2-798-820 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from the opera of "The Enchantress", at Drury Lane Theatre, 1845. London stage production of an opera by Michael William Balfe. 'Although the "Enchantress " has been deprived of its prologue - without a doubt, the most dramatic situation of the libretto, and certainly containing the best of Balfe's music - it still lasts nearly three hours and a quarter - a terrible infliction, considering that half the time is taken up with stage explanations of a very uninteresting nature. Balfe has been less happy in the inspirations of the "Enchantress " than is his usual good fortune. Written in great haste, nothing can be stronger than the reminiscences which are provoked throughout the work'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.