Opera Scotland

Princess of Trébizonde 1871Mr Henry Leslie's London Company

Read more about the opera Princess of Trébizonde

This was the first visit of a recent Offenbach comedy to Scotland.  The cast for the two weeks in Glasgow is as advertised in the Scotsman.

Louie Henri appears to be the soprano who soon joined the D'Oyly Carte organization, and married a young chorister who developed into the company's great comedian, Sir Henry Lytton.  If she is that person, then there was a huge age difference, as he was reputedly only seventeen when they met.

Carrie Braham repeated the same role for a different company, touring in 1879.

 

A Glasgow Review

Glasgow Herald, Tuesday, 13 June 1871  (p4)

Theatre Royal - Princess of Trebizonde

'Last night the charming, giddy, and much-run-after Princess of Trebizonde made her first appearance before a Scotch audience, and was received with enthusiasm.  The plot of the piece - if so evident an absurdity can be dignified with the name - is briefly thus:

'Cabriolo is proprietor of a wax-work exhibition, in which his daughter represents the Princess of Trebizonde.  Her, the young Prince Raphael, an ingenuous youth, and son of His Mightiness Prince Casimir, of German extraction, falls in love with, when paying a visit to the show.  Being in want of funds, his Royal Highness drops a lottery ticket into the plate, which turns out to be the winning number, and Cabriolo finds himself suddenly transformed into a millionaire.  Fired with a noble ambition, he invests his money in a magnificent mansion and turns aristocrat; when the contrast between his old habits and eccentricities as showman, and his newly assumed character of grandee, gives rise to continual scenes of the most ridiculously comical character.  In the last act, the youthful Prince, of course, succeeds in obtaining the hand of the fair Princess, whose real name is Zanetta, and everybody marries everybody else.

'The dialogue, in spite of the excruciating puns with which it is interlarded, is extremely witty and spirited; the songs and rondos which supplement the libretto, and form, indeed, the chief feature in the piece, have all the ''go'' and fresh, airy sparkle which are the main characteristics of Offenbach's productions; and although no-one who is familiar with the Grande Duchesse can help recognizing an old friend in the music, the effect of the whole is rich and lively in the extreme.

'The piece was admirably set,  the dresses were rich and elegant, and the cast was all that could be desired.  What, more perhaps than anything, showed the care with which the various rôles were apportioned, was the perfection of the bye-play and the ''business'' generally.  Mr Chessman, although lacking the broad humour of Mr Toole (of whom he occasionally reminded us), and perhaps less telling on the whole even than Mr Atkins, in the same part, made an excellent Cabriolo.  At times, indeed, he seemed to talk too much to the audience, but on the whole, and particularly in Act II, he performed with much success.

'Miss Julia St George was received with an enthusiasm that was due to her, both in the character of an old Glasgow friend, and in that of Prince Raphael.  Her acting and singing showed all the old grace and sweetness with which local playgoers of years gone by are familiar, greatly mellowed and improved by her metropolitan experience and training.

'Mr Chester's get-up as Prince Casimir was only less funny than his acting, and both combined were irresistible.  Mr Walmisely as Dr Sparadrap was hardly less comical in his long tail and donkey-eared hat, and the scene in which the Prince and Doctor meet, and the former, on being told that his son has met a Princess in ''wax'', concludes that ''wax'' is a country near ''Greece'', brought down the house.

'Quite the best dancer, and perhaps the most arch and piquant actor of the company, is Miss Henrie, whose artless, winning ways, and insouciant smile were absolutely captivating.  The remaining rôles were all well filled, and indeed the great secret of last night's success was the uniform excellence of the acting as a whole,  which was so good because it was not exceptionally brilliant in parts.

'Many of the songs were encored, and a concerted piece towards the close of Act III, had to be repeated three times.  Altogether the performances went off with great éclat in presence of a better house than we have seen at the Royal for some time.

'In conclusion, we shall give one little bit of advice.  All dessert and no roast beef do not make the best of dinners, however tasty and piquant the sweets and wine;  so, too, all burlesque and no serious acting are apt to pall on healthy appetites.  For this reason Mr Leslie would do well to imitate Mr Hollingshead's example in the Gaiety, and prepare his audience for the light-headed, charming little Princess, by first introducing them to some short comedy, such as Doctor Davy, having more substance and coherence than Offenbach's sparkling but somewhat frothy ''Bouffe''.  The latter would gain in freshness by the contrast, and the intervals between the acts would be agreeably shortened.'