WeGA, Rezeptionsdokumente, Digitale Edition
author: Anonymus
source date: 1. Juli 1872
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

The revival of Der Freischütz, at this establishment must be noticed for two reasons. In the first place, Madame Pauline Lucca [Pauline Lucca (1841–1908), Sopranistin aus Wien, die seit 1861 an der Berliner Hofoper tätig war, hatte im April 1872 ihr Engagement fristlos gekündigt und ging danach auf Gastspielreisen.] achieved a success in the trying part of Agata, which will materially add to her already high reputation; for even her warmest admirers had, we think, scarcely given her credit for the possession of so much vocal and dramatic power as she manifested throughout the Opera, the great scena, known to the concert-going public as Softly sighs, especially, eliciting a perfect storm of applause. In the second place, the interpolation of a dance to the music of Weber’s Invitation à la Valse, after the entr’acte, introducing the melody of the Huntsmen’s chorus, is an innovation which cannot be tolerated. We know that vocalists will drag an air from one Opera into another, or that they will substitute a flimsy waltz tune for the finale which the composer has written; but if in addition to these artistic crimes, a pianoforte piece is to be scored and danced to by the corps de ballet, we may probably in time have a buffo song introduced as a relief to the serious portions of a work; and in the interest of pure art, therefore, such practices cannot be too strongly condemned.

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