Mlle Volnais Did
The Part Of Andromaque; But The Monotonous Plaintiveness Of Her Voice,
Which Never Changes, Wearies Me.
In Iphigenie I was more gratified; for
Mlle Georges did the part of Clytemnestre, and her sister, a young girl of
seventeen, made her debut in the part of Iphigenie with great effect.
The
two sisters supported each other wonderfully well, and Lafond did Agamemnon
very respectably.
Mlle Georges the younger, having succeeded in Iphigenie, appeared in the
part of Zaire, a bold attempt, and tho' she did it well and with much
grace, yet it was evidently too arduous a task for her. The whole onus of
this affecting piece rests on the role of Zaire. In the part where
naivete was required she succeeded perfectly and her burst: "Mais
Orosmane m'aime et j'ai tout oublie" was most happy; but she was too faint
and betrayed too little emotion in portraying the struggle between her love
for Orosmane and the unsubdued symptoms of attachment to her father and
brother and to the religion of her ancestors. In short, where much passion
and pathos was required, there she proved unequal to the task; but she has
evidently all the qualities and dispositions towards becoming a good
actress, and with more study and practise I have no doubt that three or
four years hence, she will be fully equal to the difficult task of giving
effect to and portraying to life, the exquisitely touching and highly
interesting role of Zaire. She was not called for to appear on the stage
after the termination of the performance, tho' frequently applauded during
it. The actor who did the part of Orosmane, in that scene wherein he
discovers he has killed Zaire unjustly, gave a groan which had an unhappy
effect; it was such an awkward one, that it made all the audience laugh; no
people catch ridicule so soon as the French.
What I principally admire on the French stage is that the actors are always
perfect in their parts and all the characters are well sustained; the
performance never flags for a moment; and I have experienced infinitely
more pleasure in beholding the dramas of Racine and Voltaire than those of
Shakespeare, and for this reason that, on our stage, for one good actor you
have the many who are exceedingly bad and who do not comprehend their
author: you feel consequently a hiatus valde deflendus when the principal
actor or actress are not on the stage. I have been delighted to see Kemble,
and Mrs Siddons and Miss O'Neil, and while they were on the stage I was all
eyes and ears; but the other actors were always so inferior that the
contrast was too obvious and it only served to make more conspicuous the
flagging of interest that pervades the tragedies of Shakespeare, Macbeth
alone perhaps excepted. I speak only of Shakespeare's faults as a
dramaturgus and they are rather the faults of his age than his own; for in
everything else I think him the greatest litterary genius that the world
ever produced, and I place him far above any poet, ancient or modern; yet
in allowing all this, I do not at all wonder that his dramatic pieces do
not in general please foreigners and that they are disgusted with the low
buffoonery, interruption of interest and want of arrangement that ought of
necessity to constitute a drama; for I feel the same objections myself when
reading Shakespeare, and often lose patience; but then when I come to some
sublime passage, I become wrapt up in it alone and totally forget the piece
itself.
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