Speranza
"Rosina., Zerlina, Violetta... I love each of my characters in turn as I sing it.
Then, after a pause, Patti added:
"And maybe I shall like my next one best."
As she spoke she turned to a corner of the room where,
hanging on a chair, there lay a dainty Spanish skirt of yellow
satin, with a crimson shawl flung carelessly across it.
"Carmen!" I murmured.
An eager, sparkling glance shot from her eyes as she echoed
the name.
"Yes, Carmen!"
" have been longing to sing it for years, and I am going to do so at last."
"I adore "Carmen"".
"Ah, poor Bizet, how I wish he were still alive to hear _me_!"
"I love the story, I love the music, I love the Spanish scenes and types."
"Ennfin, j'aime tout ce qui est Carmen!"
"You will see me dance;
you will hear how I play the castanets."
"I have never longed
so impatiently for anything in iny life."
f< 21ais, ma tnignonne, tit paries irop fort et tu causes tro$*
II faitt soigner un pen ta voix, n'est~ce pas?"
It was the
watchful Nieolini who Interrupted, ever on the lookout to
check such moments of girlish excitement and self-forgetful-
ness.
It was true that, her voice had gradually increased to a
forte.
Mon cher, tu as raison." And she rose. It was the sig-
nal for us to depart.
"We shall hope to see you before we
return to Craig-y-Nos.
You must visit us there sometime.
Je suis enchant ee d'avoir fait votre connaissance, et j& Ural
votre article sur 'Carmen.'
Au revoir!"
She held out her hand with a regal gesture that seemed
quite natural, nay, inborn ; and, just as naturally, albeit the
custom was not English, I took the hand and kissed it.
Then
Nicolini, en grand seigneur, came to the door and bowed us
out.
You see," said my friend as we walked downstairs, "she
is expecting a great triumph as Carmen".
And he added,
sotta voce, "I wonder!"
A few hours later neither of us
wondered.
I only know that I paid no more visits to Mme.
Patti that season, nor did I converse with her again until two
years later, when she was in a box one night at Drury Lane,
during Sir Augustus Harris's first Italian season.
The character of "Carmen" belongs wholly neither to comedy nor to tragedy.
As far as the stage is concerned, she is of
the realistic type that one finds only in sheer melodrama.
A
creature of every-day Spanish life, she requires, as drawn
by the master hand of Prosper Merimee, those graphic touches
of realism that reveal the true woman of the people, passionate in her ardour, crude in her coquetry, unblushing in her
sensualism, merciless in her infidelities, reckless in her defiance of fatalistic warnings and physical danger.
These
were traits readily depicted by a Galli-Marie, a Pauline Lucca,
a Minnie Hank, and later on by a Calve or a Zelie de Lussan.
But they made no sort of appeal to an artist with the temperament of Adelina Patti, who had been reared in opera of the classical schools.
Her personality could express a vivacious nature with distinction and grace, but was never fitted
for the embodiment of a commonplace woman of the people.
In a word, her "Carmen" proved to be clever but colourless.
It was a skilful tour de force, nothing more.
That she, should have even got through her task with credit showed clearly what an advance she had made in the technique of the actress's art.
Her rare gift of pantomime soon to develop
to remarkable heights, stood her in good stead.
But nothing
could metamorphose the grande cantatrice into a "Carmen".
To the regret of an assemblage of her admirers that filled Covent Garden from floor to ceiling, the representation fell painfully flat.
The charm of the incomparable voice and much beautiful singing could not ward off this penalty, for the simple reason that most of the music lay too low for her.
A pure soprano
is very seldom heard to advantage in a part that has been
written for a mezzo-soprano.
And in 1885 Mme. Patti had not developed her lower medium and chest tones to the degree of
fulness that became noticeable in later years.
She elected to raise the tessitura of Carmen's music by making numerous
changes and introducing "ornaments" which were out of
keeping with the design of the composer.
This naturally
aroused adverse criticism.
Indeed, the press notices as a whole were frankly unfavourable.
The performance at Covent Garden was repeated once, but that was all.
Joseph Bennett, reverting to Mme. Patti's "Carmen" twenty-one years later (on the occasion of her final "farewell" at the Albert Hall), remarked in the Daily Telegraph that the Spanish gipsy was
a character part demanding a temperament not hers, and one,
moreover, which demanded an actress rather than a singer.
It is
likely that the artist had some doubts as to the result of this venture, but it was necessary for her to take it up in order to share in the applause which the public were eager to bestow upon every
representative of a character in part repellent, yet altogether fascinating.
In her embodiment of the heroine Mme. Patti, with singular good judgment, elected to rely more upon the fatalism in the gipsy's nature than upon more demonstrative traits.
I remember being struck with the intensity of the impression she made in the card scene and in the final situation.
So far, good.
But Mme. Patti's "Carmen", with all its merits, failed to hold the public securely, and
the artist did not persevere.
This was, on the whole, a just criticism, though I do not
agree that it was "necessary" for the artist to attempt a part
that did not suit her, least of all for the sake of applause
a stimulus whereof, throughout her life, she was vouchsafed
a superabundance.
By the way, the supporting cast of "Carmen" in this instance included Signor del Puente as the Toreador, M. Engel as Don Jose, and Mme. Dotti as Mioaela.
It is a curious fact that neither Mapleson in his "Memoirs" nor Arditi in his "Reminiscences" (the popular "Luigi"
was the conductor of this odd season) makes the smallest allusion to Patti's Carmen.
Yet both of them call attention to her frequent disappointment of the public in consequence of
indisposition ; and both give picturesque accounts of the celebration, held on the last night of the season, in honor of her twenty-fifth annual engagement at the Royal Italian Opera.
The omission might perhaps be susceptible of explanation
if explanation were needed.
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