THE ACTING OF SINGERS.
AN opera is, or professes to be, a drama in which the words are sung instead of being spoken, and the vast sums ex- pended by managers on scenery and costumes show that they are under this impression. Yet the performers themselves, with few exceptions, seem to think differently. Their theory of an opera, apparently, is that it is essentially a musical performance in which they are to show off their voices, but in which they have to submit to certain inconveniences of attitude, in order that managers may place expensive accessories round them. If this theory be correct the sooner operatic spectacle is abolished, and the music sung after the fashion of an oratorio, the better. The public will get their music without the irritating accompaniment of bad acting, and probably cheaper ; and taking a lease of an opera-house will cease to be, in Sam Weller's phrase, "delicate English for going mad." If, on the other hand, an opera really is a drama, and ought to be performed and criticized as such, it is high time the singers were awakened from their indolence, and taught to understand that acting is as much a part of their business as singing. No doubt the singing is the first consideration, and any one whose voice is not good, or whose ear is so faulty as to allow him to sing out eke tune, is simply incapacitated from appearing on the opera stage at all. No doubt also dramatic genius is rare, and we cannot expect to find it specially abundant among the few who possess first- rate voices. But, on the other hand, acting can be acquired ; almost any one can learn, with a reasonable amount of paius, how to act at least endurably well. There are good and bad in every profession, and the per-centage of bad actors may be very large, but our complaint against the singers is not that they act badly, but that they do not act at all. They go through a certain set of gestures, fling their arms about while singing, and throw themselves upon the ground, or into some one's arms, at the necessary momenta; but this is not acting. They reverse the primary rule that the actor should forget himself in his part ; all they think of is how to exhibit themselves to the best advantages, and the part they are performing is totally ignored. Of course there are exceptions. The opera stage has, perhaps, never been adorned by a more per- fect or more versatile actress than Madlle. Lucca, and there are at least four other singers now in London who, if they do not possess true dramatic genius (one of the rarest of gifts), still act really well. But these brilliant exceptions only bring into stronger light the inexcusable shortcomings of others. What is the use, drama- tically speaking, of all the grace and vivacity of Msdlle. Patti in the Barbiere, if she has to act with a Figaro who has not an idea beyond singing the music? Or see her in Don Giovanni, sur- rounded by a set of colleagues of whom the best is extremely bad ; her performance, good as it is, is half spoilt by their incompetent support. Or take Madlle. Titiens in the Trovatore, with a Manrico whose sole purpose is to make as much noise as possible, and an Azucena of whom the leas said the better. How grievously -do they mar the effect of her tragic power, even aided as she is by Mr. Santley ! We do not deny that many of these gentlemen possess voices well worth listening to, but until they have learned the rudiments of acting we would prefer hearing them in a concert- room.
That the fault really is where we have placed it, in the wilful negligence of the singers, not, in the present generation, of their being exceptionally unable to learn, any one who will watch an opera throughout may easily convince himself. Norma is a very familiar opera, has onlythree important parts, and is now being acted at Covent Garden in a manner incredibly bad, though all the three performers can sing. Signor Naudin (Polio) is no novice, and has none of the stiffness which often marks one ; he gesticulated freely enough, but it is all without meaning. He makes love to the foot- lights, not to the lady ; when he ought to be expressing strong emotion he is always watching how to bring out his notes in an attitude which will give them the most effect to the audience, and the emotion is represented at best by a start or a shrug. Madame Lemmens-Sherrington (Adalgisa) sings admirably so far as vocal- ization goes, but she might as well be singing at the Crystal Palace for all the dramatic expression in her voice or gesture. She seems to hold, in commonwith Signor Naudin and others of the class, that the eyes for stage purposes are in the back of the head, for they all turn carefully away from the person they are supposed to be addressing. Madame Vilda (Norma) is the worst of all. In -spite of her tall, fully developed figure and handsome head, she 'cannot even look the part, for she never stands upright, and so loses all chance of displaying the dignity essential to the cha- racter. The inward struggle when Norma is purposing to kill her children, Madame Vilda represents by singing in an unconcerned way to the footlights for a little while, then draw- ing her dagger, and putting it back in its sheath very carefully, as though afraid of cutting her fingers. If she cannot act either --the prophetess or the passionate woman hovering on the brink of a crime, still less can she represent the conflict of impulses and duties, the mixture of tender and heroic with revengeful feelings, -which make Norma one of the grandest of dramatic characters. In short, the whole performance is such that the only chance of 'enjoying the music is by steadily averting one's eyes from the stage. Of course Madame Vilda could never be a good Norma, the character is far too difficult for. any one guiltless of dramatic talent, but she could certainly learn enough to make her per- formance not obtrusively bad. The other parts are easier, and we have some hopes that Madame Lemmens-Sherrington at least will some day do justice to hers, for she has improved a little since she first came on the stage. If she will only learn to consider her part, not herself, her acting may be wanting in life, but it will not be ungraceful, and will cease to outrage dramatic congruity. -Signor Naudin is, we suppose, incorrigible, though even he can act one part in the Done du Nord very respectably ; but it is lamentable to think that Covent Garden has no other tenor to 'divide the work with Mario.
