3-021-345 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from the new burlesque of "Columbus", at the Gaiety Theatre, 1869. London stage production. 'Our weekly chronicle of theatrical novelties has described the new musical burlesque, or opera buffa, entitled "Columbus; or, the Original Pitch in a Merry Key" (America), which has been brought out, within the last month, at the Gaiety Theatre. It relies partly for its attractions upon the introduction of many queer parodies of well-known opera tunes; and partly, no doubt, upon the sprightliness of its ballet-dancing; but still more upon the costly magnificence of its decorations, and the beautiful scenes painted by Messrs. Gordon, Telbin, and Matthew Morgan. One of the most effective scenes is that on board the Caravel, when [Christopher] Columbus arrives at the coast of a strange transatlantic country, which is named Kokatouka, and finds that its savage inhabitants are easily frightened by his prediction of an eclipse, which is speedily verified'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.