2-982-411 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from "The Rose of Castile", at Drury Lane Theatre, 1858. London stage production. 'This lively and pretty opera, certainly the chef-d'oeuvre of our most popular English composer, is again running a course of success even more brilliant, if possible, than that which it enjoyed last season-a success which is due not only to its own merit, but to the admirable manner in which it is performed, and which shows how little ground there is for the cuckoo cry about the neglect of "native talent." We have always maintained that, let English managers of theatres and opera-houses only give good tilings, they will never lack encouragement and support from the English public. "The Rose of Castille" is now so well known to the public, both of the metropolis and the provinces, that the subject of the accompanying Sketch will at once be recognised as the scene in the second act, in which the Prince, seeing the supposed country girl for the first time in royal attire, is so amusingly mystified as to her identity with the young Queen. Our artist has seized the moment when the Misses Pyne and Mr. Harrison are singing the laughing trio, "I'm not the Queen, ha, ha!" and the likenesses of all the three are striking and characteristic'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.