2-888-249 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene the Last from "La Juive", at the Royal Italian Opera, [London], 1850. '...the grand square, filled with the vast populace, and the city in the distance, where the Jew and Jewess are led to execution...The terrible picture of religious persecution in the middle ages is wonderfully realised both by poet [Eugène Scribe] and composer [Fromental Halévy]'...The imploring tones of Rachele, played by Viardot '...in which she pleads for mercy for her lover, were exquisitely beautiful...But the triumph of her histrionic genius is in the march to the place of execution. When Rachele hears the dreadful death chants of the church, she exclaims "Padre mio, qual tremore"...Overscored as are many portions of the accompaniments by the free use of the brass and percussion instruments, the instrumentation is...remarkable for...appropriateness to the dramatic situation.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.