We might go through the Africaine, and point the same moral from the same singers, their inefficiency being rendered all the more conspicuous by contrast with the admirable acting of Madlle. Lucca; or to Her Majesty's Theatre, where the standard is somewhat higher, or ' at least the number of incapables less. But it will suffice to take one more illustra- tion from •the most dramatic of operas, which has been per- formed so often at both houses that every opera-goer knows it by heart ; after much fault-finding, it will be refreshing to praise something. Faust may or may not be first-rate music,—that question is as much beside our present purpose as the vocal qualities of the singers,—but even in the mutilated form which Goethe's drama assumes on the opera stage, it puts such a pressure on the performers that they all try to act. Ferret himself has perhaps the least strongly marked characteristics, and he has found one excellent representative in Signor Mario, and two or three toler- able ones. Mephistopheles is more trying, but the character is consistent throughout, if peculiar, and ought not to be difficult to those who have any clear idea of acting. M. Faure, who first represented the parts, formed a competent conception of it, and Signor Gassier was little inferior to him ; but their successors have either imitated them slavishly, or have exaggerated their action until it becomes all swagger and grimace ; Valentine, the heroine's brother, has but one important scene, the one in which, while dying from Faust's sword-thrust, he disowns and curses his sister ; but perhaps there is nothing which has been acted with such invariable and wilful badness. That a man should sing a long scena after being run through the body is a strong bit of con- ventionality, but if arrangement of music and action can make such a thing lifelike it is the arrangement in Faust, as Mr. Santley has very well exemplified. Nevertheless, every other singer who has played the part has done his best to render it ridiculous. Instead of spasmodic bursts of energy, for which passion might well give a dying man strength, alternating with weakness, they give a series of gymnastic attitudes, in which it must require great muscular force to keep their balance. Surely it would not be a hard matter to learn a thing so elemen- tary as this, and it would further the one aim which indif- ferent actors never forget, since no position can be worse for singing with effect than such as they in their ignorance assume.
The heroine is, however, the most important character of all, and she has been represented in England by six or seven different ladies, one or two very bad, others imperfect, and one at least supremely good. There are two sides to the character, very strongly contrasted, and it requires a great combination of powers to act both adequately. Marguerite is at first a simple, affectionate girl, and Madlle. Patti represents her childish delight at the jewels, and her trembling love for Faust, extremely well. She is after- wards utterly miserable, and almost driven to despair ; and Madlle. Titiens enacts with great power her agony at her brother's death, her spiritual terrors in the church, and the final struggle in which nature gives way. Madlle. Lucca alone can do both ; but then she does not merely throw herself into the part, she is Marguerite. Watch her minutely through every scene ; there is not a gesture or change of expression which has not its meaning, not an instant when she is neglecting to act, or sacrifices the smallest shade of dramatic effect to the singer's desire to face the house.
We cannot of course expect average singers to rival Madlle. Lucca, who is a born dramatic genius, and acts tragedy and comedy alike perfectly ; nor even the other two ladies, both of them, in their widely different ways, admirable actresses. But we have a right to call on them to learn their business before exhibiting themselves to the public ; and if they are not so called on, we cannot wonder if they deem it unnecessary. If they can satisfy the public, they do all that is in their bond ; and they so far have the advantage that people will have the music, and must do without the acting if they cannot get that also. Moreover, the majority of mankind are mere sheep ; they blindly admire what they hear is excellent, indifferent to the fact that the praise probably comes from an interested clique, or blindly acquiesce in what they are told is traditionally correct, without using their own wits to see if the tradition is reasonable. Not long ago, in a conversation about the Huguenots, it was remarked that Madlle. Lucca, being younger, looked the part of the heroine better than Madlle. Titiens. "That goes for nothing," said a gentleman present, "it is the regular tradition that Valentine need not be young." When educated men can utter such feeble twaddle and fancy it criticism, it may seem useless to dwell upon the short- comings of the performers. The few who understand acting cannot expect them to take a great deal of extra trouble, when they can satisfy the uncritical many without it.
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