mention, was very well managed, and was highly effective.) To see her dance to it, kneel to it, caress it, and sorrowfully chide it for deserting her, was to recognise a true artist in the full exercise of the highest gifts. But it was a mad Dinorah all the while, and a perfect embodiment of the author's ideal. So, too, with a scene from ' The Bride of Lammermoor.' If one did not know the story before, there would be no possibility of mistaking the fair young form with pallid face and fair hair all dishevelled for that of a sane woman, as Lucia comes in (dagger in hand) fresh from the doing to death of an unloved husband, whom she had been betrayed into marrying. There is higher art in this performance than in the other—there are finer lights and deeper shades in the mental aberration which she makes from the first to be so completely understood by the audience. Each recurring fantasy of her disrupted mind she makes plain to the onlooker by such fine and truthful touches that the art there is in them is never suspected. And all this is done as if it were real, and not simulated, the while the practised vocalist is pouring forth those snatches of tune and errant unconnected flights of song which have made this scene musically beautiful, and a wonder for all people who have heard or may hear it sung as Bhe can sing it. On the conclusion of the scene from ' Dinorah,' Mdlle. de Murska was summoned four time 3 before the curtain, amidst constant and most hearty applause, which did not cease until she came on a fifth time to sing ' The Last Rose of Summer,' and at the end of the entertainment she was honored with one final grand recall. . She had achieved a triumph."