[Met Performance] CID:16440



Faust
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 14, 1896




Faust (97)
Charles Gounod | Jules Barbier/Michel Carré
Faust
Jean de Reszke

Marguerite
Nellie Melba

Méphistophélès
Edouard de Reszke

Valentin
Victor Maurel

Siebel
Sofia Scalchi

Marthe
Mathilde Bauermeister

Wagner
Lodovico Viviani


Conductor
Enrico Bevignani





Bishop: Clari: Home sweet home
Nellie Melba
Jean De Reszke, piano
During the curtain calls, an upright piano was moved onstage, and with Jean De Reszke at the keyboard, Nellie Melba sang her encore.

Review 1:

Review

"Faust" was again presented at the Metropolitan Opera House with the "star" cast, including Mme. Melba as Marguerite, Mme. Scalchi as Siebel, M. Jean de Reszke in the title role, M. Edward de Reszke as Mephistopheles, and M. Maurel as Valentine. It was the last subscription night of the season and the audience was one of the largest and most brilliant the opera house has ever held. It was an enthusiastic audience, too, and the performance, which was excellent throughout, received its full measure of applause.

The closing scene was an interesting one. The audience absolutely refused to leave the house. The artists returned again and again in response to the storm of applause, but without avail. At last the lights in the house were turned out, but still the audience stayed and applauded. Then a few lights were turned up on the stage, and Mme. Melba, with the MM. de Reszke, came forward once more and besought the people to go home. This seemed only to add fuel to the flames, and the applause broke out with renewed vigor. Mme. Melba and her companions then tried to pacify the storm by singing' an impromptu "bon soir," but that would not do, so a piano was pushed out, and, with M. Jean de Reszke as accompanist, the prima donna sang "Home, Sweet Home."

The crowd still cried for more, but the singer's breath and almost her patience was exhausted, and she came back only once more to shake her fist. Then the ushers came in and gradually pushed the people out, but the house was not entirely clear until long after midnight.?

Earlier in the evening, at the end of the garden scene, Mlle. Bauermeister, as Martha, was the recipient of three tremendous baskets of flowers, the presentation which was greeted with applause both by the audience and the artists on the stage. There were numerous recalls, and when at last Mme. Melba came before the curtain to bow her acknowledgments an usher handed her over the footlights a plush box box containing a handsome pearl and diamond aigrette, attached to a valentine, from some unknown admirer.

?

During the second act some confusion was caused on the stage by the fainting of one of the chorus women. Her companions carried her into the wings, where she soon revived, and the performance went on with only a moment's hesitation.

Mme. Melba, Mme. Scalchi, the MM. de Reszke and M. Maurel, with a number of the other members of the company who are not in the casts of the operas to be presented to-day, will leave this morning for Boston, where the opera season will open on Monday night.



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