Speranza
"Carmen" was produced at the matinée in most finished and perfect style.
It was
the most symmetrically good thing of the season, for all the parts were
admirably filled.
Italo Campanini as Don José was in better voice than he has been for
some time.
Valleria as Micaela was delicious; Del Puente as the Toreador was
excellent, and Trebelli as Carmen was a new revelation of
the possibilities of the rôle.
Minnie Hauk, whose friends consider her as
unapproachable in this part, is by no means equal to Trebelli.
The chest tones
of this great artist are glorious. They have an intoxicating warmth and beauty.
She has the art of acting with her voice, a something beyond singing or
declaiming, a something that is more like a vocal gesture - if such a phrase may
be permitted - than like a note of music. It conveys an impression of admirable
reading superadded to singing. It suits the rôle of Carmen. It opens up all the
capacities for uttering coquetry in melody and expressing that mingling of
cruelty, waywardness, passion and perfidy which was Carmen. Trebelli had an immense success, and yet Valleria fairly
divided the house with her. One of the most spontaneous and impressionable
outbursts of enjoyment followed her aria in the third act. The purity and
sweetness of her rôle when contrasted with that of Carmen was shown in her
voice, so fresh and sympathetic. One may admire Carmen, but one loves Micaela.
Del Puente sang the fine aria of the Toreador with fine voice and with
dramatic fire, and had a great success. He was obliged to repeat it, in response
to a hearty recall.
Campanini as Don José was very fine.
As an actor he is far
superior to any other tenor now on the stage, and though at times his voice
seems to have lost its freshness, it often comes back to him in all its early
beauty.
He was in good voice yesterday.
It would not be just to this
management to fail to mention the orchestra. It is the best that any company has
ever brought here. It is composed on a scale of eight first violins, and numbers
more than fifty performers. In the music of "Carmen" the excellence of this
orchestra thoroughly appeared. The house last night demonstrated the fact that
is safe to bring a first-class opera to Baltimore, even in Lent.
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