Mum an the gram.
M. GOUNODS FAUST.
Mn. MAPLESON has lost no time in recovering the ground lost by the failure of his first novelty. M. Gounod's Faust, produced at Her Majesty's on Thursday last, seems likely to obtain an English confirmation of the strong verdict in its favour already given in both France and Germany. The house was full to overflowing, the call for the composer enthusiastic and universal, and no sign of a genuine success was wanting. It is true that the encores were few in number, but that is, perhaps, one of the most favour- able signs. People encore mediocre morceaux in the midst of a dreary opera, as travellers in the desert linger at anything resem- bling an oasis ; but where musical merit and interest are well sustained the case is very different. A very few minutes last night convinced the audience that M. Gounod might be relied upon, and the merits of each scene only rendered them more anxious for the next.
It is scarcely needful to say that for no share of this success is M. Gounod indebted to librettists, translators, adapters, and " poets," or any of the class through whose tender mercies Goethe's Faust has been reduced to the bald and disjointed dialogue of the opera. An average libretto is bad enough ; but when a sublime German drama has been done into French opera- tic conventionalities by MM. Barbier and Carte, and then tran- slated into clumsy Italian, it required the English placed by the side of the latter to prove that a lower level could still be reached.
Of Goethe's drama it is, of course, as unnecessary to speak as it would be impossible to enter in detail into all the departures from it and shortcomings of the libretto. At present I will only attempt the briefest possible general description of the opera.
Of course, Faust is to be classed in the modern French school of opera, in its employment of music to embody a far wider range of ideas, and to assist in impressing upon the senses a far more diversified range of special phases and circumstances of life than is known in pure Italian opera. As the old-fashioned overture is too strict and systematic in construction to thoroughly suit opera of this nature, its place is supplied by a mysterious and exqui- sitely beautiful prelude—not like the Rossiuian overture, com- plete as music in itself, but really a dramatic prelude to the opera it precedes. The prologue to Faust is naturally passed over, but a great mistake has been committed in not making any reference to the special motive of Mephistopheles for the destruction of Faust. His character as the cynical, intellectual, man-of-the- world devil, human in his nature, and only diabolical in his malig- nity, is too much lost sight of throughout the libretto, though far from so in the music. Faust, on the point of self-destruction, is saved by hearing a fresh and melodious chorus of maidens —instead of the EasterHymn of the original—followed by an equally characteristic chorus of labourers going to work. On his restoration to youth and vigour by Mephistopheles, follows a thoroughly dramatic duet, which closes the first act. The second opens with a genuine master-piece of dramatic choral composition. Separate choruses of old men, matrons, students, maidens, and soldiers, each admi- rably expreseive, are elaborated with consummate art into a most striking whole—that of the old men, especially, being most ludicrously characteristic. Mephistopheles then sings a song in praise of gold—" Della tera it Dio sei tu,"—which alone shows how much more M. Gounod intellectually appreciated the cha ratter than his librettists, The act ends with a chorus and waltz for the crowd, the fiend having been compelled to retreat by the sign of the Cross, made with Valentin's broken sword. The next act, devoted to the consummation of Margaret's ruin by Faust, under the influence and by the aid of the mocking fiend, includes, amidst much more that deserves more detailed criti- cism, a lovely romance for Faust, the " Ais des Bijoux," during which Margaret decks herself in the jewels laid at her door by Mephistopheles, a successful imitation of a German Volkslied, to a version of the well-known " Konig in Thule," and a pretty air for Siebel. In the fourth act the bitter agony of the betrayed Margaret gives M. Gounod occasion for the same magnificent music, in which the tragic power of Millie. Titiens enabled her to produce a far greater effect than she had pre- viously done in the part. After an admirable orchestral passage descriptive of the return of the army, comes a vigorous and splendid military chorus. Valentin, among the returning soldiers, is slain by Mephistopheles in resenting his sister's dishonour, and again we have some admirably dramatic music, the introduction of the religious music in the church being especially managed in a most masterly manner. The last act consists of the death scene of Margaret iu prison, and shows no falling off in treatment, her invocation to the angels, in which it culminates, being certainly in the purest and highest style of melody imaginable.
The performance, for a first night, was admirable. Orchestra and chorus were in many respects perfect, although here and there slight traces of hasty rehearsals, and the absence until the last of the composer, might be detected. With regard to the leading performers, it must be said that Mademoiselle Titiens was far more successful in the last two acts than the first three, in which her acting scarcely corresponded with a correct idea of the character. Trebelii, Giuglini, and Santley, all sang their best, and Signor Gassier's Mephistopheles is by far the greatest effort of which he has yet shown himself capable.
AMATEUR.
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